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There's a furniture salesman here in Houston who makes heavy use of that sort of promotion. His latest if you spend $3,000 on a mattress and the Astros win the "2018 baseball final championship series" you'll be refunded the purchase price.

Not sure why it's worded so formally; must be a legal thing.

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Last year, a window company in Cleveland ran a special where if the Indians had a 15-game winning any time after August 1st, anyone who used the company in July would have their money refunded.

The Indians ended up with a 22-game winning streak during that period, resulting in around $2 million in refunds. The insurance for that was $75,000. I remember calculating the probability of winning 15 games in a row any time over a ~55 game period and the insurance company seemed like they were getting a great deal!

Terms like “Super Bowl” and “World Series” are trademarked, so advertisers use phrases like “the Big Game” or “baseball final championship series”, in this case, to avoid a lawsuit.

I wonder why it wouldn't be nominative fair use.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominative_use

Maybe I have to learn more about this doctrine.

The NFL has aggressively litigated uses of their trademarks, to the point where you might technically be allowed to do something, but realistically it isn’t worth the trouble.

https://www.thedsmgroup.com/super-bowl-trademark-copyright-2...

You can also run a really superb, owl themed event.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Superbowl/

This is awesome! Thanks for sharing. I’m sure to reference this next season.

The Olympics are down right evil when it comes to selecting cities. They will require long standing businesses to change their names of it is related to certain terms.

I'm trying to recall the Mancini Mattress (Bay Area) ad -- something like "If we can't beat the price, the mattress is free!" I'm thinking ... ohhh... I bet they always somehow manage to beat the price!

Many stores will have custom SKU or model IDs, so a mattress that is physically identical and cheaper somewhere else is actually a different product per the paperwork...

Even if they didn't (and they do!), I'm pretty sure they'd sell it for a penny cheaper rather than make it free. The claim in the ad was nonsensical..

well, if 2 people need a mattress it's easy:

person A buys mattress. sells it to person B for 1 cent

person B (or A, not disclosed in ad) gets mattress for less then 1c

A&B split total cost

Yes, the way they do that is having specific mattresses that are only produced for them. So for example, let's call it Dreamliner XL 2000, this mattress isn't manufactured by anyone else, even if there are Dreamliners sold by other vendors it isn't that model, hence the bold claim. Whee!

$3000 on a mattress? WTF? How is that even possible for such a highly commoditized good?

Freakonomics podcast did an episode on it: http://freakonomics.com/podcast/mattress-store-bubble/

That's also exactly why Casper and a half dozen other upstarts have come out with the memory-foam mailed-to-you-in-a-vacuum-tube online mattress sales.

The conclusion of the podcast was "If you spend $800 you're probably safe, below that it's hard to know if it's good or awful. Above $1500 is too much."

Considering Marriott/Hilton/IHG requires their hotels to use a 10 year warrantied mattress that only costs $250-$300 each, I'd say even $800 is too high. Even though that's wholesale price, doubling should be enough to get a single unit price.

People would be better off investing in some HIIT cardio excercise if they're looking for a good night's sleep. And eating less / more nutritious food.

Exercising and eating right aren't 100% fungible with money. That's not even close to the blocking factor for most people.

The extra $300 is what you pay for going with a reputable brand, because unlike Marriott, you don't have the time to figure out which off-brand mattresses are crap and which aren't.

Book a room at the Marriott, go in, rip the sheets off the bed, check the manufacturer on the mattress tag, go buy your mattress from them.

(And enjoy the rest of your night in the hotel)

They're not off brand, they're Temper-Sealy or Simmons.

In that case, your assertion that "doubling should be sufficient to get single unit price" was wrong, cause you aren't going to get a queen from either of those companies for $500.

My current mattress is a $900 kingsize Casper.

It replaced a 10-year-old Tempurpedic that cost around $4K.

The Casper is a better mattress in EVERY WAY so far (had it since 2015).

I do agree.

Mattress sellers love the value based sales pitch: how much would you pay for 1 hour extra sleep per night? Maybe paying $10/hour for extra sleep for one year is a bargain in some contexts, then you have a payback period of < 1 year, even for a ridiculously overpriced mattress.

The difference between a $200 mattress and the best in the world is way less than 1h per night.

Not to mention that I have taken some pretty rockin' naps in hammocks of various sizes, the cheapest of which was $4.99, and packed down into a twist of netting smaller than my fist. But to be fair, the two appropriately-spaced trees required for that one were not included.

The mattress is by no means the only way to get a complete and restful night of sleep, and past a certain materials threshold, you can't get longer or better quality sleep with any amount of upgrades to your mattress. The marginal cost is likely better spent by buying light bulbs that phase out blue light in your evenings, or by taking melatonin supplements, or with a therapy device for sleep apnea, or blackout curtains, or any number of other supposedly sleep-improving products. At a certain cost point, you might as well climb into a spa-grade float tank, or dangle from your back-piercings, or sleep in a bounce castle.

