The Leader in Comfort and Responsibility Over forty years of experience in handcrafting comfort... Old fashioned principles and service, with state of the art sleep technology. Welcome to Sleep Inc. Learn more about our story... Sleep Inc. is committed to quality and believes in the talents and abilities of the American workforce. I was not specific & choosy about mattresses till the time I came across Spring Air. Now I make sure I buy the same everytime., After whole day of rush, All you need is a good night sleep and nothing can be as good as a soft bed from Spring Air Mattress One Of the Best medicine to any pain is a good sound sleep and for that I trust Spring Air Word not found in the Dictionary and Encyclopedia. Please try the words separately: Some articles that match your query: ▲Air Wisconsin Airlines Corporation air your dirty laundry in public Air, Land and Sea air, law of the Air, Noise, & Radiation Health Research Division
Air, Noise, and Radiation Programs Air, Pesticides and Toxics Management Division Air, Rail, Water, and Pipeline Air, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and Toxics Division Air, Space and Cyberspace Constructive Environment Air, Toxics & Radiation Monitoring Division Air, Trees, Water, Animals Air, Water, and Aquatic Environments Science Program Air-Actuated Hydraulic Swaging UnitYOU ARE HERE: LAT HomeCollectionsMarketing There's something very odd about the mattress business, and it's not just the fact that mattresses are always on sale. (Has anyone ever bought a mattress at regular price?) It's also the number of seemingly different models. In the Sealy Posturepedic line alone, one can have a Posturepedic Constitution, Grandeur Autograph, Palatial, Anniversary, Maxima, Crown Jewel or Hampshire.Can there really be that many choices? No, just different names for the same thing, thanks to an industry tradition of giving some retail stores exclusive names for the mattress models they carry.
What one store calls the Constitution is the Anniversary at another store. One store's Palatial is another's Crown Jewel. The Grandeur Autograph is the Maxima.The effect on the consumer is obvious. Who knows whether a Spring Air Back Supporter Societe on sale for $152 at Bullock's in Los Angeles is a good deal when one can't find it elsewhere? And it takes some sleuthing to find out that it's the same as the Heritage 2000 about to go on sale at the nearby Robinson's for the same $152, and for $128 at a one-day sale at May Co. "That's the point," says a May Co. salesman. "It makes comparison shopping impossible." And that in turn, says Maryland's assistant attorney general, Jim Abbott, has "a serious adverse impact on the marketplace because it makes it difficult for price competition to take place."Indeed, the name gambit got started as a way to defeat price competition. Some say it started when manufacturers could no longer set retail prices, and mattresses began to be discounted. Some say it goes back to specific trade wars a decade ago among the various local factories licensed to make Sealy mattresses, when several different licensees would be competing in the same market.
Some sold to discounters, and retailers, "in order not to be embarrassed, asked for exclusive covers and exclusive labels," says Roy Unger, president of Serta mattress in Des Plaines, Ill."The product lends itself to this because it's difficult for the consumer to differentiate one from another," says Nancy Butler at the Better Sleep Council, an industry-supported organization in Alexandria, Va. The differences between one store's model and another's are generally minor--a different choice of insulating material or upholstery or quilting, or just a different cover fabric or name. And it's the last difference that means nobody has to compete on price.Not that they don't, in their way. Mattress prices bounce around something fierce. That Spring Air Back Supporter Heritage 2000 had four different prices in a week at May Co. California stores, sales-priced at $128 each twin piece on Nov. 18, up to $199 per piece on Nov. 20, down to $158 on Nov. 24, with another 10% off ($142.20) for some unexplained reason.
This up-down pricing has gotten the mattress industry in some trouble recently, particularly for the retail advertising of phony "sale" prices, in which a store competes with its own "regular" prices rather than with another store's prices. Maryland's attorney general, for one, filed actions against several retailers, including Woodward & Lothrop, Hecht's, and Montgomery Ward, for "using as comparatives 'regular' prices that were deceptive and misleading," says Jim Abbott, "because they were not prices at which the goods were ever sold."As for the multiple names, which inhibit price competition among stores, "there's no statute that says (the same mattresses) have to have the same names," says Herschel Elkins, an assistant attorney general in California. "The obvious purpose is to confuse, but it's not a violation of anything."One would think the combination of different names and constant price changes would make the process of choosing a mattress hard for the consumer, but the industry seems to believe that they've never had it so good.
The mattresses themselves, says Unger, are a better value, more supportive, more comfortable, built to last.The industry also seems to feel that the consumer, undistracted by price comparisons, can focus on more important considerations--the store, the brand, and the feel of the mattress. Consumers shouldn't go from store to store, "getting involved in what I call nuts and bolts," says Gary Pleasant, vice president of sales for Sealy Mattress Co. in Cleveland. "They shouldn't be concerned about how it's made as long as it's a reputable store and a reputable product and it's comfortable."Oddly enough for an industry that doesn't want prices discussed or compared, price--and always sale price--is the only thing advertised, because the industry knows that price is what sells mattresses. "The first thing people say they want is comfort and support," says Pleasant, "but when someone advertises, 'We have comfortable mattresses that support your body,' nobody comes in." So the industry keeps advertising sales, and consumers "see so many sale ads," says Unger, "that they want to be sure they're getting a good value."
It's hard work, but it can be done, and with help from unusual sources. Calling the local number of major mattress companies will often get one a customer service representative who will provide matching model names for a whole area. Sometimes the caller has to guess, but a stack of recent ads provides all the possible equivalents.One can even get such information from retailers, particularly discounters. When asked the price of Serta's Perfect Sleeper Legato, Dial-A-Bed, a national discount distributor, immediately provided a list of counterparts (Perfect Sleeper Bronze Medallion, Supreme, Paragon and Emerald), all $299 per set, with free delivery. Retail stores doubtless have such information as well, says Abbott, and consumers "ought to put salespeople on notice that they know there are comparable models and they want to know which. And if the retailer is unwilling to tell them, they should leave." Seizure Led to FloJo's DeathHis 104 scores make his caseRestaurant review: South Beverly GrillBrutal Murder by Teen-Age Girls Adds to Britons' ShockComaneci Confirms Suicide Attempt, Magazine Says