What’s wrong with the Mattress Industry? (everything)
Welcome to the Mattress & Furniture Revolution!
A GrassRoots effort is being spearheaded by the Furniture Chamber of Commerce to bring together Entrepreneurs and educate and empower Local Consumers to put a stop to the greed & corruption taking place in the Mattress Industry.
Becoming an expert on what is happening behind the scenes will empower you with all the ammunition you need, to educate your community on why a mattress should NEVER be purchased from a retail store. Knowledge is POWER and this POWER will enable you to increase your closing ratios and build long term relationships with every consumer in your community.
WallStreet Retailers and Name Brand Manufacturers are in bed with Media Moguls and Government Lobbyists, to confuse, frustrate and con consumers with the intent of extracting the maximum dollars from their hard earned wages. Their fiduciary responsibility, by definition is to the shareholders and NOT consumers, who they “claim” they want to help. get the best deal.
1). Price Guarantees: Just about every WallStreet Mattress Firm, BigBox Furniture Store and even smaller wannabe stores ALL Guarantee the Lowest Price and use various tricks, to make it sound like this is something real & valid. We have seen everything from double your money back, to your Mattress is FREE...if you can find for it less and many other scenarios. The problem is that it is IMPOSSIBLE to even find the same mattress at any other local store, due to the phenomenon of requiring manufacturers to sneakily change the names and disguise spec sheets, to eliminate price comparisons and protecting the profits of this unholy alliance, as described in the original premise.
2). Unethical Advertising: There are 2 main components of the WallStreet Firms practice unethical advertising. They stay in a very gray area, but are protected by special interests, lobbyists, who also coordinate with the MainStreamMedia Conglomerates, who want the BIG advertising dollars and turn their heads and take the money.
The most common display of unethical advertising, is to focus on the cheapest priced mattresses, say something that they could offer for $200 or $300, and make it seem that it is of very high quality, just to get you in the door. Salesmen are then taught a multitude of tricks and coercion, to subtly move the consumer to the $1000, $2000 or even $3000 price point. This tactic is known as bait & switch and governmental agencies turn their heads, since consumers have not complained enough (until now).
The second common way of unethical advertising is the utilization of the concept of “ON SALE”. Consumers are programmed into believing that buying something on SALE is better than buying it, when it is not on sale. Certainly, on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, you can find “real” sales, however, the Retail Mattress Business is notorious for having SALES, every single day….yes, they run sales 365 days per year and use this unethical practice to exploit consumers to purchase now or leave a deposit, since the “sale will be over tomorrow”. This leads into the next area of Unethical Practices.
3). High Pressure, Deception, Insincere Community Outreach & Lying: The unethical advertising practices feed into the training and brainwashing of mattress salesmen, who are probably good people at heart, but need a high paying job to support their families and are forced to compromise their values for the almighty buck and to avoid being fired. Mattress salesmen, have a fear of being fired daily, incumbent on their closing ratios and profit ratios. If they let customers walk out, without buying or leaving a deposit or they do not sell the correct percentage of $2000+ mattresses, they will be shown the door and replaced by the next guy (please note, I use the term salesman over salesperson, since over 90% of the top mattress salespeople are men, although we have met some women, that are just as devious and evil, in how they take advantage of customers).
In terms of the Mattress Revolution, the salesmen are taught psychological warfare and we have received their training manuals, from disgruntled employees that came on board with us. Upon analyzation of the materials, in the simplest terms, the most important part of the equation is to use insincerity to become a good friend of the consumer (even though they are taught the consumer is actually their adversary). We know it is insincere, since the salesman knows unequivocally that they cannot give the consumer the lowest price, that their price guarantee is bogus and they will resort to coercion, guilt, or outright lying, if they feel the sale is slipping away, and this is not how you treat a real friend. Since the training manual is in writing, the high priced lawyers worded things in a way to avoid liability, but the pressure and verbal training conducted by managers leave no room for misinterpretation and the salesman will be fired, if they are not able to extract cash, credit card or long term financing from a high percentage of every customer that walks through the door. I believe the pressure on the salesmen to perform is almost equal to the pressure they put on customers to buy now.
Employees, in many Firms, are also REQUIRED to volunteer time or something to a local cause to help boost their credibility in the community, but it is often done with resentment and half-hearted efforts, since the threat of dismissal is always over their heads, and the PR department over-exaggerates any good that is done to try to create false goodwill in the community.
Outright lying takes place, when the desperate salesman sees that the sales is just about lost and will promise things that they cannot honor and hope to wiggle out of at a later time. Also, to protect their profit margins, in the case of a consumer insisting on purchasing the promo mattress, since it would be in an extra room and rarely used, the salesman will claim that they are sold-out, as it is actually better to lose the sale completely than sell a promo mattress and hurt their profit numbers (and they actually can be fined, if they cannot bait & switch the consumer).
