Massage Chair Industry Update – February 6, 2020 (Video)

February 7, 2020
 By Dr. Alan Weidner
February 7, 2020
 By Dr. Alan Weidner

Massage Chair Industry Update – February 6, 2020 (Video)

Transcript of Video Titled “Massage Chair Industry Update – February 6, 2020”

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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 Thursday February 6th, 2020. Thank you so much for joining me, lots of good things to cover today, or at least some interesting things to cover today.

[SCREEN TEXT: OHCO M.8 New Price is $9799 NOT $9999]

Alan: I mentioned last, on my last interview, or last industry update that the OHCO M.8 was going to go up to $9999 in price on February 1st, and I stand corrected, that is $9799. So, it’s jumped from $9499 to $9799 for the OHCO M.8. The leather chair, which retails at $14, 999 has not changed, only the synthetic leather, the more popular one.

[SCREEN TEXT: February Luraco Sale – $700 Off iRobotics 7 Plus & Legend Plus]

Alan: Also, Luraco has a sale for the month of February. They just announced it last week, or at the beginning of this week that for the month of February, you can get $700 off on the Luraco Legend Plus or the Luraco iRobotics 7 Plus. So, that’s a very, very good deal right now, $700 off. That’s actually a better deal than they were doing during Black Friday and Cyber Monday and Father’s Day and Mother’s Day. So, thank you, Luraco, for that.

[SCREEN TEXT: February Ogawa Sale]

Alan: Ogawa has a sale this month where they are taking prices off their chairs. The very popular Ogawa Master Drive AI is on sale for $8999, so $1000 off. The Stretch 3D is $1000 off at $5999. The Ogawa Active L Plus is on sale for $2999 instead of $3299, and the Refresh Plus is on sale for $1999 instead of $2599.

[SCREEN TEXT: Osaki Sale]

Alan: So, they have sales going on right now, and I believe Osaki’s sales are continuing, the ones that we had mentioned previously. I don’t even remember off the top of my head what they are. I think the First Class is on sale for $4999, and that includes a two year extended warranty, and I believe the Alpina is on sale for I think $4299. But anyway, I’m sorry I wasn’t more prepared to give you, to review the Osaki sales.

[SCREEN TEXT: Pre-Owned Directory Models – Lots to Pick From at Very, Very Good Prices]

Alan: Also, we have, and I mentioned this prior, you know, at Christmas time, and Black Friday through Christmas, we has quite a number of sales, and of course, we have a certain percentage of them that are returned, and we have the industry’s best return policy in that we have 90 days free returns, you know, we pay for the return shipping. Well, we have these returns, and of course, the more chairs we sell, the more returns we have. So, right now, I think we’ve got six or seven great deals on our pre-owned directory. So, you can go to our website, and go to the, what is that heading called, the heading is ‘Current Sales,’ and you can select the pre-owned directory. Now, we will be, well, I’ll get to that in just a minute, but anyway, there are some very, very good sales on the pre-owned directory. For example, we have a Master Drive AI, which is only about a month old, for $7499. We have an Osaki Maxim for, and that’s only like one or two months old, and was hardly used. It was a local customer, here in Utah, that chair we’re selling for $2299. A Panasonic, a two-month-old Panasonic MA73, a very good chair for $4499, it’s regularly $5999, and let’s see, we have an Ogawa Refresh Plus for $1599, an Osaki Ekon floor model for $4999, that’s a 3D L-track with calf rollers and calf kneading airbags for $4999, that’s a very, very good price. We have a JPMedics Kumo for $4999, regularly $7999, and we have an Active L, actually yeah, we have an Active L for $2499. So, anyway, we’ve got lots of deals on our pre-owned directory. So, you might want to check those out. There’s no returns on the pre-owned chairs, but the deals make it so worthwhile that the risk of, you know, running the risk of not liking the chair as much as you maybe would another chair, it’s, that risk is minimized significantly by the fantastic prices we have. So, anyway, take a look at the pre-owned directory, and the factory warranties continue on, you’re going to be with the warranty, and you have also our own Lifetime Labor warranty, which we give to every pre-owned and new chair, wherein you’re covered for labor for as long as you own the chair, and you can read about that on our website, on the Peace-of-Mind Lifetime Labor warranty.

