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We Need a Warby Parker for Mattresses

priceonomics.com

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Re: We Need a Warby Parker for Mattresses

#151

Post by orangecat »

itsprofitbaron wrote: post #48
MartinCron wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine if the cultural norm went from spending a lot on an expensive diamond where the money went to a textbook evil corporation to spending much less on a cheap manufactured diamond of higher quality and donating the difference to the charity of the lady's choice.

It would require an incredible amount of ad spend to change cultural norms which have been created by advertisers over generations. The chances of it happening are miniscule, and the startups who are attempting to do it would go bankrupt several times over before it was even close to being achieved. It actually reminds me of a Warren Buffet Quote “If you gave me $100 Billion and said, ‘Take away the soft-drink leader…

Go after the cultural norms with celebrities. Get Oprah and Ellen and Kate Middleton and Cosmo and Glamour on board, and arrange for high-profile weddings to have manufactured diamonds and large charitable donations. Things like this can change pretty fast when it's made obvious that there really is a right side and a wrong side. Gay marriage is a recent example, and that has the extra hurdle of having to overcome strong religious beliefs.

Re: We Need a Warby Parker for Mattresses

#152

Post by uptown »

Warby Parker's name has crossed my radar a few times in the past month, but I know nothing about what makes them special. Can somebody please enlighten me, because even after looking at their site, I still don't get what the big deal is. Then again, I've got 20/15 vision, and don't wear glasses, so I'm not their target market.

Re: We Need a Warby Parker for Mattresses

#153

Post by Spooky23 »

JPKab wrote: post #70
Spooky23 wrote: post #42

There are all sorts of outlets for reasonably priced, what you see is what you get mattresses: Sam's Club. Costco. Ikea. You can get a decent name brand mainstream mattress for ~$500. The problem with mattresses is that it's a product where you need a salesman. There's a bunch of different products that look similar, but have significant differences. You want to match the customer with what they want (or tell them wh…

"There are all sorts of outlets for reasonably priced, what you see is what you get mattresses: Sam's Club. Costco. Ikea. You can get a decent name brand mainstream mattress for ~$500." I hear you, but who says that $500 is a reasonable price for a mattress? I'm sorry, but looking at the raw materials involved (don't even get me started on the frickin foam ones that don't even have springs: I'm looking at you Tempurp…

The market says that's a reasonable price, and Tempurpedic is serving the premium market segment. Why does a half gallon of milk with a generic store logo cost 10% less than the name-brand milk from the same exact dairy?

Anything less is either refurbished (ick) or one of the foam ones from Amazon/Overstock. The online foam mattresses are as low as $350, because they can compress the foam and make it light enough for UPS Ground.

Personally, I don't like foam mattresses. If i didn't know that, dropped $350 on a mattress from Amazon, I'm stuck with some bizarro return process, since it's no longer compressed foam that can be readily shipped!

Re: We Need a Warby Parker for Mattresses

#154

Post by badhairday »

MartinCron wrote: post #110
akldfgj wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With strechy jersey sheets with deep sides, it doesn't matter if you apply them 90-degrees rotate.

The last time I had stretchy jersey sheets, they didn't hold up well at all. I'm wondering if that's a problem with them in general, or if I just bought crappy sheets.

...or if they were made in Jersey.

Re: We Need a Warby Parker for Mattresses

#155

Post by jacknews »

ktsmith wrote: post #20
Fluxx wrote: post #14

I'm not sure if you can count this as a startup, but I bought my King-sized Sleep Innovations (memory foam) mattress with Amazon Prime for $530. And if I wanted the less-think 10" one, it would be $400. http://www.amazon.com/Sleep-Innovations-12-inch-Memory-Mattr... The damn thing was ~100lbs in a giant box, and I got it shipped to me free. It's super comfortable and well worth the money - remember you sleep for like…

I got my last mattress from Silver State Industries (nevada prison manufacturing) for under $500 (Cal King). It is more comfortable than the Serta that I had originally spent around $1,500 on.

LOL, did you find a rock hammer stuffed inside?

