5 ms·

We need a new mattress, after about half an hour of searching for reviews I realised that there was no way I was going to find any genuinely honest reviews anyw

We need a new mattress, after about half an hour of searching for reviews I realised that there was no way I was going to find any genuinely honest reviews anywhere. Search results are packed with full-time mattress review sites that are all clearly getting affiliate payments of some form or other, many of them seem to have the same content. There might be some honest ones out there, but they are drowned out by all the ones that are clearly just affiliat link farms.

SV_BubbleTime 5y ago
Maybe we should have like… a place you can go feel them in person. Like a building where there would be a few of each model and you can test them BEFORE you buy one? /s. Mattress stores and mattress shopping is the fucking worst. Ultra scammy and there is a clear reason that the industry was turned upside down once someone figured out you can fit a mattress in a box and ship it. The last time I went mattress shopping, I was told by serious and expert sleep professionals [sic] that I should get a mattress with embedded diamond particles because it’ll help keep me cool, and silver thread at the seams that will be more hygienic. For what it’s worth, I took a chance on a mattress and love it. I have never slept somewhere I like better. It’s an Avacado, but buy whatever you can that has a real return policy and try it out.
- noneeeed 5y ago
  Yep! I don't know what it is about mattresses specifically, but every part of the industry from highstreet shops to the online products all make me feel like I'm being ripped off in a way that no other product does. Bed salesmen are worse than car salesmen.
  - ethbr0 5y ago
    There was a 2018 bit on Planet Money about mattress stores (and specifically Mattress Firm): https://www.npr.org/transcripts/676543180 https://www.npr.org/transcripts/676543180 tl;dr - Turns out the markup at a mattress store is about 100%, which helps the economics of store rent vs profit. Also, Mattress Firm went on a debt-leveraged buying spree of their competitors (why there are so many physical stores). Oh, and also Steinhoff (think South African IKEA) bought them in 2016, for what seemed an inflated price. And it turned out Steinhoff was (or was soon to be) under investigation for accounting fraud: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steinhoff_International#Controversies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steinhoff_International#Contro...
    - noneeeed 5y ago
      That explains a lot. I must have missed that episode, thanks for the pointer.
hoppyhoppy2 5y ago
Consumer Reports reviews mattresses, and they're independent and (imo) very trustworthy. A subscription costs money but some local libraries offer access.
- MrFoof 5y ago
  At least with CR, their subscriptions are pretty trivial to cancel, and I think they even pro-rate the refunds. I don't subscribe to them on a regular basis (I don't buy things often), but I have subscribed to them a few times to make a better informed decision on an upcoming purchase.
tedmiston 5y ago
> There might be some honest ones out there, but they are drowned out by all the ones that are clearly just affiliat link farms. I think the most interesting part of your comment: Is how do we [objectively] classify the two? Perhaps the tendency to recommend products not recommended in spammier affiliate link farm guides is one metric that would be interesting to look at. In comparison to WC, CR is not free; but, to play devil's advocate, [why] does a guide being non-free presuppose that their reviews are of higher integrity? [In general, I don't think that it does. We just had a post about this the other day actually.] In CR's case, they've been around for decades and are independent / non-profit, so that's something. But also, I don't think longevity and the legal business entity being a non-profit are necessary preconditions to writing review guides with integrity. If we were trying to find the "CR of startups today", what would we look for?

SV_BubbleTime 5y ago

Maybe we should have like… a place you can go feel them in person. Like a building where there would be a few of each model and you can test them BEFORE you buy one? /s. Mattress stores and mattress shopping is the fucking worst. Ultra scammy and there is a clear reason that the industry was turned upside down once someone figured out you can fit a mattress in a box and ship it. The last time I went mattress shopping, I was told by serious and expert sleep professionals [sic] that I should get a mattress with embedded diamond particles because it’ll help keep me cool, and silver thread at the seams that will be more hygienic. For what it’s worth, I took a chance on a mattress and love it. I have never slept somewhere I like better. It’s an Avacado, but buy whatever you can that has a real return policy and try it out.

noneeeed 5y ago
Yep! I don't know what it is about mattresses specifically, but every part of the industry from highstreet shops to the online products all make me feel like I'm being ripped off in a way that no other product does. Bed salesmen are worse than car salesmen.
- ethbr0 5y ago
  There was a 2018 bit on Planet Money about mattress stores (and specifically Mattress Firm): https://www.npr.org/transcripts/676543180 https://www.npr.org/transcripts/676543180 tl;dr - Turns out the markup at a mattress store is about 100%, which helps the economics of store rent vs profit. Also, Mattress Firm went on a debt-leveraged buying spree of their competitors (why there are so many physical stores). Oh, and also Steinhoff (think South African IKEA) bought them in 2016, for what seemed an inflated price. And it turned out Steinhoff was (or was soon to be) under investigation for accounting fraud: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steinhoff_International#Controversies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steinhoff_International#Contro...
  - noneeeed 5y ago
    That explains a lot. I must have missed that episode, thanks for the pointer.

hoppyhoppy2 5y ago

Consumer Reports reviews mattresses, and they're independent and (imo) very trustworthy. A subscription costs money but some local libraries offer access.

MrFoof 5y ago
At least with CR, their subscriptions are pretty trivial to cancel, and I think they even pro-rate the refunds. I don't subscribe to them on a regular basis (I don't buy things often), but I have subscribed to them a few times to make a better informed decision on an upcoming purchase.

tedmiston 5y ago

> There might be some honest ones out there, but they are drowned out by all the ones that are clearly just affiliat link farms. I think the most interesting part of your comment: Is how do we [objectively] classify the two? Perhaps the tendency to recommend products not recommended in spammier affiliate link farm guides is one metric that would be interesting to look at. In comparison to WC, CR is not free; but, to play devil's advocate, [why] does a guide being non-free presuppose that their reviews are of higher integrity? [In general, I don't think that it does. We just had a post about this the other day actually.] In CR's case, they've been around for decades and are independent / non-profit, so that's something. But also, I don't think longevity and the legal business entity being a non-profit are necessary preconditions to writing review guides with integrity. If we were trying to find the "CR of startups today", what would we look for?