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The war to sell you a mattress

fastcompany.com

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Re: The war to sell you a mattress

#221

Post by geoelectric »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #172
reverend_gonzo wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a wide range of prices. More often than not, you'll end up buying one that is custom made in an American lab, so it might not be exactly cheap, though it is cheaper than an equivalent diamond. We bought moissanite because I absolutely refuse to support the diamond industry in any way. For what its worth, friends of our who are obsessed with image can't tell the difference.

Is the sting in the tale (sic) that DeBeers (or its major shareholders) owns the moissanite company/production/patents and created the competition to secure both sides of the market?

Moissanite is largely (completely?) controlled by Charles & Covard, at least in the US. I don't see anything online indicating any crossover with DeBeers.

Re: The war to sell you a mattress

#222

Post by throwanem »

drak0n1c wrote: post #219
throwanem wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

A few years ago when first moving to Seattle I bought a Queen spring mattress which has a thin memory foam pillowtop layer (effectively equivalent to a mattress pad). Less than $300. I've found it to be much better than the pure foam or pure spring beds I've experienced in hotels. I haven't had any overheating problems, except for when I briefly tried adding a plasticky bed bug prevention mattress cover which would h…

Thanks! I'll check it out - my $100 Ikea queen being near half a decade old and none too comfy even when new, it's pretty far past time I replaced it with something. This'll be a good place to start looking!

Re: The war to sell you a mattress

#223

Post by ttwwmm »

ghostbrainalpha wrote: post #181
lazerpants wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which dishwasher was it?

Bosch is the brand. Don't remember the exact series number, but its the most expensive model typically available in Home Depot or places like that. I don't want to slander them too much, because the product really is quiet, and very durable. But those ended up being the least important factors for me.

I have a mid/high-end Bosch and find that the dishes end up much dryer if you crack the door when the cycle completes. This is particularly important for plastic stuff like tupperware. It doesn't have a heating element, so it's best to expose the dishes to non-humid air while they are still hot.

Re: The war to sell you a mattress

#224

Post by ALee »

dv_dt wrote: post #183
TheRealDunkirk wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A dozen years ago, I had a house built, and I bought all the appliances myself. I thought I would research the market, find the sweet spot, and get a good deal through a specialty appliance store because I was getting everything at once. Boy, was I wrong. I subscribed to Consumer Reports online, and came up with what I thought was the right brand: GE "Gold". I bought everything in the line: stove, microwave, dishwash…

> I got more years of service out of the second-hand, refurbished, mismatched washer and dryer that I bought from the ratty converted house/shop on 3rd street than I got out of the "higher" end models, and paid 1/4 of the price. I think that's one misperception. High end anything models aren't high end because they're more reliable - they're high end because they have more features or more expensive finishes, but hav…

love this pet theory for things that are commodities

Re: The war to sell you a mattress

#225

Post by gurkendoktor »

pascalxus wrote: post #217
TheRealDunkirk wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A dozen years ago, I had a house built, and I bought all the appliances myself. I thought I would research the market, find the sweet spot, and get a good deal through a specialty appliance store because I was getting everything at once. Boy, was I wrong. I subscribed to Consumer Reports online, and came up with what I thought was the right brand: GE "Gold". I bought everything in the line: stove, microwave, dishwash…

The best strategy you can follow is, base your buying decision on objective things, you can verify. Price is something you can verify with 100% accuracy, so is features and usability and energy usage. But, all the other stuff: how long it lasts, I wouldn't take anybody's word for it, unless I knew them personally. For dishwashers, specifically, I think you have to get a really old one for it to work. One that was mad…

> I wouldn't take anybody's word for it, unless I knew them personally.

Maybe that's the thing: We need reviewers that we "almost know", who aren't faceless, but also aren't as deeply corrupt as most YouTubers? A bit like John Siracusa reviewing toasters in podcasts [1]. At least with simple gadgets, I would rather trust him than Amazon reviews, even though I've only heard him talking for a few hours.