[SCREEN TEXT: Massage-Chair-Relief.com Website Redesign Almost Done!]

Alan: And speaking of the website, we are almost done our redesign, and they’ve been working on it for months, like I think since September, September, October, November, December, yeah, it’s been like five months. It’s a pretty big project because number one, we have like thousands of pages, and you know, you spend 15 years writing articles, and posting chairs, and posting videos, and whatnot, you’re going to have, you know, you’re eventually going to have a lot of content, and we’ve got a lot of buttload of it, and so it’s taken then quite a while to that. But secondly, we’ve changed the whole format of the website, and it’s going to be a whole different approach. It’s going to be more simple, a little bit more simple navigation, but really a great user-friendly webpage for helping people decide what chair is best for them, and because that’s the greatest dilemma people have is, you know, what chair do I get, and we help you narrow it down, and we put it in to some cohesive steps. But also, the reason it’s taking so long is because there’s a lot of things that I’d like changed, and I want to do differently, and you know, the good people at the web design company, they do everything I ask, and of course, sometimes, the things I ask, I don’t really like, so I ask for changes later, once I’ve seen what it really looks like. So, it’s a little bit of, you know, the amount of content that needs to be changed, and migrated over to the new website, and it’s also a little bit of anal-retentiveness from yours truly, because I want things to be just right. And of course, they’re never always going to be just right, but we should see that website coming out, knock on wood, I’d say this month. But again, we’re still, you know, making the changes.

[SCREEN TEXT: Las Vegas Furniture Market Visit]

Alan: OK, Furniture Market, now, three, four weeks ago, I went to the CES, and you saw the videos. I had different videos for each of the vendors that I visited, and three of my vendors were at Furniture Market in Las Vegas, and I was there last week, and I took a video. I compacted the videos in to one thirteen-minute video, but I visited with Michael Malone from Infinity, and he goes over their line up with us. I also visited with Nicolas Peace again, who I saw at CES, and he talked about the Synca JP1100, well, he talked about a new model that they have, and he talks about it on the video. And we also visited at, with Osaki, with Osaki/Titan at their booth. They don’t like to be recorded too much, so I didn’t talk to anybody there, I didn’t interview anybody, but I did record three of their new models, including the Inada DreamWave, because now Osaki/Titan is the US distributor for the Inada DreamWave, and also a version two of the Pro Maestro, and also, a chair called the Paragon, which is a chair that we have seen similarities to in one of the old Infinity models. So, anyway, so they have some new models there, and I go over those briefly, but I really didn’t have anybody to interview on camera, so there wasn’t a lot of detail. Also, OK, so, oh, and I also visited, when I was at Furniture Market, I also visited Furniture for Life, you know, OHCO, Positive Posture, D.Core, those folks, and they didn’t have anything new that we hadn’t already reported on, but I did have a good chance to visit with them. And then I also went to the Cozzia booth, and Cozzia, or I shouldn’t say booth, it’s a bloody showroom, it’s a big, beautiful showroom. All of these were, for the most part, nice big showrooms. Anyway, Cozzia, we chitchatted a little bit about some warranty support for returned chairs that we have, talked about the models, and the new modes from Ogawa, and I didn’t record any of it, because it was mostly just shop talk that I had with them about protocols, and warranties, and things like that. So, there were no, there are not really any chairs to record, or anything like that. But anyway, I did visit with them, just to mention it. But anyway, while I was at the Furniture for Life store, there was another vendor there. He owns stores in Florida, and we, and the great thing about being in this business is you know, that the world gets awfully small when you’re in a particular niche like the massage chair niche, you know, I’ll run in to people in different, from different parts of the country, or the world, for that matter, who have maybe seen my video, or I’ve seen something from them, and we, you know, we kind of know who each other are, then you run in to each other and say ‘Oh yeah, you’re Dr. Weidner.’ And ‘Oh yeah, you own this store,’ or ‘Oh yeah, you run this website,’ or whatever, and it is kind of fun. I kind of like it.

