Let’s Make A Deal

I have heard many versions of the following story.

A customer heads out to the nearest furniture discounter or liquidator. They see a $4,000 handmade mattress on sale for $800. It is a massively thick super pillowtop that feels great.

“What a deal!” – they think to themselves and pull out their credit card to purchase the mattress.

A year or two later, the mattress of their dreams becomes their reoccurring nightmare. They are tossing and turning and waking up with back pain every morning. Their beautiful super pillowtop now looks like Crater Lake. Since they bought at the local furniture liquidator/discounter, there is no warranty and no exchange. They are out $800 and can’t sleep. But they got a really good deal!

Improving the Mattress Shopping Experience

1. Get rid of the Discounters – For some reason it seems that everyone who once sold used cars suddenly decided to enter the mattress industry years ago. Nothing is more frustrating to consumers than having to “haggle” over mattress prices. Thankfully the Internet, and more competition is slowly making this antiquated selling process go the way of the dodo. A trained monkey could discount. There are much more important things to helping someone get a good night’s sleep than “taking another $100 off that set, if you buy right now.” Consumers are getting smarter and realizing that if the retailer can suddenly cut the price in half, then just maybe they were already priced too high. And most likely, you will never, ever get a good value in a place that only emphasizes discounting an inflated price.