[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kEFLe8S3a4[/embedyt]
Transcript of Video Titled “Massage Chair Industry Update – April 26, 2021”
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Alan: Hi, I’m Dr. Alan Weidner from ‘Massage-Chair-Relief.com‘ and today is our biweekly massage chair industry update for Monday, April 26th, 2021. Thank you so much for joining me today. I hope you find some benefit from this broadcast, or from this update.
[SCREEN TEXT: Mother’s Day Sales Galore]
Alan: It’s Mother’s Day, just around the corner, and so there’s lots of Mother’s Day sales. So, it’s a good day to buy, and between Mother’s Day and Father’s Day is, other than Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the wintertime, this is really a good time to be buying chairs. So, you know, go to my website, and go to the Promotions tab, and under the Promotions tab, you’ll see, if you mouse over that, you’ll see the new chair specials, and you’ll also see pre-owned massage chairs, our pre-owned directory, and so you’ll be able to see what the new chair sales are, and what deals we have on the pre-owned ones, but there’s plenty of good sales right now, you know, I won’t go in to them all here. You can see them on the website, but a good time to buy massage chairs.
[SCREEN TEXT: Pre-Owned Directory]
Alan: I’d also mention that, you know, we have, our pre-owned directory is, thatโs where any new pre-owned chair, whether it’s a returned chair, or a floor model, or any kind of a refurbished chair, or whatnot, we sell them there, and typically, there’s very, very good prices, very, very good prices, so but and it’s in flux because we sell chairs, we get new ones in, we sell chairs, we get new ones back, but if you want to see some really good prices, some really good deals on some well-maintained chairs, most of them are less than 90 days old, because our return policy is 90 days, so we usually get those chairs back within 90 days. Floor models can be as old as, you know, anywhere from maybe 6 months to a year, but there is some really good pricing there. So, if price is really important to you, and getting a good deal on a, and it’s important to you on a premium chair, like a decent chair, go to the pre-owned directory.
[SCREEN TEXT: Kyota Massage Chairs]
Alan: Anyway, I just thought I would also mention that there’s a new line of chairs out called Kyota, and theyโve been around a while. Theyโve been at Costco. Kyota is an Infinity company, and they have a number of models. We are getting three models, they should be up on the website this, like today. There’s three models, the Yosei, Y-O-S-E-I, the Genki, and the Kenko. So, lots of good Japanese words in there that I’m probably just thrashing by trying to pronounce them, but they’re a good price.
[SCREEN TEXT: Kyota Yosei = Infinity Imperial]
Alan: As a matter of fact, the Yosei chair is the old Infinity Imperial, and they have repurposed that, they discontinued that chair a number of months ago, but they have brought it back repurposed in the Kyota line, so thatโs a chair we’re familiar with. I am not familiar with the other two, but we will become more and more familiar with them the longer we sell them. But anyway, the Kyota line should be on our website today, and you can kind of investigate and see what those chairs are all about.
[SCREEN TEXT: Positive Posture Brio Sport vs. Brio Plus]
Alan: Let’s see, the Brio Sport and the Brio Plus, I see that there’s a fair amount of confusion between the Brio Sport and the Brio Plus. They’re both Positive Posture chairs, they are both good chairs, but they do vary from chair to chair, and so some people will call us looking for the Brio, they’re looking for the Brio, they ask for the Brio Sport, when they really mean the Brio Plus, or vice versa, so it gets a little confusing. Now, if you go to my website, you can, go to the blog on my website, you’ll be able to see an article that I wrote comparing the Brio Sport to the Brio Plus when those chairs were first introduced to the market, and off the top of my head, I’m trying to bring up the article right now, I thought I had it up on my screen earlier, but I didnโt have it, the computer rebooted. But anyway, that, the Brio Sport is a more aggressive massage chair, a stronger massage chair. The Brio Plus is a more gentle massage chair. The Brio Sport is centered around, the theme of that chair is to accommodate athletes, and so there are things on there like the Sports Massage program, the Warm Up program, the Cool Down program, the Core Rotation program, the Visualization program, all basically geared toward the athlete. So, and the Brio Sport is a more gentle chair, or sorry, the Brio Plus is a more gentle chair. The original Brio chair was just called the Brio, and that chair was a gentle chair. We sold that chair to people who did not want an intense massage, who are ideally looking for something more gentle, but still wanted the massage experience. That chair is the one that you’d want to get, the Brio Plus is kind of an upgrade from that one. Let’s see, here are some of the major differences, I found the article. The Brio Sport has seven manual programs, the Brio Plus has five. The Brio Sport has heated rollers, the Brio Plus does not. Heated rollers are a nice feature, you donโt see that on a lot of chairs. Off the top of my head, I can think of the OHCO M.8, and the Panasonic MA73, and the MAJ7 that have heated rollers, but not many more than that, and of course, I’ve probably forgotten some, but it’s a very nice feature to have. The Brio Sport has a multilanguage remote, where the Brio Plus does not. The color options are a little different. The Brio Sport has black, and dark gray, and the Brio Plus comes in black, brown, and beige, and then it’s a little different body styling, a little, the silhouettes are the same on the two chairs, but the body styling is a little bit more, maybe a little more stylistic on the Brio Sport. So, anyway, I just wanted to mention that because we get a number of calls about that. I know that on Costco, the Brio Plus is on Costco from time to time, and thatโs often when we get phone calls about the differences between the two chairs.