[SCREEN TEXT: Vegan Leather?]

Alan: Anyway, there was a fellow there, and I’m not going to mention his name because he didn’t want me to, but we, I kind of, I heard him say a term, him and his, whoever it was, the other person that worked for his company was there, and they were visiting from Florida, and they were sitting on the OHCO chair, and anyway, the gal that was there asks, she said now, she mentioned something about this chair having vegan leather. And I went ‘Vegan leather, what,’ at first it didn’t quite register, I thought maybe I just heard her wrong, because you know, I’m 60 years old, and I don’t hear stuff really good half the time, and I don’t know if that’s selective deafness, or just an overall deafness from listening to too many ’70s rock-and-roll songs in my day, in my heyday, but I said ‘Hold it, did you say vegan leather?’ and she said ‘Yeah, vegan leather,’ and I said ‘What in the fat crap is vegan leather?.’ And then they went on to explain that this is a term that they picked up from, they thought it was Cozzia, somebody had used the term vegan leather to represent synthetic leather. So, you know, we see this synthetic leather in, most of the massage chairs have it, there are some that have leather, like the M.8LE from OHCO, or the BodyFriend Pharaoh SII has a leather interior material, and what’s the other one I’m trying to think of that has leather? Doggone it, I can’t remember, I know I think there’s one other one, but there isn’t many other chairs with leather. But anyway, that says genuine premium leather, this was vegan leather, and they said that it kind of was a new name for this synthetic leather because it kind of gave it a healthy vibe, a healthy connotation, because you know, a lot of people have issues with synthetic leather because it’s not real, it’s fabricated, it’s, you know, and in California, they actually have a Prop 65 thing, and I’m going to do a, I’m going to be doing a video interview with Nick Peace from Johnson Wellness in the not-too-distant future to talk about this because I was so fascinated by it. But I’ve had customers in California that have asked if our chairs, the chairs that we sell, meet Prop 65 standards, and I didn’t know. Anyway, but some of these synthetic leathers have a little bit of a negative connotation because it’s synthetic, it’s not real, it’s not living, breathing material, like leather is. It’s also cheaper, and in some instances, it’s more durable. But anyway, vegan leather, so there’s my term for the day. I thought it was kind of cute. I don’t know if I’ll actually use it, but you saying vegan, instead of synthetic leather, it kind of does have a little bit of a, kind of a, more of a healthy, holistic, gluten-free, lactose-intolerant, green connotation to it, and so there you go. Vegan leather, if you hear it, if you ever hear it, you’ll recognize it now. Also, speaking of Johnson Wellness, when I was talking to Nick Peace, I really enjoy talking to Nicholas, because he’s got a lot of insights in to the industry as a whole, and we chitchatted a little bit about this Prop 65 thing in California, which we will talk about in greater detail. But there is so much more that goes in to building these chairs, and so much more quality control, and protocols for quality standards that I had no idea about that go on with some of these companies, with some of these manufacturing companies, or these factories in China, and some of them, you know, are pretty lacking. And we always knew that some companies, some factories have very poor quality control, some have really good quality control, but quality control is not just, you know, the chair works really good. It’s quality control in the fabric, in the plastic and metal components, and how they hold up, and how durable they are, and how long they last, and you know, if there’s chemicals being used that might, you know, have some effect on, like Prop 65, in the state of California. So, anyway, he was kind of going in to all this stuff that needs to be considered, for a chair to be, you know, passed as being a good quality-control chair. It’s not just like ‘OK, yeah, well, a guy sat on that for an hour and it’s working, it’s good, there’s so much more that goes in to quality control that I really was not fully aware of, and Nick Peace, from Johnson Wellness and Synca Wellness, kind of opened my eyes to some of that stuff, and I really appreciated that.