Re: We Need a Warby Parker for Mattresses

#156

Post by shazow »

aaronblohowiak wrote: post #83
JPKab wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"There are all sorts of outlets for reasonably priced, what you see is what you get mattresses: Sam's Club. Costco. Ikea. You can get a decent name brand mainstream mattress for ~$500." I hear you, but who says that $500 is a reasonable price for a mattress? I'm sorry, but looking at the raw materials involved (don't even get me started on the frickin foam ones that don't even have springs: I'm looking at you Tempurp…

I have purchased my last two mattresses from Overstock, and recommend people do the same (and read the comments on all of them, preferring those with more reviews...) http://www.overstock.com/Bedding-Bath/Memory-Foam-Mattresses...

Lots of mattresses are rated +4.5 with 550 reviews but when you go read the reviews, there's a ton of 1/5 reviews saying "the memory foam lost its memory after a couple of months."

For example: http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/Comfort-Dreams-Select-A...

Something really shady is going on with their rating averaging.

Re: We Need a Warby Parker for Mattresses

#157

Post by dspeyer »

Spooky23 wrote: post #153
JPKab wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"There are all sorts of outlets for reasonably priced, what you see is what you get mattresses: Sam's Club. Costco. Ikea. You can get a decent name brand mainstream mattress for ~$500." I hear you, but who says that $500 is a reasonable price for a mattress? I'm sorry, but looking at the raw materials involved (don't even get me started on the frickin foam ones that don't even have springs: I'm looking at you Tempurp…

The market says that's a reasonable price, and Tempurpedic is serving the premium market segment. Why does a half gallon of milk with a generic store logo cost 10% less than the name-brand milk from the same exact dairy? Anything less is either refurbished (ick) or one of the foam ones from Amazon/Overstock. The online foam mattresses are as low as $350, because they can compress the foam and make it light enough for…

"The market"?

The market consists of buyers and sellers. Since a bed typically lasts over 10 years, a typical buyer buys fewer than 7 beds in a lifetime. That's not enough to get educated or even keep up with change.

So in fact the market consists of sellers and what they can get away with. Nothing to do with being reasonable.

Re: We Need a Warby Parker for Mattresses

#158

Post by novaleaf »

stcredzero wrote: post #26
ryanwaggoner wrote: post #3

Like any startup idea, there will be objections. Shipping mattresses is expensive, people want to lie on them first, mattresses require research and development spending to develop, a mattress purchase only happens once a decade, etc. All these objections might be right, but they all sound surmountable. They might be surmountable, but that doesn't make this a better opportunity than a lot of the other opportunities o…

> a mattress purchase only happens once a decade This is a cultural artifact. We've reached a point in manufacturing technology where this should no longer be true. > disrupting the mattress industry as a manufacturer AND retailer...Like IKEA,... The most comfortable mattress I've ever slept on: A Sultan Fonnes mattress, with an egg crate foam topper from http://www.foambymail.com/ on a platform bed, no box springs.…

> This is a cultural artifact. We've reached a point in manufacturing technology where this should no longer be true.

I hope you are not implying what I think you are.

If you are: rabid consumption is fucking this world into oblivion. Just because we can produce/buy more easier/faster, does not mean we should.

"There is no such thing as sustainable growth"

Re: We Need a Warby Parker for Mattresses

#159

Post by e28eta »

gknoy wrote: post #92
MartinCron wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to think the same thing about shoes, but Zappos has managed to crack that with their super-easy returns and two-way shipping. Is two-way shipping with easy returns possible for mattresses? I would be willing to try it if I never had to deal with a mattress salesman again.

With a memory foam mattress, they tend to be vacuum packed in a plastic sleeve and box that is nigh-impossible to ever fit it back in again. I suppose if you had a specialized team that could come to your home, repackage it, and take it away, it might work, but that doesn't sound like it would scale very well outside of a large city.

When I purchased a big screen TV from Amazon, it was hand delivered and setup by a team of two for free, at a competitive price for that model.

I won't claim to be an expert on TVs or their delivery, but that was nicer than buying it at Fry's and manhandling it up the stairs myself.

This was in San Jose area, but I think it was provided anywhere.

Anyway... What I'm trying to say is that a mattress pickup service isn't necessarily out of the question.

Re: We Need a Warby Parker for Mattresses

#160

Post by stretchwithme »

Wouldn't it be cool if a mattress came in 8 pieces so you can easily move it and flip it, and rearrange or even replace saggy sections?

I'm sure the need for the entire thing to respond to your body the way it does probably prevents such a thing, but that sure would make it easier to own one.

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