[SCREEN TEXT: Who’s Who in the Massage Chair World]
Alan: And I mentioned earlier that the Positive Posture chairs, now they are, OK, so Kyota, I mentioned earlier that Kyota is part of the Infinity family of chairs, and I just wrote an article last week you can go read, and it talks about who’s who in the brand-name chair market. And so, youโve got, for example, Infinity has the Kyota chairs, the Infinity chairs, and the Sharper Image chairs. Furniture for Life has the Positive Posture chairs, and the OHCO chairs, and the D.Core chairs, the Panasonic distribution rights. And then youโve got Ogawa, which has Cozzia, Ogawa, JPMedics, Brookstone, Ergo Tech. And then youโve got Daiwa, which has Daiwa, Luraco, the American-made chair, which has Luraco, Osaki, Osaki/Titan, or OTA, they have Osaki, they have Titan, they have Apex, they have, oh, I can’t remember, Adore, Ador, and Gamma Medic, I think are the other ones, but OTA is, thatโs the Osaki/Titan company. And so you, and Human Touch has Human Touch chairs. Johnson Wellness has the Synca Wellness and the Inner Balance Wellness chairs. So, it’s kind of like a few larger companies have a lot of the different models, and a lot of the different brands. And they’re in, you know, they come out, and there are still are more coming out, of course. And then there’s a lot of the other chairs that are what we consider maybe more of an off-brand chair, or no-name-brand chairs, and they’re just one-on-one sales from an importer of chairs to direct to the consumer, and we won’t really get in to that here. But anyway, you know, Positive Posture and OHCO are part of the same umbrella company, Furniture for Life, and Kyota is part of the Infinity family of chairs. So, anyway, there’s a lot of a, it gets a little twisted, and I didnโt think much of the article when I wrote it, but boy, I’ve had a lot of feedback on it, so positive feedback, you know, helping people understand what the differences are between the companies, and who’s creating what, and what’s where.
[SCREEN TEXT: Made in China vs. Made in Japan vs. Made in Korea vs. Made in USA]
Alan: Another thing I could probably tell you with almost 100% confidence, 99% of the chairs are built in China, even though a chair may say it’s made in Japan, or made in Korea, those chairs, all, most, if not all of the components were made in China, but then the components are exported to Korea or Japan, and there they are assembled, tested, and programmed. And it’s, often times, it’s said that it’s in the testing, where the difference, the difference maker is in the testing, and so the advantage of a Japanese or a Korean-made chair is the more exhaustive testing that these chairs go through, and so that adds a little bit to the value of those chairs, absolutely. And of course, there’s programming done according to what each company wants. Oh, and I also forgot to mention like Health Mate, Health Mate has their Orest and Health Mate chairs, and thatโs a Korean, those are Korean products. But anyway, it’s important to know that most of these, 99% of the chairs that come, whether they’re Chinese, Chinese chairs, Japanese chairs, or Korean chairs, their components, for the most part, are made in China. I think the Synca JP1100 doesnโt have all their components made in China, some of them are made in Japan.
[SCREEN TEXT: Luraco is the Only Company That Does Have any Chinese-Made Components]
Alan: And Luraco is the lone wolf that has no Chinese components, at least mainland Chinese, they have Taiwanese components for their noncritical components. All their electronics and their critical stuff is done, you know, their, some of the build, some of the manufacturing of the components, the assembly, and the testing, and the programming is all done in Dallas, or Arlington, which is where they’re located, just outside of Dallas, or a suburb of Dallas. So, anyway, there’s a lesson for you on, you know, who’s who in the massage chair industry, and you know, what chairs, what it means when you hear the term made in China, or made in Japan, or made in America, or made in Korea. There is, and it’s a little bit more convoluted, and at times confusing than you might think, or I’ve just made it more confusing, I’m not sure.
