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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

#301

Post by whalesalad »

majos wrote: post #152
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.

There is a big difference between a small independently owned mom and pop mattress store and a chain like Mattress Firm, Sit-n-sleep, etc...

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

#302

Post by johnchristopher »

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…

How do you choose the right mattress for you then ?

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

#303

Post by Nextgrid »

JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #213
Polylactic_acid wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because its really hard to objectively rate a mattress. IKEA sells them at a fair price and they are great, but people in their minds see them as shit because they are cheap so they can't possibly be as good as the $2000 one.

If they were truly as good, word would spread (word-of-mouth) and the market would re-align. Blog posts would be written about how we're all naive for spending $2,000 instead of $150.

The 2k$ mattress companies often pay kickbacks and/or outright buy the blogs on which those posts would be written. The 150$ mattress companies don't do that.

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

#304

Post by 135792468 »

abawany wrote: post #148
benibela wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something is very wrong in the US I think I paid around 30€ to buy a foam mattress in Germany

Zinus foam mattresses in the US are quite affordable (~$200) especially when they have their sales going.

That’s the one I was thinking of. Nice mattress for the price.

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

#305

Post by gbronner »

WorldPeas wrote: post #299

Now I can finally feel like a smug eco-warrior by sleeping on the same queen mattress I used as a teenager. In all seriousness though, these companies should make it easier to put their mattresses back in their box, especially if it means they could avoid something like this. I seem to recall my old air mattress could easily be deflated by running the pump in reverse, fitting in a tiny bag. Would it be too hard to ha…

It appears to take a fairly substantial press/vacuum sealer to squash these down, get them into their plastic bag so they don't explode, and roll them into a tight cylinder.

https://sleepdelivered.com/bed-in-a-box-mattresses-packing/

This machine looks pretty elaborate -- not sure that you are going to get a consumer version.

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

#306

Post by 135792468 »

eyegor wrote: post #151
egdod wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.…

Thought so too until I got into the industry. The establish players have run up marketing costs so that your average cost per acquisition can get out of hand quickly. It’s really hard to crack profitability with a cheap mattress.

I’d have to look at my data to see CPC costs but i tried a lot of angles and channels to generate sales cheaply and struggled to find anything sustainable.

CPCs, ad dollars, imagery, affiliate commissions hell, It’s only a matter of time before some affiliate comes in this thread pumping their garbage mattress review site. Half of them you can even get listed on without them asking for a special deal or rate.

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

#307

Post by paulddraper »

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…

Thanks for the perspective!

> Markup for foam mattresses in general is close to 2000%.

Why is that markup stable?

What would stop a competitor from selling good $350 mattresses like candy?

Or are there companies that do that and I just don't know about them?

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

#308

Post by bsanr2 »

giarc wrote: post #297
bsanr2 wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The amount of effort and time required would just barely be covered by the profit. You also have to store it until sale. That's probably what keeps this from becoming a widespread scam.

I think you underestimate people's desire to scam the system. Buy $1000 mattress, leave in box, "return" mattress and get $1000 refund. Sell online (instead of donating) for $300-400. Rinse, repeat.

The "rinse" part is where it gets tricky. There are firms that track returns (at least for retail). I've seen people have their returns straight-up denied.

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

#309

Post by OJFord »

bcrosby95 wrote: post #296
OJFord wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Both of those broke in a way that couldn't be repaired in a year. So instead of buying a $600 umbrella that unfixably breaks every year, I buy a couple $50 ones. The $50 ones are actually more repairable since they're wood instead of metal.

Yeah I get it, and would probably do the same (I'd rather pay more for lasts, as I gather you would, but if that isn't working then sure cheap and replace).

It was just the discrepancy between the initial reluctance to throw away, (even though it had been replaced, implying to me ecological /'this is still fundamentally sound and repairable' reasoning) and the ultimate conclusion to throw away every year.

No judgement, just confusion.

On a tangent, I dislike more and more the unrepairability and complexity of things. I'd love to be capable of making everything for myself, from basic components (not necessarily scratch). Still not for eco reasons, it may be worse (less efficient) in some cases in that regard, but just to know how everything worked and was put together, and be able to fix it all because I built it in the first place.

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