I have been invited to become a member of the  Human Touch Wellness Council, upon the recommendation of Human Touch. In case you are wondering what this means, here is a copy of their mission statement:

Mission Statement:

Human Touch’s Wellness Council is committed to educating professionals, sports-enthusiasts, back pain sufferers and consumers alike on the importance and benefits of taking control of their daily lives, maintaining a healthy balance of mind, body and spirit, and maximizing the overall health and wellness lifestyle by incorporating regular massage into their “wellness” routine through the use of personal massage products.  Human Touch has brought together influential persons with a variety of wellness lifestyle experience as members of the Wellness Council to educate and from their own experience and practice of integrating massage into their everyday routine.

Human Touch recognizes its social responsibility and is proud to help individuals achieve wellness in their everyday lives, and by offering massage in affordable, accessible and stylish products, it empowers people to bring themselves one step closer to improving their overall quality of life.

Each Human Touch Wellness Council Member serves as an ambassador for everyday massage, communicating their key wellness messages through online and offline media, community events and public forums.
So, the long and short of it is,  as a chiropractor of 16 years, and as the top retailer for the Health Care Division of the Human Touch company, I have been invited to be an “ambassador” of sorts for the company and for the wellness concept. I actually am quite flattered by this invitation and look forward to being an active participant in the wellness community of which I have been invited to participate. I do know that they ask me to add a monthly blog entry to their website which will launch August 1st, 2008. I will let you know when this is available if you would like to participate in any wellness discussions on that site. Other folks who are also members of this Wellness Council include PGA golfer Tim Clark,  Jeff Galloway, Sarah Harding, Iona MacKenzie, Dr. Michael Nathanson, and  Ted Tryba.

Have a super day!

Dr. Alan Weidner
www.massage-chair-relief.com

Apparently, from here on out, Sanyo is selling their zero-gravity Sanyo 7700 massage chair exclusively through Relax The Back stores. So, they have provided another model, almost identical to the 7700 called the Sanyo 6700 massage chair. What are the differences, you ask? Well, there are only 3 and here they are:

1. The Sanyo 6700 massage chair has one zero-gravity position, whereas the Sanyo 7700 has two.

2. The Sanyo 6700 has a Quick Course (a short pre-programmed auto program in addition to the regular automatic programs), which the Sanyo 7700 does not have, but the Sanyo 7700 has an “Air Only” course of massage which the 6700 does not have.

3. The Sanyo 7700 has 2 seat airbags and 2 upper bag airbags, which the Sanyo 6700 does not have. Of course, both chairs have the regular upper back rollers…the 6700 just doesn’t have the air bags in the upper back. The 7700 has two more airbags in the leg airbags than does the 6700 (20 vs. 18).

4. The Sanyo 7700 massage chair has an adjustable leg length extension. The Sanyo 6700 does not require that feature because it has the same ottoman design as the Sanyo 5000 which extends the foot rest to accommodate the longer leg of some users. The Sanyo 7700 has a ottoman similar in design to the HT-1650 which is one piece without a movable footrest. No big deal.

And that, my friends, is about it as far as differences between the two chairs. Oh yeah, and the price of the Sanyo 6700 is $500 less than the 7700! So, it’s regular retail price is $4499. So, from here on out, we will only be selling the Sanyo 6700 model on our website and in our showrooms.

Here is a link to the product brochure of the Sanyo 6700 massage chair: Sanyo 6700 massage chair brochure.

You can click on this link to take a look at a comparison chart of the 2 models: Sanyo 6700 and Sanyo 7700 comparison chart.

Dr. Alan Weidner
www.massage-chair-relief.com

 I’d like to report to you that our Grand Opening of our Massage Chair Relief showroom was fantastic! We had GaryMichaels from Arrow 103.5 broadcast from the showroom and we had plenty of opportunity to talk about our new store showroom, products, and website on the air with Gary. He was very gracious to give us lots of air time.

Many people came by to visit and “test drive” our chairs. Everyone loves them. The highlight of the day was a visit from Suzette Willcox, the Sales Manager of the Health Care Division of Human Touch! She traveled from Long Beach early in the morning to be here on our special day. We so appreciate the support of Human Touch at our Grand Opening. Suzie brought a beautiful Human    Touch banner/sign as a showroom-warming gift. It is awesome and sits at the front of the showroom in the main window.

I’ve put up some pictures of the event so that you can see what was going on.

I also put up a link to an mp3 file of one of the on-air conversations we had with Gary Michaels, the DJ from Arrow 103.5. Enjoy:

Arrow 103.5 Air Check

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Grand Opening and to everyone who has supported us through the years, bringing us to this point and time in our business! We are so grateful.