[SCREEN TEXT: Johnson Health Tech Acquires Majority Share of Fuji Medical of Japan]

Alan: But anyway, in our conversation, he also mentioned that Johnson Health Tech, which is the parent company of Johnson Wellness here in United States, but Johnson Health Tech, which I believe is out of China, and I think they, yeah, I think out of China, but I may stand corrected on that, but they just purchased or acquired a majority stake in Fuji Medical of Japan. So, on February 4th, there was to have been a press release issued, and I kind of waited until the 4th before I did this, at least the 4th until I did this broadcast, but there was no press release, I didn’t see anything anyway. So, but anyway, there was a press release announcing that Johnson Health Tech has acquired a majority stake-hold in the Fuji Medical of Japan. And Fuji Medical of Japan is like one of the, one of the, if not the, oldest massage chair manufacturing company in the world. They’re out of Japan, of course, I believe they’re in Osaka, and they have the Fujiiryoki chairs, which you may have been familiar with in the past. They also created the old Osaki 4D, or sorry, the JP4D, and the 4S, and the 4.0. Those chairs are basically all out of Fuji Medical. So, anyway, that’s a big buy-in by Johnson Health Tech, and so they’re going to be having some chairs that they will have some intellectual ownership of the design and engineering of. So, I’m curious to see what they might come out with in the next, you know, year to two years, which is typically a product development curve. So, we’ll see what they come up with, but that’s pretty interesting information. And finally, I wanted to chitchat just a little bit about our Lifetime Labor warranty, we had a, OK, so, our Lifetime Labor warranty, if you’re unaware of this, we cover, we give you Lifetime Labor coverage on your massage chair, whether it’s a new one that you bought from us, or a pre-owned one that you bought from us, as long as you own that chair, you’ll be covered by our our pre-owned warranty, or sorry, not pre-owned, our Lifetime Labor warranty. So, you, you will get the parts and the diagnosis most likely from the massage chair company, whether it’s you know, Human Touch, or OHCO, or Infinity, or whatnot, and then you get the parts from them, but then we will provide a tech for you, and some locations in the United States do not, and we tap in to about five or six different networks of techs for furniture and for massage chairs, and sometimes it’s very difficult to find a tech in your zip-code area. We have a customer in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, which we’ve been trying to find a tech for them for months, and it’s very, very difficult. We’re trying to find another one for a customer in South Dakota, very difficult, and sometimes, one of the networks was able to find a tech, but it was 200 to 300 miles away, and so in that instance, there is a mileage charge beyond 25 miles, which is what our radius is, and most techs, as a matter of fact, we have not, knock on wood, to this point, we have not paid mileage charges on any of our, maybe once, we did, I’m trying to reflect on that, but on any of our Lifetime Labor warranty claims. But there’s a couple here, a couple of folks that are quite a way away, and there’s going to be a mileage charge. The service call we pay for, up to 25 miles we pay for it, it’s all free, but if you live outside of 25 miles, there’ll be a mileage charge. So, it’s $1 a mile, so if you live 50 miles away from the local tech, you’re going to pay 25 miles in, or $25 in fees each way, and so this is something that’s, that is, of course, we make it clear to people if they inquire about whether there’s a tech in their area or not, before they buy a chair from us. But I might also mention that sometimes people wonder ‘Well, why buy an extended warranty if you guys have the Lifetime Labor warranty?’ Like, some companies have a three-year parts-and-labor warranty, with two more years of parts. So, the customer will say ‘Why do I need to buy those two, why do I need to buy an extended warranty to get five years full coverage, when I’ve got three years of labor from the massage chair company, and two more years of parts from you guys?’ Well, the only caveat for that, and that does make sense, most people it’s fine, you don’t have to buy the extended warranty, we, our labor coverage will take care of you, but if you live beyond that 25-mile radius, there will be a charge, and that’s the difference. If you buy the extended warranty from, you know, whoever it is, from Furniture for Life companies, or Luraco, or Human Touch, or whatnot, they will take care of the expense of the tech, no matter where they live, and how far away it is, but once you get in to our Lifetime Labor warranty, which is free to you, there are, there will be some mileage charges if you live past that 25-mile radius threshold. So, anyway, I just wanted to clarify that, and sometimes people wonder ‘Why should I buy an extended warranty when you have the Lifetime Labor warranty?’ Well, that’s a good point. You usually don’t have to, but if you live outside of a big city, or a suburb of a big city, like if you live out in the middle of, well, like I’m, well, I’m from Alberta, Canada, originally, and my goodness, there are some towns up in northern Alberta that there is not, there probably won’t even be a tech for hundreds and hundreds of miles. And so, you know, we of course, our Lifetime Labor warranty doesn’t work up there, but for someone that’s in the middle of nowhere like that, maybe there’s some places like that in the United States, as I’m sure there are, where they don’t have access for hundreds of miles to a big city, or a city where there is a tech. So, anyway, the best way to find out if we do have coverage is just get a hold of us, and give us your zip code, and we’ll let you know what’s out there. Anyway, I think that’s about it for this week. What have we got coming up in the near future?

