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Why there are so many online mattress-in-a-box companies

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Re: Why there are so many online mattress-in-a-box companies

#21

Post by deelowe »

ropeadopepope wrote: post #7

Reminds me of something called "Made for Outlet." Popular brands license their logos to third parties who make low quality goods. It has the label and the store has the name, but it's cheap junk worth a fraction of the price they're selling it for.

With globalization things are getting really weird in the retail space. For example, snap-on (a super premium tool maker) used to make wrenches for Lowes. They were nearly identical: http://www.snapon-bluepoint.com.sg/

Just a few days ago, AVE did a few videos showing evidence that there may be a single supplier for some new airguns that are on the market. Thing is, these air guns range in price from less than $100 (harbor freight) to well over $500 (premium brand). He tested a Husky brand that was much more expensive than the HF one and found it to likely be worse than the cheap one. He had a good theory in the video that no one can beat manufacturing overseas now days for quality or price. So everyone just outsources it and is hoping no one notices.

Re: Why there are so many online mattress-in-a-box companies

#22

Post by goldenkey »

analog31 wrote: post #6
truculation wrote: post #3

Mattress-packing via machine pix: https://twitter.com/machinepix/status/965691925712875521 Instead of merely airing the bed each morning I run a dehumidifer. Hopefully this will reduce mould & mites. Now HN can tell me why my personal mattress hack is a bad idea.

At last I have an excuse for not making the bed in the morning. ;-) When my kids were tots and we took them to day care, the day care center had a collection of little beds for naps, which were some kind of durable fabric mesh stretched over a frame. I've often wondered how that would work as a general purpose mattress for adults, with little chance of festering over time.

As far as I know, any kind of hammock or suspension bed will ultimately suffer from uneven pressure points. Unless the frame is filled in, in the middle, which would make it a normal mattress, then your weight is going to be pushing back on you mostly laterally via the perimeter where the attachment of the mesh happens. Sleeping surfaces are meant to support the body from the bottom in an even fashion in order to minimize pressure points.

This is why memory foam is so effective - instead of having 1024 springs, add more add more!!! - we just get a porous composite material with 1000000 tiny nooks which basically act as springs. Latex on the other hand, if not in foam form, can be solid, and gains its "spring" properties just from its tensile chemistry alone. No nooks needed. But latex foam is sold..which is a marriage of the two ideas.

In any case, hammocks aren't gonna hurt you from sleeping on em occasionally, especially since the pressure points will mostly be your back as hammocks are often hung loosely, so that the attachment points can be much much higher than your actual body, therefore moving most of the force to a vertical pressure, instead of that lateral pressure we talked about.

Re: Why there are so many online mattress-in-a-box companies

#23

Post by Simon_says »

analog31 wrote: post #5

I don't know if this has any impact, but thinking about it, a mattress is a possession that can't be easily transported in a car, or even, by someone who doesn't have a car. I imagine that as people become more mobile and choose to have fewer possessions, it might be easier to simply abandon their mattress and have a new one shipped to their new location.

Americans are moving less over time. The effect is not subtle.

https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/geograph...

Re: Why there are so many online mattress-in-a-box companies

#24

Post by DennisP »

joshvm wrote: post #9

Somewhat ironic that the article comments about MemoryFoamTalk not disclosing comissions from Nectar and then provides an (undisclosed) affiliate link. I have a Leesa as it was the only mattress (at the time) which fit my bed properly. The fact that all these companies can offer 100-365 day trials does hint at how stupidly large the margins are.

How do you like your Leesa?

Re: Why there are so many online mattress-in-a-box companies

#25

Post by dopeboy »

iambateman wrote: post #12

We bought a Tuft and Needle mattress three years ago, and it's been fantastic. A few other friends have bought mattresses online and all been very happy. If it's all a marketing ploy, as the article implies, then there's a lot of happy people benefiting. ;)

Same. Easily the best mattress I've had. Had to give it up when I moved into a smaller place.

Re: Why there are so many online mattress-in-a-box companies

#26

Post by [deleted] »

ProfessorLayton wrote: post #18

Cheap memory foam toppers have effectively made the quality of the mattress irrelevant to me. I've been sleeping great on a compressed Ikea mattress with a foam topper. In fact the entire bed setup was boxed up and taken to my home in a car. I've spent the night at really nice guest rooms/hotels, and I don't prefer them over my setup. I would much rather re-buy my setup again every time I move, than spend a ton of mo…

[deleted]

Re: Why there are so many online mattress-in-a-box companies

#27

Post by meesterdude »

jacquesm wrote: post #17
meesterdude wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have such a bed. Getting it home was easy. But how do you actually compress it and roll it again? It's kinda become huge. What do you do?

Vacuum. Thick plastic wrap and then hook up a vacuum pump to the interior and watch the atmosphere do the heavy work for you. Then you can roll up the package.

ingenious! Here I was looking at steamroller rentals.

Re: Why there are so many online mattress-in-a-box companies

#28

Post by 47 »

"Since Casper launched its “mattress in a box” concept in 2014, digital-savvy entrepreneurs have been launching new mattress brands online seemingly every week."

Casper was not the first mattress in a box online company. But Casper definitely is the first company to get the marketing right.

Re: Why there are so many online mattress-in-a-box companies

#30

Post by batbomb »

I bought a Tuft and Needle after this post in 2013:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6900625

I’m pretty sure that at the time, Tuft and Needle was the main name in the game, and I definitely hadn’t heard of Casper at that point, so there seems to be a bit of revisionist history attributing the rise of these mattresses to Casper? I don’t know.

I’m still happy with my T&N.

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