Dr. Alan Weidner
www.massage-chair-relief.com

We were invited to bring one of our massage chairs down to KSL, which is the local NBC affiliate, to demonstrate it on the noon hour TV show, Studio 5. So, I went down with my black HT-1650 massage chair and showed it to the great citizens of Utah. Below is a link. I am certainly not TV personality material, but I sure appreciated the chance to show our cool chair to the public. The host,  Darren, seemed to really enjoy it, don’t you think?

Here is the link to the segment:

http://studio5.ksl.com/?nid=56&sid=3615841

My wife and I were over at the showroom last night putting some finishing touches on the showroom preparatory to our Grand Opening on Saturday. We are pretty excited about it. I will post some pictures of the event over the weekend so you can see what was going on.

Did I also mention that we will begin carrying the two of the iJoy models, the iJoy 300 and the HT-2720, as well as the Perfect Chair, all by Human Touch? These chairs should be on the website and the showroom this next month.

Dr. Alan Weidner
www.massage-chair-relief.com

I just came out of the back office to check on my son, who came to work with me today and I found him, fast asleep, on the Omega Montage massage chair, apparently listening to some soothing music on the headphones from the built-in mp3 player. It was so dang cute that I had to take a picture and share it with you all. This is one of the perks of owning a massage chair…putting your kids to sleep and then being able to adore them when they fall asleep (and some times that is the only time you can adore them!!). This son loves to help out his dad and mom when he can.

By the way, we are busy getting ready for the Grand Opening this Saturday. We are excited about it. We have been doing some radio ads and have a local classic rock station coming on Saturday to do a remote broadcast from the new showroom. Today, the electrician has been over all day putting up the sconce lighting that my good wife, Mona, purchased for the showroom. All the decorating, by the way, I leave to her…she has a real knack for decorating and making things look really good. Our showroom has a real “homey” feel to it, thanks to her. It truly feels like a lovely living room of a home.

In July, I mentioned that we will be having the new Inada massage chairs in the showroom, but I failed to mention that we will also be having an iJoy chair and a Perfect Chair, both manufactured by Human Touch, in the showroom too. The iJoy chairs are a lesser priced, less luxurious chair that are great for college kids and lesser budget massage chair shoppers. It does not have a leg/calf massager and it sits low to the ground. The Perfect Chair is not a massage chair, but an anti-gravity chair that is the predecessor to the HT-7450. It is a very comfortable chair, great for low back pain, and about half the price of the HT-7450. So, you get the anti-gravity feature without the massage.

Talk to you soon. I’ve got to get back to work on the showroom.

Dr. Alan Weidner
www.massage-chair-relief.com

As you may or may not know, with every online purchase of a massage chair on www.massage-chair-relief.com, I include some complimentary bonus gifts. Those gifts include a 3-day, 2-night mini-vacation, a hand massager, a travel-core neck pillow, Sombra muscle cream, and a couple of ice packs. Well, I was just notified this morning that the hand massager has been discontinued, so from here on out, the bonus gift package will not include that gift. I apologize for that, but it is completely out of control. They claim to have a replacement massager that will be available in the fall, so perhaps we will add a new one at that time.

In the meantime, of course you will still receive the other gifts, just as before, but, best of all, you get a fantastic massage chair from any one of 5 major suppliers with a fantastic warranty (oh yeah, and don’t forget, if you buy before June 20, 2008, you also save some major bucks on the HT-7450 and HT-1650 from Human Touch!).

Have a super day!

By the way, stay tuned for some information in the weeks to come about our grand opening and the media hype around that.

Dr. Alan Weidner
www.massage-chair-relief.com

As I mentioned a week or so ago, we are moving our showroom to another suite, where we can dedicate the whole space to massage chairs and not share with the chiropractic clinic. Another Doctor is managing the clinic now, leaving me to look after the massage chair business full time. I absolutely love the massage chair business, especially the internet end of it.

We had the walls textured and painted at the end of last week. We also had some tile put in the front entrance and had the carpet laid today. It looks beautiful…like a living room. You will feel so comfortable when you come visit us; just like you are in your own home. Tomorrow we will move the massage chairs over to the showroom and my wife still has some decorating to do. We are also going to go with as much incandescent lighting as possible and stay away from the fluorescent which are built into this building where the showroom now is. We figure that the natural lighting will feel better and warmer than the fluorescent bulbs which are so commonplace in commercial businesses.

We should be getting the new Inada massage chairs this month, along with the HT-103 and the Perfect Chair by Human Touch. We are excited to expand our brick and mortar selection for the good people of Utah. Some day we will have such a massage chair showroom in your city!