[1] https://www.caseyliss.com/2015/9/10/siracusa-on-toasters

Re: The war to sell you a mattress

#226

Post by gurkendoktor »

dv_dt wrote: post #183
TheRealDunkirk wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A dozen years ago, I had a house built, and I bought all the appliances myself. I thought I would research the market, find the sweet spot, and get a good deal through a specialty appliance store because I was getting everything at once. Boy, was I wrong. I subscribed to Consumer Reports online, and came up with what I thought was the right brand: GE "Gold". I bought everything in the line: stove, microwave, dishwash…

> I got more years of service out of the second-hand, refurbished, mismatched washer and dryer that I bought from the ratty converted house/shop on 3rd street than I got out of the "higher" end models, and paid 1/4 of the price. I think that's one misperception. High end anything models aren't high end because they're more reliable - they're high end because they have more features or more expensive finishes, but hav…

> they're high end because they have more features or more expensive finishes, but have more complexity to go wrong

Sigh, this describes my recent tech purchases to a T. New wireless headphones? More trouble than I had with wired cans in five years, at 3.5x the cost. My first laptop with a dedicated GPU? More glitches than my Intel-only MacBook Air ever had, at 2x the cost. €120 speakers? Their wired "desktop remote" was so dumb that I returned them and bought used €11 speakers on a craigslist clone. (I actually think they sound better.)

I spent at least a day reading reviews for each purchase, too.

On the upside, I will save lots of money by never treating myself to "nice tech" again.

Re: The war to sell you a mattress

#227

Post by Armisael16 »

aalexgabi wrote: post #215
BenoitEssiambre wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah so 'entrepreneur' literally translates to 'undertaker'.

Entre means between. Preneur means taker.

That's true, but also irrelevant. That isn't the etymology of the word - it's a loanword from french, coined by French economist Jean-Baptiste Say.

Re: The war to sell you a mattress

#228

Post by photojosh »

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.)

Bought 2x single mattresses from Aldi (AUD500 = US$390 total), to replace our old king mattress, and put a king overlay on top. So good having total isolation from any of your partner's tossing-and-turning.

Only problem is the combination is 15cm shorter than a real king mattress, so it's odd on the base. But meh.

Re: The war to sell you a mattress

#229

Post by StillBored »

TheRealDunkirk wrote: post #171
ghostbrainalpha wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem goes deep. I recently decided to get a Consumer Reports subscription after not having one for 10 years. I used it to find the absolute BEST dishwasher. But because their rating system is a little strange, and they don't exactly tell you BUY THIS, DONT BUY THAT, I ended up with a Dishwasher I hate. It was the most expensive, and best according to CR, but I cannot express how miserable this piece of junk ma…

A dozen years ago, I had a house built, and I bought all the appliances myself. I thought I would research the market, find the sweet spot, and get a good deal through a specialty appliance store because I was getting everything at once. Boy, was I wrong. I subscribed to Consumer Reports online, and came up with what I thought was the right brand: GE "Gold". I bought everything in the line: stove, microwave, dishwash…

Yah, pretty much my experience with consumer reports too. They need more objective analysis, but that is hard too given that all it takes to win a 3 year "long term" study is not to have anything major break.

Having been in this boat myself, a few years ago, I decided to simply start fixing my old appliances. Many of which aren't actually old enough to not be efficient (front loading washer from the late 1990's). Its hard when you move houses, but the older appliances (mostly from the 1990's) in my rental are still chugging along. OTOH, the dishwasher, and microwave that got replaced when I lived in it are now on #3 in under 15 years...

Basically, it seems for a lot of things the "quality" seems to have peaked and then due to penny pinching, offshoring, whatever has declined. Of course my mother might say the same thing about her stove from the 1970's, but the current house has a gas stove with electronic igniters built in the 1990's and its also on #3... It seems electronics aren't really a good way to make something last. They might be better at saving some energy here or there, or providing a cool looking interface, but the old mechanical buttons/igniters/etc are often even better.

Re: The war to sell you a mattress

#230

Post by CM30 »

This reminds me a lot of the web hosting industry, which also has a huge issue with questionable review sites set up for affiliate payments and hosting companies owning supposedly neutral sites about the industry.

There are at least a few active forums you can ask about good hosting companies on (which is something the mattress buying process seems to lack), but then you have to deal with astroturfing and companies 'hinting' that you should use their service in every post.

Either way, I think these industries (and many others) are in this situation because the internet has just made good, high quality journalism unprofitable. Along with clickbait and actual lies, it seems affiliate commissions are where the money is in writing nowadays, meaning there's a huge incentive to write pandering crap and an equally large disincentive to care about being a truly helpful source for this information.

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