[SCREEN TEXT: Daiwa Massage from US Jaclean]

Alan: Oh, I had a great visit, when I was at Furniture Market, yeah, Furniture Market, I had a great visit with US Jaclean, which is the company that distributes the Daiwa chairs in the US, and you may have seen those at trade shows, you may have seen them at Sam’s Club, but they reached out to me the week of, or I think the week before the Furniture Market, and they wanted to visit with me, and to talk about, talk about maybe carrying their chairs. Well, I’m not real, I get skeptical because I get approached by companies that want me to carry chairs or represent their chairs, that’s not uncommon, but there are some that just are not a good fit, like if the chairs are real cheap, and they have a very low profit margin, I have a Lifetime Labor warranty, I can’t honor that on those cheap chairs. Or if someone has approached me and we don’t feel really good about their customer support record, or whatever, that makes me nervous. Or we need to, you know, do a little more homework to find out, but this was a company I’d heard about, and I’ve had a lot of people call me about these chairs, and people that have tried them, and I was very pleasantly surprised when I met with Eday Yoshida, their VP of sales, I believe, good guy, very gracious, friendly fellow, and we talked about their models, and all their models are built in one of the best factories in China, which surprised me, I didn’t know. And I’ve been to this factory, it’s just a couple hours outside of Shanghai, it’s in a fantastic factory, and anyway, when I, when he told me, you know, I was, I kind of went in there with a skeptical mindset, but when he told me that they were all built in this factory, I was like, they had my attention. Anyway, there are some nice chairs. There’s, some of them are a little similar to other chairs we carry, but they have a couple of interesting models that I like, and we’re going to kind of go through our due diligence right now to see about getting them on our website, and maybe getting one in our stores. But anyway, that may be a line of chairs that we’ll be carrying in the near future, so anyway, Daiwa, from US Jaclean, and they’re based out of Southern California as their headquarters. So, anyway, I just thought I’d mention that.

[SCREEN TEXT: Please “Thumbs Up” Like This Video!!]

Alan: Well, that’s it for this week. I hope you found this video helpful, of course, please feel free to thumbs up ‘Like’ us on our YouTube channel.

[SCREEN TEXT: 888-253-5380]

Alan: If you have any questions, you can give me a call at 888-259-5380. I’d be happy to chitchat with you. Oops, sorry, I lost the microphone, I’d be happy to chitchat with you, and of course, I hope you found this video helpful, please feel free to share it on your, you know, on your social media platforms with your friends and family to help us spread the word about massage chairs. Well, 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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