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Casper Sleep S-1

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Re: Casper Sleep S-1

#31

Post by tyingq »

tempsy wrote: post #18
blackearl wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really hard to know what's a good price for a mattress. You might buy 1 per decade, people forget what the experience or price was like. I spent a lot of time researching then gave up and went to a "mattress outlet" laid on a few, then got one for around $400. I sleep fine, probably better than I ever have. There's also so much info on springs, foam, latex, rubber, on and on. It's overwhelming. Casper has good m…

$1100+tax is more than double what you'd pay at Ikea, Amazon, Costco, etc. I thought the promise of all these direct-to-consumer products was to pass savings onto the consumer because they are vertically integrated and cut out scammy middle men. Seems like all that's happened is they just keep fat margins for themselves.

There are plenty of 12 inch memory foam mattresses on Amazon that are in the $300-$400 range for a Queen size, including shipping. I'm happy with the "Zinus" brand.

Re: Casper Sleep S-1

#32

Post by ra7 »

dawnerd wrote: post #22
tempsy wrote: post #2

I haven't been in the market for a mattress for awhile now but went on Casper's website and was shocked to see the price for a Queen is now $1095. I didn't remember it being that high, and checked Wayback and sure enough it was $850 in 2015, and $950 in 2017. Given how many copycats are out there, many selling for much less, can someone help me understand how Casper gets away with selling a $1095 mattress + tax to a…

Costco just had them for 480 bucks. I picked one up, so far it's been worth it.

Same and it was a fantastic deal. Even without the holiday discount, Costco sells it for $599 which is close to 50% discount on Casper's $1095 price. They brand it as 'Casper Select', but it's essentially same as the the original.

Re: Casper Sleep S-1

#33

Post by anon9001 »

tempsy wrote: post #24
untog wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a lot of it is whether you consider the price (whatever it is) to be reasonable. I am willing to spend $1000 on something I spend literally half my life on top of.

foam mattresses at Costco, Amazon, Ikea, etc. are under $500, so this is more than double for something that is not clearly 2x better than comparable products if this was objectively proven to be the absolute best foam mattress on the market, I would generally agree that paying top dollar for the best is fine for something you spend a lot of time using, but there's nothing out there that suggests this is any better t…

I had to buy a mattress last year and did a pretty deep dive into the world of mattresses. What I learned is that there's no meaningful research on what's "best", and sleep experts say that it's 100% personal preference (and marketing).

So I bought the cheapest thing on amazon with the best reviews in the size that I needed, which was maybe 25% of the price of Casper or Leesa (and those are about half the price of a traditional mattress). It's absolutely fine. If anything, I sleep better knowing that if I destroy it or have to move, I can just throw it out and buy another one.

One note: if you read enough reviews, you'll notice that some budget foam mattresses can have a smell to them. I assume this is the main thing that "premium" foam mattresses have actually addressed, but obviously it's not advertised as "we have the least smelly product!".

It's really as simple as finding a well reviewed hunk of foam, or at least it was for me, as mine arrived odor-free.

Re: Casper Sleep S-1

#34

Post by meddlepal »

tempsy wrote: post #2

I haven't been in the market for a mattress for awhile now but went on Casper's website and was shocked to see the price for a Queen is now $1095. I didn't remember it being that high, and checked Wayback and sure enough it was $850 in 2015, and $950 in 2017. Given how many copycats are out there, many selling for much less, can someone help me understand how Casper gets away with selling a $1095 mattress + tax to a…

I just spent 1600+ on a (really nice) new queen.

I spend a lot of time on my mattress... might as well buy a nice one I really like (Stearns & Foster)

Re: Casper Sleep S-1

#35

Post by mundo »

I bought a latex mattress several years ago, and will never buy another mattress. (Literally, they last 50+ years) Feels great, available in a range of firmness, no weird smells, never deforms, doesn't get hot, and naturally insect/mold resistant. I think I paid 1300 USD for a king size.

I know that's only tangentially relevant to the topic at hand, I'm just mentioning this since I had trouble finding much info on them. Latex is not promoted or advertised much, since they have very low markup compared to other mattresses; the store would much rather sell you a "hybrid" (usually 1/2 latex and 1/2 memory foam). But if you want to pay 2x as much to get something that lasts 4x as long, what you want is simple, boring, 100% natural latex.