[SCREEN TEXT: Osaki 4S Japan Chair has been Discontinued]
Alan: Anyway, I thought I would also mention that, you know, speaking of Japanese chairs, or made in Japan chairs, the Osaki 4S Japan chair has been discontinued. I understand that the factory that builds that chair in China, or at least, assembles, tests, and programs it is now owned by the Johnson Wellness Tech family, or parent company, which is the company that distributes the Synca, the Kagra, and the Inner Balance chairs. So, we might see more coming from Johnson Wellness in the future, as theyโve now assumed a majority control at that factory. And I cannot remember, I think it’s, is it the Mount Fuji, I think it’s the Mount Fuji factory, or something like that, I can’t remember. I wrote an article about it a year and a half ago when I first heard the news.
[SCREEN TEXT: Port of Long Beach Backlog Update]
Alan: OK, I have talked to you about, ad nauseum, and I know youโve got to believe me by now, when I tell you that these chairs are back-ordered at the port of Long Beach. I’ve given you numbers, I’ve given you satellite images to show that things were backed up. They’re still backed up and at Christmas time, they were backed up two weeks to get product out of the port, and on the trucks, on the way to the warehouse, it would take two weeks. And they figured it would get better after the new year when the, you know, Christmas sales slowed down, but you know what? It didnโt, it got actually worse, and so we’re seeing two plus weeks. Now, for products, not just chairs, but any products coming from China, coming through the border at Long Beach, and I have heard a couple things. I’ve heard, number one, that theyโve diverted some of traffic to Seattle, to a port in Seattle. And when I say they, it’s you know, whoever the people that are managing the imports, are you know, siphoning off some of the Long Beach traffic to Seattle. But we still have problems with having enough trucking to move all the components. We have, because of the backup, or not all the components, but all the products, and then we have a backup of products in the port, on the ocean, and because of that, all the containers are sitting on ships on the out, on the port of Long Beach, and back in China, and in Japan, there’s a shortage of containers, you know, those big containers that go on the ship, and then go in the truck, and then go to the warehouse. And as a matter of fact, in Japan, I hear it’s really empty as far as availability of containers. So, they’re, people that have their, you know, companies that have their chairs built in Japan are contemplating moving their, shipping their chairs to China, where there’s a greater access point of containers and other logistics and things that can, you know, get their chairs here to America quicker. But anyway, it’s just a nightmare, and it’s gone on a lot longer than any of us imagined, and I have heard that the logistics issues will probably go on for the rest of this year. So, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but thatโs how it is, and when you talk to a company, or a retailer about getting a chair, and they tell you that this chair is back-ordered, and they give you an estimate of arriving, donโt hold, that is not canonized, that is not, that is not the gospel truth, because it could, there’s no, there’s some, there’s a lot of uncertainty with that. So, the chairs could come two weeks later, or they might even come a little bit earlier, who knows? But just know that the logistics are a pain in the rumpus. It doesnโt mean all the chairs are on back-order, there’s a number, there’s lots of chairs that are in stock here in the United States, but a lot of the popular ones are on back-order, and so just, just so that you know. Let’s see, I think thatโs just about it for this week. I thought I would just mention to you, well, no, well, maybe we’ll talk about that on another edition of this, another update. But one thing I will mention is a hack for people with long legs. I think, maybe I mentioned this two weeks, but if your legs are too long for the massage chair ottoman, and it doesnโt extend out far enough for you, whether it’s spring-loaded one that you push out with your legs, or an electronic one where you adjust the length and the ottoman function electronically, lower the ottoman down, extend the legs out as far as theyโll go, and use the remote control to drop the ottoman down. And for a taller person, the knees will be up too high when it’s too long, when the legs are too long for the ottoman. Drop the ottoman down, and it’ll bring the legs down, it’ll bend you at the knees, and it’ll bring the calves more comfortably positioned in to the calf wells. I think I may have mentioned that like two weeks ago, but that is something that we run in to a lot in the showroom. So, just know that if a chair doesnโt feel like it’s fitting you lengthwise, especially in tall guys, leg wise, drop the ottoman down after youโve extended the ottoman out. But anyway, I hope I wasnโt too redundant with that.
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Alan: But anyway, thatโs about it for the Massage Chair Relief, or the massage chair industry update for this week. If you found this video helpful, please feel free to thumbs up ‘Like’ us on our YouTube channel.
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Alan: Of course, reach out and talk to us, or call us at 888-259-5380, and help us spread the word about massage chairs by sharing this video, or our other videos, with your family and friends on your various and sundry social media platforms. We do appreciate you helping us spread the word. I’m Dr. Alan Weidner from ‘Massage-Chair-Relief.com,’ and I will see you again in two weeks. Bye bye.
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