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What happens to a mail-order mattress after you return it

fivethirtyeight.com

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Re: What happens to a mail-order mattress after you return it

#151

Post by eyegor »

egdod wrote: post #117
135792468 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn’t read the article but I’ve worked for one of these companies that was a startup and have a local mattress company as a client. So a little perspective. These companies are all marketing companies. There is no “science” they literally get rolls of foam from foam makers, throw them on in layers and try to find the right combo. I was there, I’ve done it myself. The companies that end up winning have fantastic ma…

Any thoughts on why markup stays so high if the industry is actually cutthroat? Competition should be driving margin way down.

I would chalk it up to the fact that no one has tried (in the US). A startup could easily jump in on the cheap memory foam mattress game, but most mattress sellers are not startup folk. It's just so low effort to buy from serta, casper, etc. with absurd markups since that's the market rate. The "competition" looks a lot like the used car racket, but you don't need to join the car dealership cartel to sell mattresses. I'm guessing the big manufacturers have contracts that spec out minimum reseller prices with threats to stop supply. It's just ridiculous to think that all mattress sellers would risk easily being undercut running 2000+% markups.

As for a startup, generally people don't buy mattresses that often, but I know I would if they were 100$. Even cheap ones end up around 5-700$, which is nowhere near an impulse buy. As a result, I only replace a mattress if it's completely worn out, which takes a solid 10-15 years.

Funny how popular it is to replace the 800$ phone every 1-3 years but 1-3k$ has to wait until the mattress is unbearable. Everyone I know has this attitude for mattresses.

Re: What happens to a mail-order mattress after you return it

#152

Post by majos »

whalesalad wrote: post #80

FWIW I had a Leesa and ended up returning it. That went fine and dandy, everything worked as they promised with no frills. What I actually want to share with you all here is to go to a mom-n-pop mattress store in your local area. Find your local mattress NERD and buy a bed from them. They're going to have all kinds of wild stuff you can try and will do a great job of selling you the right bed for you (and your partne…

Hm. There’s another comment above along the lines of: “I worked with these stores, they are all selling random wildly overpriced garbage, don’t fall for it!”. I’m confused now.

Re: What happens to a mail-order mattress after you return it

#153

Post by jbarciauskas »

135792468 wrote: post #82
bsanr wrote: post #30

I'd thought I'd get around the madness of mattress shopping by using just the technique mentioned in the article here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22377160 At least, until I found something I liked. I purchased a Purple 3, thinking that if I loved it, I'd just stick with it. I did love it, but I couldn't justify spending $2k on a twin(!). I returned it, and purchased from another company for ~$700. I didn't…

I didn’t read the article but I’ve worked for one of these companies that was a startup and have a local mattress company as a client. So a little perspective. These companies are all marketing companies. There is no “science” they literally get rolls of foam from foam makers, throw them on in layers and try to find the right combo. I was there, I’ve done it myself. The companies that end up winning have fantastic ma…

COGS for Casper is ~50%, which doesn't quite line up with your $50. I suppose if you mean $50 in raw materials, plus construction costs, then fine, but that doesn't get you to 20x markup. The margin isn't that crazy. Typical retail markup is 30%.

Re: What happens to a mail-order mattress after you return it

#154

Post by _abattoir »

croissants wrote: post #149
135792468 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn’t read the article but I’ve worked for one of these companies that was a startup and have a local mattress company as a client. So a little perspective. These companies are all marketing companies. There is no “science” they literally get rolls of foam from foam makers, throw them on in layers and try to find the right combo. I was there, I’ve done it myself. The companies that end up winning have fantastic ma…

How should people buy mattresses, or mattress-like products, to avoid this 2000% markup?

buy a $30 camping sleeping pad

Re: What happens to a mail-order mattress after you return it

#155

Post by chihuahua »

exhilaration wrote: post #89
madengr wrote: post #2

Mattress shopping is almost as bad as car shopping. I'll buy a used car to get around the sleazy car sales people, but the wife absolutely won't go for a used matresss. I'm sure the mattress markup is astronomical, and I'm sure most brands come from the same factories.

Just buy your mattresses from Costco, no sleaze in sight.

Costco and Ikea (mentioned many times in earlier comments) seem to share a business model based on avoiding dark patterns

Re: What happens to a mail-order mattress after you return it

#156

Post by ItsDeathball »

anonAndOn wrote: post #57
deftnerd wrote: post #41

It feels like there might be other possibly uses of old or unwanted foam mattresses. Perhaps they can be cut down to standard sizes for home insulation batting? As insulation between raised garden bed containers and the ground? Insulation between the ground and a fish tank in an aquaponics setup? While there might be better solutions for all of those things, if these materials are going to end up in the landfill and…

Although it's a bit of work to cut the foam layers into hundreds of little blocks, you can turn an unwanted foam mattress into a decent bean bag.

I wonder if you could get the same result by throwing it in a woodchipper and bagging the mattress-mulch.

Re: What happens to a mail-order mattress after you return it

#157

Post by derefr »

freedomben wrote: post #84
circa wrote: post #79

I know this is about mail-order mattress companies. I have always thought that one of these Mattress store chains are going to be busted for being involved in a drug ring or something like that. There are way more locations than there needs to be. Especially with all of these online mattress brands popping up. There always seems to be 1 guy working and no one in the stores, ever. At any of these locations. I don't un…

At least around the salt lake Utah area those stores go out of business all the time.

Why are they started in the first place? Where do people get the capital to start a type of business that's observably likely to fail?

Re: What happens to a mail-order mattress after you return it

#158

Post by bcrosby95 »

Spivak wrote: post #137
megablast wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can also get free stuff from the shop by putting it in your pocket and leaving.

There is I think a little bit of an ethical grey area in buying, trying, and returning a thing in the hope that it’s not worth their effort to ship it back. I can’t really say that taking a company up on a free trial counts as wardrobing.

Yeah, I bought an expensive umbrellas for my backyard. It came without a pin in the hinge so it wouldn't open/close properly.

I told them, they said to throw it away and they would send me a new one. They sent me a new one but I repaired the other one - it seemed line a terrible waste to toss it. It crossed my mind that I could claim similar things for other objects even when they weren't broken.

That said, they both broke within a year. Taught me another lesson: buy cheap, replace yearly. Better than buying expensive and replacing yearly. Now I buy $50 outdoor wooden umbrellas.

Re: What happens to a mail-order mattress after you return it

#159

Post by dan-robertson »

dredmorbius wrote: post #86
zabzonk wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Edinburgh, Scotland, in the 1970s, a friend of mine inherited a flat and contents but no money. It was an extremely cold winter and he ended up chopping half the furniture to pieces (it was the typical hideous stuff you got in flats in Edinburgh back then) and burning it in the fire-place to keep warm.

Probably mostly natural materials. That'd be risky now.

At least in Europe most furniture uses fire retardant materials. But the chipboard that lots of things are made of will burn ok if you get it hot enough

Re: What happens to a mail-order mattress after you return it

#160

Post by buckminster »

dredmorbius wrote: post #86
zabzonk wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Edinburgh, Scotland, in the 1970s, a friend of mine inherited a flat and contents but no money. It was an extremely cold winter and he ended up chopping half the furniture to pieces (it was the typical hideous stuff you got in flats in Edinburgh back then) and burning it in the fire-place to keep warm.

Probably mostly natural materials. That'd be risky now.

Risky is right. Even wooden furniture is treated with chemicals (flame retardants, anti-fungals, etc.) that are noxious when burned.
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