I think that there is probably a bigger difference in sleep quality between a $300 mattress and a $500 mattress than between the $500 mattress and a $3000 mattress. Once the specific concerns that typically interrupt sleep are addressed, the returns diminish fast. There is no way I am losing an hour of sleep every night just because my mattress isn't good enough.

I think that there is probably a bigger difference in sleep quality between a $300 mattress and a $500 mattress than between the $500 mattress and a $3000 mattress.

That seems awfully likely to me, too. I paid around $650 for a full-sized Sealy pillowtop something-or-other, apparently aimed at the hotel market, from an online mattress store some years ago, and it's been fine -- at least as comfortable as the ($800 in the early 1990s) Stearns & Foster it replaced. It's possible the Sealy won't last as long as the S&F did -- at least back then, the latter had a reputation for top-notch build quality -- but I have a lot of trouble envisioning any mattress in that size class being worth over $1000, let alone $3000.

I get a just fine sleep on the ground with nothing more than a 100$ air pad, and I've done better in the sand sometimes.

Not for everyone though, but I bet if I could get them sleeping similarly from a young age, it would be.

1.3billion Chinese sleep on essentially padded wood just fine, for example.

Sex is a big plus for a mattress, though. On a padded wood Chinese "bed" it's just fucking horrible for whoever's on top's knees/elbows/wrists/contact points.

Because it's worth spending money on any product that your spends a third of its life on and which can directly affect your health.

I have the same philosophy about office chairs.

Mattresses (Casper), office chairs (Steelcase LEAP), keyboards (something with Cherry MX Brown switches).

I spend the majority of my life using these bits so I buy quality.

Do you have any arguments to convince an employer to buy Cherry MX Brown (style) keyboards, instead of <15$ flimsy, flat membrane ones?

I feel like it's much less effort to just bring your own. If you're into mechanical keyboards I'm willing to bet you have an old one lying around. Especially since the preference for keys is so personal.

Yeah, I wish, though the only nice full-size keyboard I have laying around is a Sidewinder X4, which is out of production and about half as tactile as the Chinese-made MX brown clones in the AnnePro.

The value proposition for me doesn't really exist enough to spend out-of-pocket though. Mostly due to not reaping the benefits from increased efficiency.

Im worried about the health of the company if it can't afford a slightly more expensive keyboard that will last years and make me more productive.

If that is a big ticket item I would wonder if they are in serious trouble or it's just a shitty place to work for. A managers response to a request like that should be "here's the corporate card" or "submit the receipt for reimbursement"

No, it's more related to the manager/boss not understanding the value of a good keyboard. I asked about how to convince the employer of the value. The employer can certainly afford it, but he needs to understand why it's a good investment.

I usually brought my own keyboards (you can get one with MX browns or mx brown clones for $35-75 on amazon) to whatever job.. but at this one they saw my keyboard, said "Budget of $100, spec out whatever you want, and we'll order it."

The guy said "$150 for a keyboard and mouse of someone's choice, amortized over a year or two, is a tiny price to pay to keep our people happy."

I ended up with a Das 4C board at work (with browns) and a custom double-shot keycap set (bought out of my own pocket).

That's the type of company I prefer to work for. Given how much they are spending on salary, quibbling over a decent quality keyboard & mouse raises red flags.

My father used to tell me: "Don't skimp on your bed, your chair and your car tires."

I've heard it as basically: anything that seperates you from the ground.

That theory worked for me for everything

Motorcycle gear

Tires

Boots

Climbing gear

And then I got into hammocking, and nothing seems to beat my first, a Bear Butt I got for 50$. Seems the more expensive they get, they lose out on just being big nice expansive hammocks with silky smooth material. So not a hard rule I guess!

The mattress world—like just about every other, I imagine—is crazy: https://www.gimletmedia.com/surprisingly-awesome/12-mattress...

You can get IKEA mattresses for a couple hundred bucks and they’re OK, but having upgraded to a really nice cal king latex foam mattress a few years ago, it’s now hard to sleep anywhere else ( https://www.flobeds.com for those curious — arrived at this after tons of research, easy to move since it comes apart into pieces that fit into contractor trash bags and ships in vacuum sealed bags — no box spring either )

I love my IKEA Hesstun. 2 separate sets of coils (I prefer springs to memory foam), a comparable design from the major brands was about twice the price. IKEA offers a transparent profile view (i.e. the inside of the mattress) for every mattress they sell, and you can lie on every one for hours without a single salesperson bothering you. 365-day exchange policy, longer than any of the stores I visited was offering (IKEA allows exchanges, but not refunds on mattresses). People knock IKEA but I do not believe my mattress is inferior in build quality to an assembly-line mattress from Sealy, Simmons, etc.

I know my mattress has low ratings online -- this is meaningless, all the review sites are just commissioned salespeople for the online brands (Casper, Purple, etc), so of course those sites discourage you from buying from IKEA.

