The war to sell you a mattress • Hacker News Board

Re: The war to sell you a mattress

#81

Post by whamlastxmas » Tue, Oct 17, 2017, 2:07 PM UTC

Ascetik wrote: post #71

cyberferret wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Review sites in any niche industry can be extremely popular. I am a guitarist, and there are a LOT of blogs and Youtube channel reviewing guitars, amps and pedals. Most are pretty boring, technical reviews which aren't all bad, but get a handful of views. Then there are the channels that thrive on drama and conflict. One particular guitar reviewer is an older chap, with questionable playing skills and knowledge, but…

Yeah basically he is committing extortion and blackmail, pretty sad.

More accurately, he's accepting bribes to silence his freedom of speech. He's entirely in his right to have negative reviews as long as they're truthful.

Re: The war to sell you a mattress

#82

Post by mwexler » Tue, Oct 17, 2017, 2:09 PM UTC

The business models for pricing aggregators and reviews sites are completely absent. Even Consumer Reports struggles to meet the costs of testing and staffing. The BBB is a mess. The "Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval" hasn't meant anything for decades.

It's a sad state of affairs: We all want unbiased reviews, but we won't pay for them. We all want to know the spread of prices so we can balance service/trust with cheap, but price aggregators are all either blocked out of existence or become affiliate listings.

While so many things have come true, there are still a few internet dreams like free-flow price summaries and wisdom-of-the-honest-crowd which are sadly still just beyond our grasp.

Re: The war to sell you a mattress

#83

Post by peatmoss » Tue, Oct 17, 2017, 2:09 PM UTC

throwanem wrote: post #79

hendzen wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a brand on Amazon (Zinus) that sells reasonable quality foam mattresses with low markups. I bought their Queen [0] for $289, and have been happy with it. I'm assuming that Amazon will also eventually introduce an Amazon Basics version and suck up all the profit... [0] - https://www.amazon.com/Zinus-Memory-Green-Mattress-Queen/dp/...

Anything good you know on Amazon for traditional spring mattresses? Foam murders my back.

It's the heat retention of foam that kills me.

Re: The war to sell you a mattress

#84

Post by bradleyjg » Tue, Oct 17, 2017, 2:11 PM UTC

r00fus wrote: post #55

Animats wrote: post #17

The whole mattress industry is a scam. Actual manufacturing cost is $75-$300. Mattresses are even cheaper on Alibaba. Vacuum-packing memory foam shrinks mattresses for shipping, and now they can be imported easily. If you really want to annoy the US mattress industry, set up a review site and review sub-$100 mattresses off Alibaba. (Personally, I have an air bed which cost about $200.)

Personally I question visco-elastic foam. Sure, it's cheap and may be ok for a lot of people, but I personally sleep better on an standard spring bed. Foam mattresses don't breathe, they stink (some mattress I've seen are 1+ yr old and continue to stink) and aren't firm enough for me. Do any online retailers sell standard beds? Or am I a dinosaur?

I ordered a spring mattress off the internet 7-8 years ago. I want to say overstock, but who knows. It wasn't a very good mattress--too thin. Even so it was giant when it was delivered. It's hard to see how a nice queen spring mattress could be sold online. Any company trying to sell that would have to figure out warehousing and last mile delivery.

Re: The war to sell you a mattress

#85

Post by chrisgd » Tue, Oct 17, 2017, 2:12 PM UTC

jameskegel wrote: post #66

hendzen wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a brand on Amazon (Zinus) that sells reasonable quality foam mattresses with low markups. I bought their Queen [0] for $289, and have been happy with it. I'm assuming that Amazon will also eventually introduce an Amazon Basics version and suck up all the profit... [0] - https://www.amazon.com/Zinus-Memory-Green-Mattress-Queen/dp/...

I bought a California king from Zinus, they sent me two of them, and didn’t want the second one back. I paid less than 300, and now my parents have a free mattress too. One gripe was the lack of warnings on the box. I accidentally punctured the plastic trying to drag the package into my bedroom and one puncture was like a deploy mechanism that left me trapped in a door way as the mattress slowly inflated on me. We la…

There is a Netflix produced horror movie right there

Re: The war to sell you a mattress

#86

Post by greedo » Tue, Oct 17, 2017, 2:20 PM UTC

Many podcasters are in the same boat, though they try to mask it. I only listen to probably 3 podcasts, but I hear the same sponsor reads on a daily basis. Casper, Fracture, Betterment, Warby-Parker, etc. The reads given by these sponsors are only guidelines, the better podcasters personalize them to make them sound like real endorsements not just ad reads.

Re: The war to sell you a mattress

#87

Post by Overtonwindow » Tue, Oct 17, 2017, 2:26 PM UTC

R_haterade wrote: post #52

Overtonwindow wrote: post #20

Fascinating read. Who would've thought to roll a massage and ship it? I grew up and still sleep on spring mattresses. No rolling here.

No, they can do it with inner springs now too. That tech is relatively new.

Oh wow thank you, I had no idea.

Re: The war to sell you a mattress

#88

Post by schnevets » Tue, Oct 17, 2017, 2:34 PM UTC

PhilWright wrote: post #3

Amazing to see people stumbling upon millions. Most techies are trying to come up with clever technical solutions to try and build an online business. Whilst elsewhere there are people making millions from reviewing mattresses. Or whatever the next accidental hot market will be.

I'd say affiliate marketing is more of a modern "lemonade stand" business, just like youtube/twitch videos, game programming, and app development. There's an extremely low barrier to entry and it gives you an ideal place to hone business skills, but odds are you won't make enough to cover the cost of hosting a website.

Re: The war to sell you a mattress

#89

Post by mrfusion » Tue, Oct 17, 2017, 2:35 PM UTC

How do you make the switch to foam mattresses? They just feel so strange and different compared to regular mattresses?

Re: The war to sell you a mattress

#90

Post by CoryMO » Tue, Oct 17, 2017, 2:42 PM UTC

I'm shocked that no one has posted https://www.themattressunderground.com/ yet. It is totally worth a look. The amount of technical detail is right up HN's alley.

Full disclosure: I paid nothing to the site, but used it to find a local mattress shop (and manufacturer) and purchased a mid-range queen mattress at a good price. Apparently the shop owner had received quite a few referrals from them, but he never paid them or received any payment from them.