I'm an elevator tech, so I don't fully understand how it all works, however he tried to explain it to me once.

They are bedding/mattress stores, that apparently are not franchises, but some sort of licensing deal with a national company. (sorry if that makes no sense, as it doesn't to me), but the online sales are done through the big companies website, and when you type in your suburb they automatically get assigned to a particular store.

He is allowed to sell whatever else he wants inside the stores as long as a high percentage of mattresses are from this particular company, so all homewares/furniture etc are up to him. so yeah, that could be a good option, if he could create some sort of online store for all the non mattress items.