Not just the mattress; the bed furniture counts towards the $3,000 too. So $2k for the tempurpedic & you can hit $3k easily.

>$3000 on a mattress? WTF? How is that even possible for such a highly commoditized good?

I paid close to $3000 for a sleep number matress with adjustable firmness for each side. Still use it every day fifteen years later and think it was well worth the money.

In India, my family spent Rs. 500 (about $8) for a custom-made mattress, that's filled with high-quality cotton tightly stuffed into it. No foam whatsoever. 30 years later, it's still rocking.

Almost everyone here in India uses custom-made mattresses. Foam-based products are of recent launches and not many people use that. Only younger generations.

Something like that was happening in New England this spring

"Buy anything at Jordan’s Furniture starting today and it will all be FREE, if the Red Sox pitch a No Hitter, home or away, after July 17th during the regular season. That is 64 games! There is an average of 3 ½ No Hitters pitched each year."[0]

[0] http://www.furnituretoday.com/article/551925-if-red-sox-pitc...

Jordans Furniture does those promotions every year. They are different events though every year. The insurance company paid out $30 million in furniture when the Red Sox won the World Series in 2007.

https://abcnews.go.com/Business/PersonalFinance/story?id=377...

Funny enough, Jordans Furniture is owned by Berkshire Hathaway.

Last year Cleveland was treated to $1.7 million in free windows from Universal Windows Direct when the Cleveland Indians went on a 15 game winning streak.

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/20623379/local-window-com...

If you're wondering about premiums, the first article quotes a guy in the business who say the premiums are usually around 30% of the value of the prize. That means the $75,000 premium paid by Universal Windows Direct was a steal. Of course, the odds of a 15 game winning steak in baseball are very small.

Seems that it would violate the "no purchase necessary" rule most (all?) states require to avoid it being an illegal lottery.

Since winners aren't drawn at random and it takes skill to win the World Series, it's not a "lottery", it's a "contest."

https://gleam.io/guides/no-purchase-necessary

>A contest is a type of promotion you can run in which an element of skill is involved. For a promotion to be considered a contest, entries must be skill-based and winners must be chosen based on merit. Meaning they cannot be drawn randomly.

>Examples of contests include:

>"Best Photo" Competition

>Voting Contest

>Sports-Based Contest

>Essay Competition

>"Tell us in less than 20 words..." Competition

>When you run a skill-based contest, winners are not randomly drawn, hence removing one of the three defining features of a lottery. As a result, contests are not impeded by No Purchase Necessary laws.

Thanks. Having created contests for my business, I am familiar with the skills exclusion, but always understood the skill in question was required to be that of the contest participants. This is somewhat implied by your citation:

>...entries must be skill-based and winners must be chosen based on merit.

In the scenario above, it takes skill but not the participants' skill, so it is essentially as out of the control of the participants as which number is drawn by a ball machine.

Now, if the skill in question is that of picking a winning sports team, then were talking about gambling which, of course, has its own set of rules and would be a stretch to apply here in any case.

Overall, it seems this contest would be on shaky legal ground one way or another.

It appears that since there are no "winners and losers" -- either everyone wins or every one loses an equivalent amount, these giveaways are not in scope for sweepstakes/contest laws.

>everyone wins or every one loses an equivalent amount

That's not a factor WRT the law in question.

The law states that if you take money or some financial consideration for a chance (that is not based on your skill) of receiving something of value, then it is effectively an illegal lottery. It doesn't matter whether everyone wins or loses.

This is usually addressed by allowing people to enter without making a purchase (entry form, postcard, etc). But, here, that obviously would be an insane offer, so doesn't really apply.

Mattress Mack?

In Dublin we have Mattress Mick.

OT but worth mentioning.. He is one of the finest human beings to ever come out of Houston. A class act. He flew a bunch of vets on a private jet to the World Series just because. He also does a massive amount of charity that doesn’t make the headlines. During Harvey, as you know, he opened his furniture store as a shelter. A real gem of a person. He is also in his store, open to close, every day. (“I-45 North between Tidwell and Parker..”) Startups could learn a lot from the story of how he built that company.

Is there a decent write up? Sounds, from what you say, like a lucrative business with someone who has a decent set of ethics. It's always useful to read people's stories like that.

I’m actually calling him tomorrow to ask about that. I was wondering the same thing. He does a lot of local talks and such

He did the "oil price above 75$ barrel by end of 2015 = all purchases for the year refunded" deal as well.

Which meant as an oil and gas recruiter, not only was I juggling a shitload of candidates whose rent payments depended on us finding them employment (which depended on prices getting above 75$), they also had huge credit card debts that they'd have to keep paying off of the price didn't go up.

Great fun.

Yup!

And as others have posted, he's fairly beloved here in Houston due to his charity work. Heck one of the local rappers remixed his commercials Houston style: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P74UnjzKJOU

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