Re: Casper Sleep S-1

#36

Post by starpilot »

tempsy wrote: post #2

I haven't been in the market for a mattress for awhile now but went on Casper's website and was shocked to see the price for a Queen is now $1095. I didn't remember it being that high, and checked Wayback and sure enough it was $850 in 2015, and $950 in 2017. Given how many copycats are out there, many selling for much less, can someone help me understand how Casper gets away with selling a $1095 mattress + tax to a…

This is preying on "wellness" concerns. Casper convinces you that a problem exists where it previously (probably) did not, that your sleep is suboptimal, and that only they can fix it for you. Prehistory, humans slept on beds of grasses or reeds on the ground. I still think 80% of your sleep quality is determined by what you do in the day: caffeine intake, amount of physical activity, overall stress level.

I have a Casper. I found it way too firm as a side sleeper, but it was too late to return it, so I bought a $100 memory foam topper from Costco to make it more squishy. I could have saved a lot of money by buying Zinus mattress from Amazon and adding the topper, but oh well.

Re: Casper Sleep S-1

#37

Post by [deleted] »

evandev wrote: post #23
tempsy wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so even people who are cash strapped are willing to overpay for a commodity item if they perceive it to be the best in a certain price range...? i guess purchasing behavior is very different for things you buy very infrequently like a mattress? looking at Costco and a highly rated foam comparable to Casper is $500...

From what I have heard, Costco buys Casper mattresses in bulk and are able to charge basically whatever they want. It does make sense that Casper itself needs higher profit margins than Costco due to the differences in business.

[deleted]

Re: Casper Sleep S-1

#38

Post by astura »

tempsy wrote: post #2

I haven't been in the market for a mattress for awhile now but went on Casper's website and was shocked to see the price for a Queen is now $1095. I didn't remember it being that high, and checked Wayback and sure enough it was $850 in 2015, and $950 in 2017. Given how many copycats are out there, many selling for much less, can someone help me understand how Casper gets away with selling a $1095 mattress + tax to a…

Advertising/marketing.

People often perceive a mattress as "very important," as sleep is important, and are willing to spend a bit extra if they think the quality will be there and they'll sleep better.

In reality I believe most of these "mattress in a box" companies are selling the same 2-3 mattress manufactured in the same factory.

Personally, I buy mattress in the $300-$500 range. When I was in college I just slept on a brick of foam because that was what I could afford.

Re: Casper Sleep S-1

#39

Post by braythwayt »

ra7 wrote: post #32
dawnerd wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Costco just had them for 480 bucks. I picked one up, so far it's been worth it.

Same and it was a fantastic deal. Even without the holiday discount, Costco sells it for $599 which is close to 50% discount on Casper's $1095 price. They brand it as 'Casper Select', but it's essentially same as the the original.

It's price discrimination.

The market for a $1,095 mattress wouldn't be caught dead shopping at CostCo, even if it's the exact same mattress.

The "Select" branding isn't there to bamboozle them, it's to help them rationalize paying $500 more to be known as someone above shopping at CostCo.

Casper wants one person's $1,095, and another's $599, so they use branding and channel differentiation to scoop $1,694 from both sales, instead of $1,095 for just one, or $1,198 for both.

If we presume their cost is $400, then they go from $398 in margin (two sales at $599) or $695 in margin (one sale at $1,095) to $894 in margin. That's good business!

Re: Casper Sleep S-1

#40

Post by throwlaplace »

samcampbell wrote: post #8

Disaggregated Revenue Data (Nine months ended September 30) Direct to Consumer: 2018- $239M; 2019- $259M [13% YoY growth] Wholesale: 2018- $31M; 2019- $54M [75% YoY growth] "20.3% year-over-year net revenue growth for the nine months ended September 30, 2019" "We have also expanded our gross margin from 42.8% in 2016 to 44.1% in 2018 and to 50.7% for the three months ended September 30, 2019"

those are great (fantastic?) margins but i don't understand why they're not higher? there are so many memory foam mattresses on amazon that are exactly the same thing (maybe slightly shallower "soft foam" that run for e.g. ~300 for a queen that are themselves probably making great margins.
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