Massage Chair Industry Update – January 1, 2021 (Video)

January 3, 2021
 By Dr. Alan Weidner
January 3, 2021
 By Dr. Alan Weidner

Massage Chair Industry Update – January 1, 2021 (Video)

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgMBUlISfTo[/embedyt]

Transcript of Video Titled “Massage Chair Industry Update – January 1, 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, and it is also January 1st of 2021. Happy New Year to all of you, I hope you had a wonderful holiday season, and I hope you’re all staying safe and healthy amidst the pandemic. It is a beginning of a new year. Hopefully, we’ll have some wonderful things to look forward to this year, and hopefully we’ll find some sense of normalcy that we didn’t have last year, and I know it probably will take some time, but let’s keep our fingers crossed.

[SCREEN TEXT: Infinity Riage x3 Discontinued and Out of Stock = “End of Life”]

Alan: Anyway, we’ve got lots of good things to cover today. I’ll begin by saying that the Riage, the Infinity Riage x3 is now in end of life. They consider it “end of life” when they’ve discontinued it, they’re not producing any more, and the stock is gone. And the last color they had was brown, that sold out about a couple weeks ago. So, the Riage x3 from Infinity is done.

[SCREEN TEXT: Shipping Delays Continue – Back-Ordered Chairs Have Arrived and Are Shipping Now]

Alan: Also, we have had huge backups on back-ordered chairs, so we have been, we were expecting the Panasonic chairs, the JPMedics Kumo, and the Daiwa Supreme Hybrid chairs, and all of them were back-ordered quite a bit longer than what had been anticipated, and the primary reason is because of a backlog of shipments coming in at the port of Long Beach. So, what’s happened, and I wrote an article about this in my blog a week, a week-and-a-half ago, and you can read that if you’re interested to get some more details, but the bottom line is the chairs have come from China. They come in to the port at Long Beach, and typically how it works is they go through the port, and they go through Customs, and then they’re hauled away by trucks to the warehouses, or the various and sundry locations that they are destined to go. And what has happened this year because of the COVID, probably it’s twofold, because of the increase in the demand for online sales, more products are coming in to the country, but there’s also a shortage of truckers, primarily because of the COVID thing, there are less truckers available to deliver products and take them away from the ports to take them to the warehouses. So, it’s a little bit, it’s kind of like the perfect storm, and then you add in, and I just, and I had a conversation with John Cribs of Cozzia about a week and-a-half ago also we talked about this. He also said that there’s going to be a demand on truckers to haul vaccines for the COVID virus around the country and so that’s going to probably trump some of the other products, or the other types of products that are going to be getting, you know, priority, and so that will also affect the logistics. But bottom line is the logistics chain has been messed up, and hopefully we’ll see some normalcy next year, or this year, 2021, as we continue to adapt to the changes brought on by, the market conditions brought on by the COVID virus. But anyway, I just wanted to let you know that all those chairs have now come in, I know there’s a lot of my customers that are waiting on back-orders. They have all come in. The Hybrids came in yesterday, but they are all spoken for, so if you’ve been waiting for the shipment to come in to buy one, you have to wait until February, which is the next shipment coming in. So, I want you to realize that these popular chairs, whether it’s the Panasonic, or the Kumo, or the Hybrid, or any of the chairs out there that are popular, when they have run out, their back-order status may be a lot longer than originally anticipated because of these logistics problems. But anyway, the Hybrid came in last night, so we’ve got a lot of happy customers. The Kumo came in last week, the Panasonic MAJ7s, and I think some MA73s came in this week, so we’re all happy. Now, there are still our other products that are back-ordered, like for example, the Daiwa Supreme Hybrid is back-ordered again, because all of them that had come in this shipment have been spoken for, so they are already presold. So, if you want, I guess the message here is if you want to get a chair that’s a popular chair, or a chair that is continually on back-order, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s popular, it might be that the inventory management of the company selling the chair is not optimal, and so what’ll happen is these chairs will become back-ordered, a lot of times the demand is still there, or the demand may increase for some reason, like Christmas, or Mother’s Day coming up, or Father’s Day, there may be an increase in demand, but if the inventory is not there, we are on back-order status, and because of the COVID epidemic or pandemic, and all the problems associated with that, as I just explained logistically, the chairs may not here in time, and you may have, they may all be spoken for by the time the shipment actually arrives. So, don’t wait, if you want to get a chair and it’s on back-order, my advice would be, no matter what the chair is, place your order, unless there’s a really good substitute for it, place your order now and get dibs in on one of those chairs coming in on the next shipment, whenever that shipment might be.