Our new address will be 2248 W. 5400 S. , Taylorsville, Utah. Our local phone number will remain the same at 801-417-8240 and our toll free number is also still the same…1-888-259-5380. You can get a hold of us either way. Come visit this unique massage chair showroom. You will love it!

Dr. Alan Weidner
www.massage-chair-relief.com

I was just having a chit-chat with our Licensed Massage Therapist, Steff, and I was telling her about all of our international sales of massage chairs. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, we do sell a lot of massage chairs overseas.

Well, in the course of our discussion I mentioned a story about a massage we shipped to a client in Iraq. She thought the story was so cool that she thought I should share it with my readers. So, here is the story.

I get an email from an eastern European oil worker living in Kirkuk Iraq. I can’t mention her name because she asked me to never post her identity on the website because she was afraid her mother, back in Europe, would find out her daughter was working in war-torn Iraq! Wouldn’t that be a surprise to a parent?!?

She wanted to purchase a Human Touch Get-A-Way massage chair, which the company has since discontinued, and have us ship it to Iraq for her. I had never shipped to the Mid-East before (even though since then we have sold chairs to Azerbaijan and Jordan) so I was a little leery about a shipment to Iraq. Well, we got her a shipping quote and, upon her approval and payment, we trusted the massage chair to the shipping powers that be.

A couple of weeks later I got a letter from our client with notice that she had received her chair and that she was absolutely loving it. She also sent photos of the convoy vehicle that carried her massage chair from Bagdad to Kirkuk (the chair was flown to Bagdad and then couriered to Kirkuk by SUV). The truck was completely riddled with bullet holes along the side that was showing on the photo! I couldn’t believe it! She said that although the convoy was attacked by terrorists, the chair made it in one piece and they were absolutely loving it.

Quite a massage chair story, eh? Well, here are her words after sitting in the massage chair upon receiving it:

“Hi Alan, look at my new chair!!!! It’s awesome! It makes me so happy! Do You see those smiles on the faces? Me and my Best Friend..

One of my colleague already cornered me and said he would like to order one, too, but he would have it shipped to his home address in the US, not to here..I let him check it out and I give him Your e-mail address..

I don’t even know how to thank You, Alan.

I’d like to thank You for all of Your help, Your honesty, Your full support, Your responsiveness, Your kindness,…Your friendship,…everything!

I am very grateful to You.

This chair will make my life so much nicer here in Kirkuk. I hope I can enjoy it for a long time..

Take care and keep in touch.”

A. V. .

Have a great day, wherever in the world you may be right now. And remember, no matter where you live, we can ship a massage chair to you.

Dr. Alan Weidner
www.massage-chair-relief.com

I thought you’d be interested in this article we wrote for the HT-7450 anti-gravity massage chair. I put it on hub pages so that it can get a little more distribution and readership. If you read the article and like it, feel free to leave a comment on Hubpages.

http://hubpages.com/hub/Human–Touch-HT-7450-The-Worlds-First-Anti-Gravity-Massage-Chair

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me or leave a comment on this blog.

Dr. Alan  Weidner
www.massage-chair-relief.com

Well, it looks like we have outgrown our Massage Chair Relief Retail Outlet. We have been carrying 7 models in our current showroom, which is within the walls of our chiropractic clinic, but now, with the coming of the Inada models this month, we are out of room and are relocating our massage chair store to a different store front.

The good news is that we are relocating to a storefront within the same shopping center where the clinic and previous showroom are located. We will be dedicating about 500 square feet to a massage chair showroom. My good wife, Mona, is in charge of the interior decorating of the new showroom and I can tell you that she has the touch! She will be making the showroom feel like a living room so that visitors can get a feel for how their new massage chair would look and feel in their own living or family room.

We will also be carrying the Perfect Chair model P6 anti-gravity reclining chair by Human Touch, in addition to the 7 current models. This chair is not a massage chair, but is the motivation behind the new HT-7450 anti-gravity massage chair. I mentioned that we will be carrying the Inada massage chairs, but in the showroom we will begin with only the new Sogno massage chair and the model i2a chair.

This will give us 10 chair models available to the public. We will add more models as we go along, giving us, no doubt, the largest massage chair showroom in Utah, if not the rest of the western US (I will find out if there are any other showrooms in the country with as many models to choose from and try out as we have).

We are excited about the new showroom. It is going to be great to have a showroom solely dedicated to massage chairs and not have the chiropractic clinic as part of the display. Now, we can decorate as we see fit for the massage chair alone. We are excited to get this going. The construction, texturing, painting, baseboards, tile work, and carpet laying should be done this week. I will let you know when it is done, with some accompanying photos of the new showroom. I think you are going to love it!

Dr. Alan Weidner
www.massage-chair-relief.com