Mattress Forum

I think a lot of people still have the older style firm mattresses.  They just haven't replaced them. 

I think the industry realized that they could make the mattresses feel more comfortable, by putting more foam on top.  Plus, new brands such as Tempurpedic have made people want a more comfortable feeling mattress.  The selling of mattresses has changed to what feels good laying down for 15 minutes in the store.  Even Consumer Reports advocates that, and I don't think they have discussed the problems with PU foam.

I was in one store and they had 1 firm mattress.  I asked the salesman why just 1, and he said people don't buy what does not feel comfortable in the store.

Using latex is expensive, and it is a very competitive industry (note how many of these companies have gone bankrupt).  So, they opted for cheaper foam instead.   It is hard to say where this will lead.  Over time, more people will catch on to the problem.  Word of mouth and the internet should help spread the word.

I would think there is an opening for someone to market a higher quality non-sagging mattress.  Some of the more expensive S brands do use some latex, but still they seem to use other foams as well.  There are smaller (expensive) brands that do use high quality materials.

Of course it will cost more.  People will have to be willing to pay more.  If you adjust for inflation, a well made mattresses from 20 years would probably cost $1500 or so today.  They did not even use much if any latex then, so if you add that the cost would be even more.  Is the public willing to pay $2000 for a high quality, comfortable mattress?  Some will, but I think many will not.

I would venture to say that if major retailers were truly interested in how people sleep at night and how they wake up feeling in the morning that they would carry a slightly different selection of mattresses.  And if they really understood the science behind it they would also educate their sales people much more thoroughly.  If those two things ever happen then this wouldn't have to be a fringe type of item.  Because at the end of the day most people that buy the higher end stuff from us, are not people that were looking for it ahead of time.  We try our best to educate people while they are in our store so they are aware of the spectrum of options.  There are many more people out there that would want this type of product over a normal mattress if they simply knew more about it. But as has been said the retail mattress industry is a competitive market place, and with generally poor quality mattresses ruling the market place the major retailers are all just racing to the bottom of that type of product. 

I am sure everyone appreciates a good deal, but I also don't always feel comfortable talking to someone constantly keeps talking about pricing and "good value of the product".....if a product is good value it stands on its own merits without having to constantly reinforce it. 

Although you are an honest person budgy, I can see why they don't believe you.  I know you are an honest person from reading your posts here.  However, unfortunately, to many customers visiting your store, they will have no easy way of determining if you are an honest person or just another mattress salesmen who will say anything to try to get them to buy from you instead of the next guy.  After all, that is the consumer experience, right? Every mattress salesman in every store will say why his products are a better value than the next guy's, and most of those claims aren't true.  So then, how can the consumer be expected not to be naturally skeptical of all claims from a mattress salesman, even when they are legitimate?  How can the consumer parse out the legitimate from the illegitimate claims?  It's very hard to do, surely.  

It's a very unfortunate situation.  Even though it makes logical sense why they didn't believe you, those people who didn't believe you are going to regret it in the long run because they will instead be deceived by others' untruthful claims.  That's a shame. 

One way I would suggest,budgy, if you do not already do so, is to perhaps advise your customers to do a web search on sagging issues where they will find mass amounts of consumer complaints on sites like this one or epinions.  Perhaps seeing the many testimonies from other consumers like them who are very dissatisfied with their sagging mattresses will convince them where your oral word cannot.   

 

I was great for the first 3 years, then started going downhill from there.  After 5 years it was uncomfortable.

a 2" soft latex topper did not rescue this mattress.

I'm close to purchasing a latex core for a DIY latex bed thanks to this forum, but I've been verry apprehensive because I do not want to make another costly mistake.

You are absolutely 100% on the mark actually.  I personally don't expect people to believe everything I say as gospel, particularly when they are visiting my store because I have to assume from the start they they may not have done any research.

Goes to show that even for $2000 they will use junk materials.  I think they could make a reasonably high quality innerspring for $2000.  I know I put one together for less than that (about $1400 retail prices including delivery for innerspring+box spring+3" latex+1"memory foam+wool topper).  Although I avoided some of the retail overhead head & cost for the salesman.  I wouldn't mind paying that money plus some markup to someone like Budgy, but almost all of the rest of the industry out there I do not want to support.  

My sister in law and her new husband went out and bought a new mattress, unbeknownst to my wife and I. She did not know of my interest in nor knowledge of mattresses so we didn't hear about it until after the purchase.

Then, she called her sister (my wife) and said how upset they were because they had just paid around $2k for a new mattress and as soon as they slept on it, it hurt their backs. Neither really had any "sleep issues" (Bad back, etc.), they just felt it was time for a new mattress so bought one. Apparently they bought it from a place that doesn't do sleep trials, so they felt they were stuck with it. I told them to do mattress surgery but - like many people - they thought it was a nutty idea. (I get this all the time!)

I think there are many, many people complaining about their crappy SCo mattresses, on the net and in their personal conversations.

On the other hand, there are a lot - maybe the majority - of people who can "sleep on anything" and they'll love their crappy pee-yew foam mattress. At least for a year or two. Problem there, is that they won't realize that ALL the PU SCo mattresses are made more or less the same, that is that they'll break down in a couple years or less. So they'll just say, "Man, I'll never buy another Spring Air!" Then they'll go out and buy a Sealy or a SImmons, not realizing they're all made from junky foam. So for many buyers, it will take years before they put it all together.

We here at whatsthebest-mattress.com are "fringe" only in the sense that we are on the cutting edge of knowledge about SCo mattresses and what's inside them and why they hurt our backs after a short time.