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The war to sell you a mattress

fastcompany.com

101–110 of 235 posts

Re: The war to sell you a mattress

#101

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

This seems to be the norm for us; VRBO a very nice place with a lousy mattress.

We buy a $100 foam in the box mattress (at walmart.com), pick it up at nearest store and put it in top of existing one

Then we say to owner your mattress is awful.. We won't review it that way..(they are very appreciative)

Next time we rent there there is a new non-foam mattress

Re: The war to sell you a mattress

#103

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

I'm not sure how I ever slept on a non-foam mattress before.

They're so quiet and way more comfortable (as long as you get the firmness right) that I'd never go back unless forced to.

Re: The war to sell you a mattress

#104

Now this made me thinking of other online review sites. Are they all like that? I couldn't give an honest review, if I get more money from B than A. So if they state otherwise, I call it fraud And I know that's what people call marketing in general and there might be some truth in it - but that's why you go to these review site to get a neutral view. So normally the customer should pay the reviewer, he is doing work…

This is how the entire affiliate industry works. Content curators will generally pick the most profitable products to promote, not always but most of the time. I tried to explain that here to the HN crowd that the wirecutter reviews fall into the same affiliate bias but got downvotes to hell. The mere fact that most of their products point to amazon should tell you that they cannot possibly claim to give an honest review. I say this knowing there will be a ton of replies telling me I’m wrong but sure, what would a super affiliate know anything about that...

Re: The war to sell you a mattress

#105
Why is everything a "war" in the American media? war on obesity, war on diabetes, war on this, war on that...?

It is just businesses competing to sell products - maybe a little too interested in suing, but business nevertheless.

Re: The war to sell you a mattress

#106
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That’s blackmail. Making a legal threat and making a legal money request combine into an illegal act.

Re: The war to sell you a mattress

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lasted a month on $600 foam. I woke up several mornings with sore hips. Finally, I called the local rescue mission to donate it. When I explained that I felt bad passing it on to someone else, they said they are picking up a couple of these mattresses each week! It seems like it's a hard adjustment for many... zing.

What was your sleeping position and what firmness of the mattress?

I sleep on my side. There's no firmness option. The foam arrives in the typical "I'm a mattress box" and expands.

Worth noting that some claim it gets softer after a few weeks.

Re: The war to sell you a mattress

#109
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.)

Yep, I saw the signature sleep foam mattresses on amazon for about 300$. Compared to the ones in store that were all 5-20 times the cost, I just decided to try it cause even if there is a 10% chance it's good, it's worth a shot.

2 years later and I have no complaints.

Re: The war to sell you a mattress

#110
post #86

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.

Sadly some people can’t tell the difference between a sponsored read and an endorsement precisely because they make it sound like an endorsement.

Even when you can tell the difference, it's hard to ignore the effect of someone you enjoy listening to do the read. With my favorite podcasts, I enjoy the "company" of the hosts, and have an implicit bias towards what they say. So an ad read by them is extremely effective. If it was a canned commercial like on TV, I'd be able to tune it out much more effectively.
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