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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

#261

Post by jjeaff »

ce4 wrote: post #143
pkaye wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you link to a website of how that mattress looks like?

Not exactly 30€ but starting from 50 (when you subtract the 20 or 30% discount of some of the cheaper models): https://www.lidl.de/de/matratzen/c11480 Edit: Here's the german discounter store archive, it lists past sales of the three largest chains Lidl, Aldi north/south. Just search for "Matratze" and you can check past sales up to 15yrs ago: https://www.discounter-archiv.de/suche.php

Hard to say without trying them out. But by the looks of them, I would say those are more like sleeping pads than what I would consider a mattress.

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

#262

Post by anonsivalley652 »

tartoran wrote: post #214
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you get an infestation, it’s best to just burn everything in the room and then fumigate.

Food grade diatomaceous earth is a natural non-toxic method to kill bed bugs and prevent them from invading your home

Have you ever worked with diatomaceous earth? I have.

1. It's fine and goes everywhere. Breathing it is especially ill-advised.

2. The first light breeze, mammal to walk by or light misting of rain will wipe it away.

Giving yourself silicosis in the process of not actually killing them.

One of my former roommates got bed bugs that were living in the wall from either the neighbor or a previous tenant. Only insecticides are going to solve that problem, not some holistic, "negative ions" (radioactive thorium) panacea snake oil.

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

#263

Post by andyjohnson0 »

The Guardian recently had a long-ish article [1] on the state of mattress recycling and the economics of buying online. Its a fairly depressing read: these things are super-hard to recycle effectively and just get dumped like toxic waste:

"The mattresses these criminals can’t resell, they fly-tip – Circom has had mattresses dumped outside its warehouse – or dump in landfill. In some cases, fraudsters have been known to rent a shed from an unsuspecting landlord, fill it to the brim with mattresses – and scarper. “There are loads of fake companies out there filling up sheds,” agrees Ray Bagnall, of Matt UK, another mattress recycler. “Dumping them on farms in Sussex or Essex.” He was recently called to clear out a shed full of thousands of mattresses in Snowdonia."

It would be nice to think that a vendor making low environmental impact mattresses would effectively disrupt the market, but it just doesn't seem likely.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/12/mattress...

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

#264

Post by friendlybus »

npip99 wrote: post #252
friendlybus wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every industry thinks they are the ones who run the world. Plumbers are reasonably sure the world turns to shit without them, but I'm not sure you use a toilet. This rant is more sad than entertaining, though I was on-board at the start of the comment. Plug back into reality, even just a little bit.

Eh, I don't think so. There's too much interdependence, you can have anxiety over how many things your dependent on, especially in Tech. It's actually terrifying. If Azure closed down tomorrow I'd be fucked so hard, though any business will eventually try to be as independent as they can when they're big enough (Other than Netflix and AWS, I'm sure there's some under the table money making that happen as 50% margins…

The internet is converging to a single point.

Everything would be f*cked if you disappeared mining or farming. All in this together.

Yeah brown-nosing has been a problem since the beginning of time, what's it all for? A bigger yacht?

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

#265

Post by organsnyder »

vonseel wrote: post #219
organsnyder wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We go to a smallish local furniture store. Nothing there is really cheap (almost everything is over $1000) and you most likely have to order something (they only have display models). But every piece we've purchased from there has held up perfectly. I'm sitting on a Flexsteel couch right now that is ten years old and takes a regular beating from four young kids, as well as a lot of use by adults. It's still as good a…

I feel like kids are (probably) hard on fabrics and textile coverings, teenagers are hard on everything, and adults are hard on foam supports (if only because weight and body size). Just some assumptions!

Yeah, that seems about right. My kids like to jump on every part of the couch (arms and back as well as the cushions), but their weight (or lack thereof) prevents them from being able to do too much damage. We don't have teens yet, but I suspect that they'll continue to abuse the furniture (sitting on the arms, for instance) while also being heavy enough to do damage.

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

#266

Post by Chris2048 »

ta999999171 wrote: post #240
OpieCunningham wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I might suspect your source is financially wealthy, and morally bankrupt - if I could follow 1/2 of what you said. But I was definitely entertained. Upvote.

He is the source...

by M. Night Shyamalan

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

#267

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#268

Post by OJFord »

lmm wrote: post #237
OJFord wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm no ecowarrior, but perhaps I am a contradiction-warrior ... You started out saying throwing one away seemed a terrible waste, and now you, by plan and forethought, do so annually?

Throwing away a cheap one is much less of a waste than throwing away an expensive one?

To whom or what? The expensive one not thrown away was replaced free of charge by the same model but not broken.

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

#269

Post by jopsen »

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…

> So I did some research. It turns out that the mattress industry is a racket. The markups are ludicrous; almost every mattress on the market costs, at most, a few hundred dollars to make.

Isn't this just a result of economies of scale?

Everything becomes cheap, so if you try to buy something expensive you don't necessarily get higher quality. Most likely you'll get ripped off, OR buy something artisanal which means lower consistency (maybe also quality).

That said: the psychology of it is probably that you sleep better in an expensive bed -- even if the only difference is the cost :)

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

#270

Post by 135792468 »

jbarciauskas wrote: post #153
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…

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%.

I meant purely raw materials.
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