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Comment by beckler | Hacker News Reader

Just depends. I believe the average is somewhere between 40-60% for most name-brand mattresses. However, off-brand mattresses probably have higher margins, due to them being cheaper in general.

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Unbranded products are commodities and therefore should have lower margins.

Seems the parent used "off-brand mattresses" and you used "unbranded products", which is quite a bit different

Can you elaborate for me? I thought those two were synonyms.

Unbranded generally means generic, off-brand usually signifies it's branded, but not with a recognizable brand. Generic products are generally cheaper, but off-brand products can try to masquerade as higher-market items (especially when you're dealing with a purchase as infrequent as a mattress) and can claim higher margins.

What would you call something made in the 3rd shift? Where they use the same materials and factory they use for making branded gear, but don't put the brand on it?

It's not necessarily when/how they're made (although that's part of it), but how they're marketed. Take soft drinks for example.

    Brand-name: Dr. Pepper  
    Off-brand: Dr. Perky   
    Unbranded/Generic: "Soda" in a white can

Generic or unbranded, depending on how the product is labeled. The thing with those two labels is that, since you don't have someone actively trying to maintain those brands, you as a customer don't know if they're actually using the same materials and factory (or at least that's the theory behind why a brand would be worthwhile at all).

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