We Believe in Restorative Sleep
If mattress retailers believed that sleep was a value essential to human life, they would more consistently try to convince you that investing in your sleep is rational and in your self-interest. They would not insist on the disingenuous method of selling products by the size of the ‘discount’ being offered. This is particularly true when the 'original' price is often an arbitrary figure at which zero real transactions take place, and the 'sale' price is a more realistic market price. If mattress stores believed in the power of restorative sleep and the fundamentally positive impact sleep has on our overall health and wellbeing, we would focus more on the cost of not investing in sleep.
If a mattress store consistently promoted the idea that investing in your sleep was of tremendous value to you, they would appeal to these values directly and, when possible, attempt to persuade others to invest more in their sleep. To do this, we must appeal to the best in people: their intellect and self-interest. Such a mattress retailer would need to identify basic standards that guide both the choices they offer in their stores and a general way to pair people with an appropriate mattress.
Such a retailer would need to offer reasons to clients for spending their hard-earned money; not gimmicks, slogans and other irrational criteria such as what their mother-in-law found comfortable, the colour of the mattress, or appeals to the authority of a ‘brand name’ devoid of substance. Such a retailer must practice integrity and transparency. A basic precondition of these values is that the retailer requires knowledge. Knowledge of what high-quality sleep is, and the basic factors that influence this quality of sleep that can be related to their mattress as well as pillows, bed linens, etc. We need to understand what is at stake and the cost of poor-quality sleep in the short and long run.
Because dealing with people and their preferences is so complex, we need valid principles and standards to measure the array of options before us. To do this, we need to identify both the positive (what works) and the negative, and we also need to contrast and explain why some options are objectively worse (in the context of budget and needs). At Mattress & Sleep Company, we have identified the most common factors that disrupt sleep. We reduce these factors by identifying critical performance metrics that an improper mattress simply does not meet.
We prepare the first part of this process well before clients come to our stores. We accomplish this through the selection process for the products we allow on our showroom floors. With clear standards in mind, we effectively have a ‘filter’ that keeps most typical products from ending up in our showrooms. This filter intentionally limits the products that we offer. We believe this lets the most effective solutions at their respective price points meet the high standards we have identified.
We, just like our clients, are also consumers. We do not spend our money frivolously; we do not follow ‘industry trends’, and we do not look to others for direction.
Imagine a circle of 12 different retailers, all looking to their competition for direction. What standards or criteria are guiding the buying decisions of such retailers? This is the principle of 'do what everyone else is doing’. This is wholly circular reasoning without a foundation. It does not represent a path forward; rather, it is an endless loop of retailers and manufacturers producing sleep products that consumers are ultimately not happy with.
Mattress & Sleep Company uses our extensive experience and a rational approach to do our best. The result is a curated selection of high-quality solutions to address common sleep problems.
We try to sell and promote these products by appealing to our clients' rational standards, the value of sleep, and ultimately the value of our clients’ lives. For more information about these standards, we recommend starting with our article on 'The Principle of Elasticity'