Susan of Dayton, writes:
Two years ago, we bought a Select Comfort and have never really liked it. We both wake up with lower back pain, no matter what number we select. My upper arms tingle when I sleep on my side. Also, the mattress is really hot and we both wake up sweaty almost every night. We've decided to relegate this way-too-expensive bed to the guest room and try again for ourselves. I've heard memory foam is a very hot surface. We liked the Stearns & Foster pillowtop in the store, but it doesn't get good ratings in Consumer Reports. I crave a decent night's sleep, but I'm terrified of overspending again, and getting no improvement.
Hi Susan,
MBMS, (Mattress Buying Madness Syndrome), has its beginnings about 25 years ago...but hadn't reached a danger level until about 10 years ago. I'm sorry to say that is continues to spiral out of control with no down turn in sight.
The problem is two-fold. It started with a study that said a too firm mattress was responsible for continual change in position while sleeping, which fragments your depth of sleep....and that some cushioning and better contouring would provide a deeper, more restful and more recuperative night's sleep.
At first, and for a short while thereafter, mattress factories endeavored to provide such a product. They still do. But somewhere along the line, partly due to the competition between manufacturers, the notion of "more"...more softness, more padding...taking an item that had always been a utilitarian product, and changing it into something else, giving it a use for which it had never been intended or required...a luxury item. As it was discovered, real money could be made from selling it that way. Why do you think there is a mattress store on every corner? When did that happen?
25 years ago, there were very few specialty mattress stores. If you needed a mattress, you went to a furniture store. If you were in the market for a bedroom set as well, they'd throw the mattress set in to sweeten the deal.
Quite frankly, I don't know who started this. I can only imagine that he was the reincarnation of P.T. Barnum, who said, "There's a sucker born every minute".
And meaning no disrespect to you, Susan, many of you have been just that. You bought a Select Comfort because of the media blitz. You were suckered into it. Tons of money is spent to advertise certain mattresses, like Select Comfort and Tempurpedic. They don't care if you're happy with it...and from what I read, many aren't. They don't care about word of mouth advertising. Their constant TV and Radio ads drive the business. They pay a lot of money for those ads. They pay high commissions to the people who write the order. They make up that cost by over charging you. Everyone makes out...except you. You got screwed because you let yourself be suckered.
Do you remember "word of mouth" advertising? Many of the smaller independent retailers still rely on it. It's that old fashioned belief that if you see to the needs of your customers, first and foremost, they would refer their friends and family...knowing that they'd be given good information from which to make an informed decision and that they would get their product at a fair price, just as you had.
I'm sorry to offend, but frankly, it offends because only the truth really hurts, but there are way to many suckers out there and you are all being fed upon. You are prey to the predator. Their greed and your ignorance are what makes it all work for them. Why do you think that the same mattress is called by a different name in almost every store you go into? Large mattress chains have gotten so powerful, that they now dictate to the manufacturers. There is one, the largest one, who has recently coerced a manufacturer into limiting commerce by smaller retailers. This violation of anti-trust laws was perpetrated in order to keep prices artificially inflated. The coercion came in the threat of expelling that manufacture's merchandise from all their stores. A multi-million dollar account
does not go unheeded. That mega chain store, along with other of its type, also spend a ton of money in advertising...endeavoring to convince you, the consumer, that they are the best...having the best prices...the best deals. In fact, what they are passing off as discounted pricing is actually higher than the MSRP.
Playing you as suckers, they bring you in with their media blitz and high pressure you to buying. Like the afore mentioned manufacturers, those ads drive the business and all they care about is the profit.
The profit is in higher end bedding. That's where the big bucks are. They appeal to your sense of luxury and the salespeople have no trouble in convincing you to spend thousands of dollars on what will turn out to be an expensive piece of junk. It's like shooting fish in a barrel.
This little rant was inspired by your question, Susan, but is directed to buying public as a whole. "Pillowtops" are one of the major causes of complaint and I see that you are considering one. The rant was more about your willingness to "be sold". The pillowtops look nice and feel great, but they don't keep their original shape for very long. They are easy to sell and it's easy for you to be sold on one.
The rant was designed to point out that this entire trend in mattress selling is only as strong as it because you continue to buy into it. The only way for the trend to revert back from this outright fraud that it has become, to the legitimate business it used to be, is for all of you to wise up and stop allowing yourselves to be led by these deceptive ads. Use your heads, employ some common sense. Pull your heads out of the sand, (edited), long enough to know when you're being hustled.
Yes Susan, be afraid, be very afraid. It's not just a question of you making the right or wrong choice anymore. There's a conspiracy involved. They are out to get you. It's up to you to see to it that you aren't being had. "Caveat Emptor"..."Let the buyer beware" isn't any more appropriate than for the mattress industry...except maybe for all that crap we keep buying from China. But that's another rant.
Keep your choices simple. Your inner body requires firm support and your outer body needs enough padding to be comfortable. A basic mattress does that better than most. When you try mattresses, do so in your sleeping positions and ask the salesman to be quiet long enough for you to listen to what your body is telling you. Indulge your sense of luxury, and you will almost always regret it....and stay away from pillowtops. And stay away from the large chain stores...it only feeds the beast. Your local independents will likely have the better price and better service anyway.
www.themattressexpert.com for selection and pricing.
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