A bad economy is often the cue for some to cut back and pay more attention to their finances. People cut back on some luxuries, downsize housing, buy generic brands, etc. Some, in touch economical times, even engage in unethical or illegal practices that they would not otherwise have found themselves in had they not become so desperate. Some may even become so desperate that they will…. dum dum dum…. buy a used mattress. I know, gross. But at what point are people not willing to cut back?
Buying a used mattress is like buying underwear at a thrift store. Someone may say it’s “clean” or even sanitized, but I am unwilling to concede that it can get clean enough. I don’t consider myself a germaphobe, but I don’t try to expose myself to germs and filth if I can avoid it. I do feel that there should be a limit to certain sanitary standards. So when I drove past a mattress store in West Valley and saw store side advertising that offered a queen mattress new for $169 bucks or used for $39 bucks, I thought, “Wow, that is a good price, but could that price go low enough that would tempt me to buy a used mattress?”
I suppose the answer is, “If I am poor enough, I would take a used mattress over a no mattress.” Given that rationale, I would take a used mattress, but this same rationale wouldn’t apply to food – would it? If you were hungry enough, would you eat old food? People do!
So I ask, at what point in a bad economy are we willing to show compromise to our personal standards? Do we even know how far we will go until we are pushed there?
Jaren
Nick, I have a thought for you (not wanting to render you confined to your home), do you ever stay @ a hotel? I know you do 🙂 Those are used mattress’ my friend hahaha.
Thought: We can’t imagine doing somethings as our circumstances don’t require it of us. I have found when faced with difficulty, survival kicks in and somethings don’t matter as much anymore.
We share a common friend who lived on the streets; she is a better person for having lived without. It is learning from difficultly, never losing hope and assisting those who are where we fear going.
I have stayed at hotels and you are right. They are used. All mattresses are used to some extent if not by ourselves, by someone else. We probably don’t clean them like we should, but at what point do we start out with taking a used mattress? A used car is different to me because people can fix them, they can be made new and there can be years of use out of them left.
Perhaps the question should be, where is this company obtaining enough used mattresses to sell them? Are they taking trade-in’s like a used car dealership? Raiding garage sales? Buying them from thrift stores? I suppose this is the cheap skate in me, but I use my mattress till it is dead. I have a hard time picturing (as I did not enter the store to see the quality of the used merchandise) what a used mattress would look like. Especially a 39 dollar one. In someways I might prefer going without than with a used (questionable origin) mattress.
This post of course is not to sound all high and mighty, but rather to question the physical things that we value. Those are often tested in times of trial and hardship. If I was so down and out that my only option was a used mattress would I take it, or would I find something more valuable with such crippling limited funds. I guess I don’t know.