My wife went a couple of weeks ago to Spencers, which is a ten-store chain of appliance dealers scattered over Maricopa County, to shop for a new washer and dryer, since our 13-year-old Kenmore washer gave up the ghost.

Normal purchase, would have been about $1600 or so for the washer and dryer.

But Spencers threw an interesting curve into to the equation: my wife wandered over to mattresses, because we had been thinking about buying one of those, too.

The Spencers salesman said, if you buy the Beautyrest mattress you’re looking at for the $4200 list price, we’ll throw in the washer and dryer.

Say what? This is about 25% off on the whole package.

Done deal. She didn’t even text me (I was at an appointment) to tell me what she’d done. No matter; she’s got excellent financial judgement.

For you entrepreneurs, this might apply to those of you who sell durable goods; is there a way you can create bundles of goods, and improve your profits? (Even though Spencers margins went down, the profit per customer went up) And help secure lifetime customers?

If you’re Whirlpool, the appliance maker, do you spiff your dealers for doing this?

Same question to Beautyrest on the mattress.

Think about it.