[SCREEN TEXT: Cozzia Purchased the License for the Name “Brookstone” for Their New Chair Line]

Alan: Alright, what else can we tell you about? Oh, speaking of Cozzia, and my conversation with John, we talked a little bit about the new Brookstone line of chairs that they have out, and Brookstone is, they purchased the license for that name. So, you know, Brookstone used to be a real growing concern in the United States. There were a lot of stores all over the country, in malls, airports, and in the malls, they had massage chairs, and a lot of people went to Brookstone for their massage chairs. This was probably, this probably predates the time that I got in to the industry, which was back in 2004 or 2005, but I remember that Brookstone had those, had some chairs in stock, or available for sale. It was one of the few places you could get chairs. Anyway, that name Brookstone, when people would think of massage chairs, they thought of going to Brookstone, or back then, Sharper Image as well. Well, the Brookstone name is still a very well recognized name, and Cozzia now has license to brand that name on their products, and so they have, and they have a new Brookstone line. I’m excited to see it, I still, we still don’t have it on our website, but hopefully now with the dying down of the holiday season, we can get this done. But I might also add that their top line, I think it’s the 750 is a very nice-looking chair, and it was designed by one of their employees here in the United States, and it’s designed to look kind of like, look like a car, that was the impetus behind that design, and so it’s a nice-looking chair. We hope to have one in our showroom soon enough, and then we can, you know, start giving you better reports on what the chair is like.

[SCREEN TEXT: Flash Sale for Luraco Legend Plus (Black and Cream Colors Only) – $1000 Off]

Alan: OK, Luraco introduced a, what they called a flash sale, for their Legend. They took $1000 off, and as far as I know, that sale is still available, so if you want a Luraco Legend, $1000 off. The Luraco $500 off on the iRobotics 7 ends today, or that’s done as of today, and I just wanted you to know about that.

[SCREEN TEXT: OHCO M.8 and D.Core Cirrus Going Up in Price on 3/1/21 to $9999 and $8499, Respectively]

Alan: Also, you should know that the OHCO M.8, which is their, OHCO’s flagship site, or flagship chair, of their, of this Furniture for Life line, their price is going up, on March 1st, to $9999, and right now it’s $9799. Also, the D.Core Cirrus, a Japanese designed and engineered chair, will also be going up in price from $7999 to $8499 on March 1st. So, be prepared for those price increases. Don’t get caught with your trousers down, so to speak, if you want the chair, and you want it at the lower price, get it before March 1st. Oh, by the way, the Luraco flash sale, the Luraco Legend flash sale, that’s only available on the black and Cream colors, and not on the brown color.

[SCREEN TEXT: Massage Chair Relief & Make-A-Wish = $71,000+ Donated]

Alan: OK, Make-A-Wish, you know, we have, as you may or may not know, a portion of every sale of our business goes to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and this is not just some empty marketing ploy. I’ve been involved with the Make-A-Wish Foundation since my chiropractic days, when we sponsored a child through the kindness of my patients, we were able to donate enough to fund a wish for a child, and it was, for me personally, it was quite life altering. They have an office here in Salt Lake, it’s in the town of Murray, which is in the Salt Lake valley, and I went and visited it, and I went on the tour, and I was deeply moved by the experience, and it has stayed with me. Of course, I’m the father of six children, and one of my children is a Type 1 diabetic, so I am kind of sensitive to long-term illnesses and syndromes and terminal issues that some children are facing. So, needless to say, when I started my massage chair site, one of the things that I wanted to do was donate a portion of the proceeds to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and we have a page on the Make-A-Wish website, and you can access that through my website. We allude to it on every product page, there’s a little logo by the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which is important to me, and we’ve just passed $71,000 that we’ve donated, and I’m very, very proud of that. As of matter of fact, I just had a donation from a fellow yesterday who was asking me about a chair that he wasn’t even going to be buying from me, because it was a chair that we didn’t have at our disposal, but he was so grateful for the help that we gave him that he donated some money to my Make-A-Wish page, and I was just deeply touched by that. Now, we do this for children, as you know, and if you would like to donate, you’re welcome to do that anywhere you see the link on my page, go ahead and donate it, or on the website, donate it. Click it, and it’ll take you to the link of our Make-A-Wish page, and you can donate there. But I’d like to thank, you know, all of our customers who have trusted us with the purchase of their chairs because we have been able to give, as a result of that, we’ve been able to give money, funding, if you will, to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Now, these are under my name because if you want to do a corporate donation, you have to do about $250,000 a year, and we’re not quite there yet, but we’re working on it. But anyway, right now, it’s my personal Make-A-Wish page, and you’re welcome to visit it at any time, and of course, you’re welcome to donate if you’d like, either by direct donation or by buying a chair from us, we appreciate that very, very much.

