Let me first say that I own Brothers Bedding, a small manufacturer of mattresses and box springs here in Knoxville, TN. For the most part of my adult life, I have made and sold bedding for a living. There’s not a week that goes by that one of our customers or someone I know or meet in a restaurant or someone in my family will ask me the question…..”what’s the best mattress for me?” To be perfectly frank, I usually prefer not to discuss it outside of my work, but I do want to help them. My answer to them is usually “come on by one of our stores and I will help you pick one out that suits you.” The truth of the matter is, I can’t help that person pick out their comfort level unless they are willing to spend 15-30 minutes lying down on a mattress that feels good to them after a reasonable amount of time (usually 15-30 minutes) because the whole mattress shopping experience has become so confusing due to the fact that every mattress store has become an “expert”. Now this is not to say that I don’t care what they pick out because I really do. My point is that I know that if they go out in the market place and try to shop for a mattress like the ones they see in my store, it will be nearly impossible for them to compare the quality and the craftsmanship that goes into making OUR mattresses because we make our mattresses exclusive just for our customers. So getting back to the truth…..
The truth of the matter is, what I’m about to tell you will not be favorably received by the rest of the bedding industry. It would be easy to assume that I have a bone to pick or have sour grapes with the rest of the mattress and bedding industry, but I don’t. I’m also willing to say that if there is anyone out there who reads this article and finds what I am saying to be untrue, then I will humbly apologize in a form similar to this. The problem that I see with the mattress industry is that there are so many sales people out there who are selling mattresses but they do not know anything about how a mattress is put together, what specifically goes into it, gauges of wire, foam compression (ILD), and so on as far as the nomenclature of our product.
Let me first say that I believe most people who are in the mattress industry making a good living are probably decent people. All I am trying to accomplish with this blog is to make you, the consumer, become educated about this mattress product and believe nothing you hear and only half of what you see and that includes everybody. One of my pet peeves is the so-called mattress experts who open up the stores which are basically financed by the Simmons, Sealy, Serta, and the like of the world (those who rule the majority of the mattress industry). I will not name names, in order to keep from being persecuted or sued, but I know for a fact that there is no such thing as a $4,000 nor $8,000 mattress that can justify the cost. Unfortunately, we in the bedding industry, take advantage of the uninformed consumer and operate off of their emotions while they are in our stores. I’m not saying that we need to hold everybody’s hand, I’m just saying that we need to level the playing field by being totally honest to the consumer about what’s really in a mattress and what benefit they can receive from buying that mattress plus what justifies the cost of that mattress. Most innerspring mattresses, once they get past $800-$900, for the most part, are just “fluff”. The warranties are bogus, for the most part. The two-sided vs. one-sided no-flip mattress: they will lead you to believe that the one-sided mattress does not need to be flipped. I beg your pardon, but YES IT DOES! What they’re telling you is, we don’t have a two-sided mattress to offer you and if we did, we would charge you double. The one-sided no-flip phenomenon happened years ago by some smart accountant that said “hey, we can make more money if we tell everyone that they don’t have to flip their mattresses anymore because no one likes to flip their mattresses but we can still charge the same amount as we do for the two-sided and we can put a pretty cover on it and sell the sheen”. The other thing that I can’t believe that has gotten so far out of hand is the thickness of the mattresses. Just because a mattress is 24″ thick instead of 13″ thick does not make one sleep better. In fact, we have seen so many “brand name” mattresses that were supposed to be the “where all, end all” have huge body impressions after only 6 months to 1 year’s use and they can’t flip it over so it can “recover”. I hope that you don’t think that I’m picking on any one particular brand, because I’m not. The reason I mentioned Serta, Sealy, Simmons, etc, is because they rule the industry with about 60% or more market share (give or take among the 3). As the guy said years ago in a movie, “I’m mad as Hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!” I am willing to discuss this with anyone at length by phone, email, comments, etc.
This is a partial glimpse of the mattress industry as I see it. Hopefully, this will start a positive dialog with the consumer and the retailer as equals. Make that mattress sales person, whomever they are with whatever company they work for, explain to you why one brand is better than the other, why a mattress has to be 24″ thick, why they can’t make a mattress that’s two-sided and why can’t they give you a comfort guarantee that actually means something, such as bringing it in and adjusting the comfort level to suit you. After all, comfort is what we’re looking for in a mattress, so if they can’t satisfy my craving for comfort, then what does all of this other crap mean?
For questions or comments, visit me at www.Brothersbedding.com or call me at (865) 689-2373.
I like what you are saying as it relates to the size of a mattress. I agree that there is no need to make mattresses as thick as they are today. Incredible comfort can be achieved with the right innerspring or core whatever that might be. If you travel to Europe you see a much thinner profile on a mattress and they feel fantastic. Large profiles can cause body impressions due to the compaction of foams and fibers which drives cost IN to the business and ultimately ends up disappointing the consumer when they have to return the product. It waste raw materials which is NOT green, and as our population gets older they are not going to want to have to CLIMB into their bed. It can be dangerous for older people. (I know this after a considerable amount of in home research with aging baby boomers.) Think about it…we compensate for these thick beds by making stairs for people to climb into bed, low profile box springs and bed frames. Why don’t we just make the mattresses a reasonable height. And don’t tell me that they won’t sell at a thinner profile because there are products out there doing it today.
Thank you Mark. I will try this year to promote thinner mattresses. Your input was very intresting. Marty