This Bedworks store was Buster's first and was opened in 1976. Today he operates four outlets in the Cambridge/Alston area, and still manufactures futon mattresses at this very location.

Home Design's information sheet is, frankly, the kind of questionnaire I would prefer to fill out. It's intimate, in that it asks you to share something about your life -- the choices you make which define who you are. Buster asks you questions about your education level, your income, your zip code, what kind of dwelling you live in and how long have you lived there. Do you plan to move soon? How many people live in your house? Do you have any pets? What kind? How do you commute to work? Which newspapers do you read regularly? Which magazines do you read regularly? Which FM radio stations do you listen to regularly? How would you rank your favorite kinds of music (given six categories)?

Buster makes it easy for you to respond, providing itemized check boxes in a tasteful format. There are twelve choices, for instance, just under the magazine question, including Time, The Economist, Metropolitan Life, and Utne Reader. The only thing missing is a space for providing your name and address. At first, I was puzzled by what I thought was a glaring omission -- it was conspicuously present on Jordan's form -- until I realized that that was primarily marketing information. Buster is more interested in knowing about you and what you need from him, and he says so right on the form. In fact, there are several informational pamphlets available at Buster's stores, all of which are designed to help you zero in on exactly what you need, based upon a range of factors.

With twenty years of experience as a designer, builder, and retailer in the futon furniture industry, John Buster knows the marketplace as well as anyone. Articulating what makes the futon category unique comes easily to him. He points out that "any new product requires a believer who is passionate about it." And futons are relatively new in the furniture market. That's clearly why research and design are still such an integral part of so many individual businesses in the category. There is a cottage industry ethos about the marketplace that is both invigorating and confounding. Confounding because it means that there is far less standardization of futon - bed mechanisms than you find in the sleeper sofa category. That, in turn, puts a heavy burden of proof on the sales staff. John Buster revels in that burden because he is passionate about his product. He knows his product well enough to be able to demonstrate it professionally, no matter what its particular idiosyncrasies might be.

In some ways, it's almost like he's a matchmaker, custom tailoring futon, frame, futon arms, and futon cover -- not to mention accessories -- to match a customer's profile. So, why wouldn't everyone choose this kind of service over Jordan's, assuming they knew that they had a choice?

In the course of our conversation, I came up with an analogy from the food industry. It started with this question: If you had a choice between eating lunch at McDonald's or eating at a one-of-a-kind grill, which would you opt for -- assuming you liked burgers? I suggested that most people who would come into a futon furniture store, like Home Design, on their own would choose the grill, whereas the people who would choose to go to a major furniture store would turn into McDonald's. Why? It's simple, really. When you go into a grill for the first time, you don't know anything about the place. The product is unpredictable, the layout is unfamiliar, and the management is unknown. How much will it cost? Throw kids into the mix and you are too keyed up to think straight. By contrast, McDonald's is a relief for many. Forget that the food is questionable on a number of levels. You know what it will taste like. You know what it is going to cost. You know what it is going to smell like. You know what is expected of you as a customer. In other words, there is a ritual that we are all familiar with, and most of us live by rituals. Going into a new place of business, especially a small place of business that bears no recognizable logo, shoots fear through the hearts of many fear of the unknown.