The Mattress Industry is One Big Rip-Off | Adam Ruins Everything

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[Intoxicatious]

Can't get ripped off by mattress companies if you never sleep.

[christopheraaron]

I'm a former mattress store manager and salesman of 20 years. I can explain some of these things.
The reason you'll never see the same mattress in 2 different stores or the same mattress has different names is because of Sears. Sears wanted Sealy to make an exclusive line of mattresses just for them. Once other retailers saw that Sears had an exclusive line, they all wanted to have their own exclusive lines. Now retailers can completely customize their lineups and exclusive products are the norm. Most of the time, you don't actually see the exact same mattresses with different names, you have what they call "comparable" mattresses because there will be some differences (like how many layers of foam they have and in what order or a different cover.)

Markup is generally pretty high in the mattress business. Originally, it was because most mattress salesmen work on commission (I did) and they needed to have some room for customers to haggle. Today, it's mostly just because corporations are greedy.

One very typical scam is to put a mattress "on sale" by lying about the original price and then offering the actual price as a sale price. For example, one company I worked for would double the original price and then make it "buy one get one free."

Don't ever pay the retail price in a mattress store. With the exception of Tempurpedic (which sets the prices at which retailers must sell their products), they have a tiered price structure. At Mattress Warehouse (in the mid-Atlantic region), they have "highline", "midline" and "lowline" prices (and our commission percentage would drop with each one, like 10% for highline, 7% for midline and 5% for lowline), and they also had what they called the "burn" price for last resort to keep customers from walking. We had to pretend to call the regional manager to get permission to sell at the burn price (and it only paid a 2% commission.)

I'm kinda surprised that this video didn't cover the biggest scam in the mattress industry; the warranties. For the major brands the standard warranty is generally a 10 year non-prorated warranty. Some companies do offer longer warranties, but if you look at the fine print, it's usually non-prorated for 10 years and then heavily prorated for the duration of the warranty period. But here's the kicker; you have to also buy a water proof mattress protector because even the smallest of stains will completely void the warranty. In addition to selling mattresses, I also worked as a warranty inspector for a company called Mattress Marshalls. When you make a warranty claim, the manufacturer would send someone like me out to your home to inspect the defects. I would literally measure how deep a sag or body impression was, take photos and video and send them to the manufacturer. If I saw any stains at all, even the size of a dime, I had to report it and take pictures of it, and the claim would be denied. If I were to approve a claim and the defective mattress sent back had any stains on it, I didn't get paid for that inspection.

In conclusion, I can confirm most of this video.

[Hortifox_the_gardener]

In Germany a store owner came up with the idea of making his own after being fed up with all the bullshit of the suppliers. Called it anti cartel mattress. Instantly won in neutral tests, had the same quality as multi thousand euro premium ones for a couple hundred bucks. He was bombarded with lawsuits and even direct sabotage with foam suppliers suddenly sending dirty foam to his small new factory or dropping out of delivering directly. He still sells them. Under a different name - caused by a lawsuit filed by the very mattress cartel he fought against.

[betafurret]

I love how they just randomly throw shade at true crime podcasts. More people need to call that stuff out.

[MariaNunez-iojm]

I guess I’ll just sleep on the floor


“Actually the floor is a big scam too!”

[spongebobsquarepants]

I only buy mattresses from IKEA cause the other mattress stores doesn’t have swedish meatballs

[mediocreandworse]

What's a mattress? I just sleep on my mother's couch like a regular adult

[captainnobody]

I was just waiting for him to say “This video is sponsored by Purple”

[Metaramon]

So in the end, it doesn't really mattress.

[Jess-xzvh]

Hi, former Mattress Firm employee here. They don’t really tell us anything about this, but I figured this out on my own to be true after a few months with the company.

[adriellcabrera]

So this basically similar to luxottica and their monopoly on glasses

[helenjohnson]

This is THE video to watch after searching the internet, watching endless YouTube mattress videos & losing sleep over finding the perfect mattress.

[aarongarcia]

I beat the system, I sleep on the floor. The illusion of necessity is a scam.

[MichaelJonesC--]

Who needs a mattress? I just sleep on a pile of my broken dreams.

[chrisgraham]

I recently had to buy a new queen size mattress. I had decided on my needs and the type of mattress and had compared several manufacturers. The best retail price from a popular local furniture store was $1, 699.00 but I knew that retailer often had sales, so I waited for such an opportunity. My son-in-law was working for the warehouse of the same retailer, but I didn't want to impose on him for a "special price", so I didn't approach him. About 6 weeks later the mattress I was interested in went on sale for $1, 299.00 so I was ready to make my move. My son-in-law heard about my intention and insisted that I allow him to see if he could do any better on the price. His manager advised him that they could not sell him the mattress for COST, but would try to give him a fair discount. The mattress was purchased at a price above the retailer's cost for a total of $182.00

[it_was_my_cat]

Jokes on you, I sleep in on the floor in my uncle's basement.

[csmiccre]

3:20 "Welcome back to part 64 of our investigation into a crime that's none of our business"

[FolkoMagipaw]

Up next: Adam Ruins The Sheets
After that: Adam Hits The Streets

[xaviotesharris]

I worked in a furniture delivery company. The mark-up on mattresses is so high, that if an order for a mattress was canceled before we had shipped it, it went into the garbage, because it wasn't worth it to the company to pay to ship them back.

[rts]

Got my bed at mexico brands new for literally $60 lol might be stuffed with coke but the bed feels great