4). Misleading Sleep Guarantees: Medical Experts agree that the Bed Bug Epidemic in urban areas is fueled by illegal Black Market Sales of used mattresses. Companies like MattressFirm and hundreds of others have been caught in sting operations, selling used mattresses, as new and also re-wholesaling thousands of beds every week to disreputable liquidators, who flood the market with used mattresses. These mattresses were found to have human DNA, larvae, eggs and nasty bed bugs, that spread illness. The only reason why these Firms are selling the used mattresses, is due to their “Sleep Guarantee and Exchange Privileges” they incorporate, once again to trick consumers in paying too much for their mattresses.
Besides the health ramifications, let’s examine the financial and lifestyle ramifications of doing business with any company that offers a one time exchange privilege.
The first factor is the cost. WallStreet Firms are not stupid and they spend hundreds of thousands of dollars with mathematicians (called actuaries) who crunch the numbers and figure out exactly the percentage of people that will elect to a one-time exchange and how much money they will lose in the transaction and then they add this amount (and more) to the cost paid by the consumer.
There are a number of fallacies associated with this exchange privilege. The most obvious it that it takes 4-6 months for a mattress to be “broken in”, yet the exchange period is generally 1-3 months, which means getting an exchange may be something you dislike even more, you paid more money and now you are in the same boat of frustration.
If you never tried to redeem an exchange, you would not be aware that this process can be and often is a nightmare. Fighting with managers who try to coerce you into keeping the mattress longer, total inconvenience in coordinating the logistics of the exchange and paying inflated prices for the new upgraded mattress, and even having to pay additional fees and costs that are buried in the fine print.
NOW HERE is the WORST PART
Over 50% of the people that received an exchange, were also dissatisfied with the replacement mattress and a high percentage regret even exchanging and you cannot exchange again.
As previously discussed, mattress salesmen are known to lie and embellish during the selling process. In our aging society, millions of North Americans are experiencing pain, sleeplessness, anxiety and many other ailments. Certainly. A good mattress will help to not exacerbate any medical condition, but it is NOT going to heal anybody, so many consumers take the exchange, since their back, neck or legs are still hurting, so what happens is that another used bed is dumped into the Black Market, more money is paid, more frustration and inconvenience is incurred in the exchange process and the replacement mattress will NOT be any better in healing them or making them more comfortable.
I fully disclose these facts to my clients and use the analogy of a new pair of shoes. It takes a certain amount of time for them to break-in and over the months and years, they get more comfortable. The same is true for mattresses. I suggest they find something that they really like on my Showroom Floor, but in 4-6 months, they will absolutely love it and do not get sucked into the try-before-you-buy mattress, as it is a fallacy.
When you add up the costs of the raw materials that go into a mattress (cotton, foam, ticking, springs, stitching, glue, etc) and you add the cost of unskilled labor and factory employees, a high quality mattress may cost $100-$150 to produce. Memory foam costs even less, yet by the time it gets to the consumer, they end up paying anywhere from $1500-$4000 for a high end product.
Below is a broad overview of how manufacturers, retailers, media moguls and special interest groups formed an unholy alliance to usurp the hard earned money of consumers to feed the greed of the WallStreet Mattress Firms and Big Box Stores.
1). National Brand Awareness: Each name brand company spends tens of millions of dollars on name brand recognition, with many spending over $100,000,000 per year and gets added to the cost paid by consumers.
2). Retail Overhead: WallStreet is locking up the most expensive retail locations to capture walk-in business. In many larger markets the WallStreetFirms will open up stores within walking distance of each other, in an attempt to monopolize the market and drive competition out-of-business. Since the manufacturers are deliberately producing products that will deteriorate quicker and quicker, at any given time, 10-20% of the entire population is in the market for a new mattress and people are impulsive. So even though, each store may be paying $20,000 or more per month in rent, these costs are added to the price the consumer pays and it only takes less than one mattress sale per day to cover the rent and everything else is gravy for them. Stores that do not sell at least 30-50 mattresses per month are eventually closed up and the personal fired or moved to another location. As an example, just in the Chicago market, MattressFirm alone has over 200 stores.
3). Tradition Local Advertising: We have already discussed the unethical advertising practices of WallStreet Mattress Firms, but let’s now examine the amount of money spent on local advertising (this is on top of the hundreds of millions spent each year National Brand awareness advertising by the manufacturers). Typically, the formula is to spend 10-15% of monthly sales on local advertising and this cost is passed on to a consumer. So a store doing $200,000 per month in sales (about 5 mattresses per day), they must recoup $20,000-$30,000 back from consumers to cover this expense.
4). Specialty Advertising: Capitalizing on the Baby Boomer phenomenon, additional advertising is targeting seniors with health issues, and giving them false hope that a mattress or electric adjustable bed will heal their ailments. Certainly, a great mattress or an adjustable bed, can bring great relief and comfort, but targeting these folks and gauging them for higher prices, we find repulsive and despicable.
