Mattress Forum

Planned obsolescence is a very plausible theory. I mean once you got that thing in your house for a few months, with all the health laws and all, most people would understand not wanting to let folks return them and be resold. And then again, with those warranties that look good on paper but you can almost never enforce, well, I guess that gives some folks that little extra comfort level too, when they're about to shell out a couple of grand or more on a mattress. Most people probably never try to research and find out the facts, like the folks on this forum do.

Why is the industry riddled with such schemes? Probably because they can get away with it. No one can enforce getting their money back after the damage is done. More sales, more money, for the companies that make and sell them. Just plain old greed. Wrap up who knows what in a nice cover, give it some fancy names that sound really good and convincing, don't give the buyers the facts, give them a nice guarantee that puts their anxiety about spending so much money at rest, and then wait for them to come back in a year or so and buy another one. Just peachy. And if these 3 control the market, and they're all doing it, well, what real choice do most people have? Sure, there are options out there, but these are household names that have a lot of trust after all these years. And they used to make good beds that last, so I guess they're riding on their reputations.

I told the salesguy at the Natural Mattress Store I bought a S&F about 3 weeks ago.  He said they used to be better, but about 10 years ago the big companies really amped up their marketing and cheapened the inner materials a great deal.

I think about a water heater company,  Hoyt, that used to make great water heaters that lasted a very long time.  They have been out of business for a while.  So, I guess the game is to make the mattresses good enough so people won't think they're horrible, but build in something where they will be just good enough for 8 years.

It's a rather brilliant marketing scheme, it appears, because pillowtops feel so soft and confortable at first, when you lie down on them on the showroom floor, compared to the old style, when we all knew you had to buy them firmer than you liked, but they'd soften in time. Without realizing these mattresses won't last like the old ones did, since mattresses used to be something you'd buy once in a decade, at most, people pay the thousand$ thinking that's par for the course these days, thinking that is necessary.

Then too, the practice of renaming mattresses at different stores, renaming mattresses every time you turn around, the special hyped up names like "smart foam" and "Trump" mattresses and no authentic or meaningful discussion of the materials that are actually used, and the meaningless and confusing labels like Socal, I think it was, pointed out the other day -- well, I'd say all of these factors taken together do, in fact, point to a deliberate scheme obviously designed to make it as confusing as possible and nearly impossible for your average buyers to know exactly what they are paying for.

Not only is it a considerable loss out of pocket, which cannot be justified in today's economy, there are also the very considerable hassle factors involved, getting those hefty and sizeable mattresses moved. in and out - no easy task. And disposal problems  are considerable, too. I've read discarded mattresses are filling up landfills now. No wonder so many landfills are running out of space! And of, course, we pay for that with our tax dollars and loss of available land. And then, too, PU foam being a petroleum based product -and we all know how hard petrol is to come by these days, and what we get involved with to get it. Well, all in all, it's an unconscionable terrible waste of limited resources. every which way you cut it.

It should be against the law, and some day, it probably will be. Then those companies will fold, too, or have to change to change their game. The sooner the better - not a day too soon. Maybe this forum will help to change things. It sure has helped me to learn about what is really going on.

1) mfr. must pay $50k to each store to put their mattress on the floor, like 6 spaces.  Each additional bed space is another bunch of thousands

2) mfr has to pay some kind of 'spiff' (sp?) fee for each mattress sold

3) mfr has to pay fees to the seller

4) mfr. has to reimburse advertising costs to seller

These things drive the cost of big name mattresses through the roof.  Plus, they have to have different mattress fabric covers and names for each retailer, then they have to deliver a mattress within short time to the retailer which increases storage space.  All these things combine to drive up big name costs and consequently you get cheaper materials inside for your money.

If things fall through with Sears, I'll be going to this direct to public mfr. for my bed set.