5). Fallacy of Internet Pricing: We know that Amazon and other Internet sellers of mattresses are having a hard time cracking the 10% mark, as 90% of people would rather pay more and try a mattress locally first. Let’s say, however, that Amazon had a level playing field like they have with Electronics, Dog Food, Books and most other items that you can shop locally and then save money buying online. Amazon does not actually sell mattresses. They rent their platform for top dollar...15%, the maximum a retail store pays for advertising and entrepreneurs that try to sell mattresses on Amazon have to add in very expensive logistics costs, since shipping a mattress LTL could cost more than the actual cost of the mattress. Some e-tailers carved out a niche of selling blocks of foam online at reasonable costs, since they compress them in a little box and can ship cheap. HOWEVER, they are selling cheap, inferior goods to unwary consumers who want an alternative to walking into a retail den of thieves.
6). Employee Costs: One of the biggest expenses borne by WallStreet Mattress Firms is the cost of Employees and we are not just talking about salaries and commissions. Besides the floor sales staff, there are many different levels of managers, warehouse personnel, delivery drivers, human resource, credit managers, administration, customer service and on and on. Regulations are ever changing on benefits, insurance, sick pay, etc. Many employees have a conscience, and when they begin to have trouble sleeping themselves, due to the unethical practices they are perpetrating, they always have their eyes open for a more ethical occupation, and the regular firing of salesmen that are not able to extract the required sales minimum, create a revolving door of turnover and an incredible cost of doing business. Millions of dollars are spent annually, just on training new employees at some WallStreet Firms.
Of course, just like everything else discussed, all of these costs are passed on to the consumer and then bumped up as much as possible on top of that to satisfy the unfathomless greed of their officers and shareholders. Another issue with employees is that they STEAL. Their best salesman are thieves by definition and often get away with selling mattresses for cash out the back door and other creative strategies of illegal behavior. Warehouse personnel also steal, and all these losses are passed on to the consumer.
Before we empower you with all the solutions PerfectDreamer Mattress has for consumers, let’s begin with an important discussion on the topic of:
Companies like Serta, Sealy, Spring Air and Simmons have each been around over 100 years and have maintained an illusion of Identity that is really smoke & mirrors.
So a consumer might ask, “who makes a better mattress, Simmons or Serta”? The fact is that both companies are owned by the same WallStreet Venture Capital Firm, and are made in the same factories, by the same employees and utilize the same materials. These companies do not even manufacture the spring systems or produce the raw materials...they all buy components from the same WallStreet Firm, Legget & Platt, which is currently trading at over $45 per share on the New York Stock Exchange and product designers make slight variations of different components to develop cheap mattresses, mid-level mattress, good mattresses and top-of-line mattresses. In reality, the Brand Name is completely irrelevant and has absolutely no bearing on being good or no good.
With that being said, as iDealFurniture expanded their distribution and manufacturers started seeing that the Retail Model is on the decline in so many industries, despite the threats and protestations of the WallStreet Mattress Firms, one innovative company, Spring Air, the 5th largest Mattress manufacturer in America, decided to support the Local Entrepreneur and the PerfectDreamer iDealist line became a reality.
The PerfectDreamer iDealist line is EXACTLY the same as the Spring Air line. Same exact materials, same employees, same factory and even delivered on the same trucks as Spring Air. The only difference is the label, the cost and the enhanced warranty. At PerfectDreamer we do not spend a single penny on National Name Brand Advertising and we only sell through Authorized Independent Owner Operators and Dealers, and tremendous savings are realized by the consumer, based on all the other topics we previously discussed. We also have added our exclusive Lifetime Warranty, which includes a substantial period of absolutely NO CHARGE for service.
PERFECTDREAMER MATTRESS ADVANTAGES
1). No Local or National Traditional Advertising
2). No Name Brand Misleading Labels
3). No Inflated prices for Exchanges~No Used Mattresses
4). No Bait & Switch~No Unethical Advertising or Sales
5). No Employees~Saves Clients hundreds of Dollars
6). No High Retail Overhead
7). Deal with Owner~Support Local Community
If all things were equal and a PerfectDreamer Mattress was the same exact cost, as what they sell at the WallStreet Mattress Firm, we believe that most people would still rather support their Local Economy, than a WallStreet or Foreign Firm (in fact MattressFirm was recently sold for billions of dollars to a foreign company). BUT, our prices are substantially less (see comparison chart below).
The Mattress Industry is over $100 Billion just in North America and the way they are making them to wear out faster, that number is going up annually. We are at a Turning Point and getting close to a Tipping Point, of eliminating the cancerous, greedy Mattress Firms from our society...we are seeing so much change in this NewEconomy and based on the tremendous efforts of the Furniture Chamber of Commerce, Local Entrepreneurs and the masses of consumers who are sick and tired of being lied to and taken advantage of, the time is nye for their demise.
All we need to do is be be bold, get the word out, build our Teams and educate consumers and furnitureBROKERs to get involved in this Crusade and take back the profits that WallStreet Mattress Firms are stealing from the Public.
Please review the PerfectDreamer Mattress Comparison Chart, as the better quality iDealists are where you want to focus your sales efforts. Selling promo mattresses is not suggested. The profits are low and you are actually doing a disservice to your client, if you do not educate them properly. NEVER PAY RETAIL AGAIN & JOIN the REVOLUTION