[SCREEN TEXT: Cozzia to Charge 3% Ocean-Freight Surcharge to Offset Increased Freight Costs in 2021]

Alan: Also, this whole, all the backlogging of shipping and shortage of trucks, and the, just the whole hassle, the logistics hassle that I talked about earlier today, has resulted in the increase of some, the cost of some chairs, our cost of chairs, so for example, we were just notified, I know that there are some other ones who have told us about increasing in the cost of their chairs, but we were told that there will be a 3% surcharge on all the Cozzia and Ogawa and JPMedics products, which is the same company, and of course, Brookstone, there will be a 3% ocean-freight surcharge now because of the increased costs of shipping. Now, interestingly, two things, one of my customers who lives in Newport Beach, California, we talked a little bit about the logistics issue, and he says ‘You know, it’s true about the backlog because I can see the ocean from my view,’, you know, the Pacific Ocean from where he’s at, and he says he can see ocean freightliners stacked up within his vision all the way across his horizon. So, he is, you know, attesting to what we have been told, that there is a backlog of product, and also, oh, what was the other thought I had? Well, I thought it was important. Oh, well, I guess not. But anyway, oh, the other thing was we had heard that in China, there is a shortage of containers, because all the containers have taken product out of China, and they are waiting to come in to America, which is probably, I would arguably say, the single largest consumer of these products, these types of products in the world, per capita. Oh, maybe not per capita, but gross volume of sales, and so there is a shortage of containers on the Chinese end. So, they have product waiting for the containers to come back, that are being backlogged because of the logistics problem at the ports, so it’s just a mess, the bottom line is it’s a mess. And as one of my customers said, and I wrote this in my article, everything seems to be out of balance, and that is definitely true logistically speaking, but it’s also true in a lot of other things, like our work lives, and our family lives, and our socializing lives, everything is a little bit out of balance from what we’re accustomed to, and so the question is, are we creating a new balance, a new you know, just a new level of function that we’re going to become accustomed to, or are going to go back to the way it was? I think it’ll probably be a little blend of both, but times have definitely changed. Things are definitely different, and we’ll see how much of that is a long-term change. OK, my tip for you is, OK, everybody has just purchased their massage chairs, and now this goes for everyone, but you know, at Christmastime, the sales really increase, and there’s going to be, with the increase of sales, there’s an increase in returns, and so there are folks out here that are watching this video, that are hearing my voice that have purchased a chair, or are going to purchase a chair, and I’ve told you many times before, save your boxes. Now, I don’t know what the return policy of the retailers is, from whom you purchased your chair, but if you want to return your chair, it is going to save you a lot of money and a lot of hassle if you return the chair in the original boxing, in the original packaging that you got it in. So, I encourage you to keep the packaging. Now, some people have said ‘Well, you know, we have the white-glove guys, they came by and took the chair out of the box and put everything together, and then they took the box.’ You have to tell them, I want the box, leave it with me. If they say no, we have to bring it back, you say, it is my box, it is my chair, I want the box, and I need it for you know, whatever, for returning the chair if I have to. Now, a lot of people keep the boxes beyond you know, knowing that they’re going to be keeping their chairs, but they like to use them as we do, as forts for the grandchildren. So, anyway, keep the boxes, don’t get rid of them. If your plan is to get rid of them eventually, and I know you want to get rid of them, because they take up a lot of space, wait until you know that you’re keeping your chair, OK, that’s the word to the wise. I think that’s about it for this week. It’s been a crazy holiday season with everything going on, with the increase in the COVID, with the logistics hassles that I’ve talked about. And of course, that’s on top of the regular chaos that happens when you are around this time of the year, or this time that’s just passed, where people are going nuts trying to get things ordered for Christmas, or for holidays, or for New Year’s, or whatever. And it’s kind of a chance to take a breather now that the new year started, and time to reflect, and time to recommit to the things that we want to recommit to, and it’s time to, you know, plan on having a fantastic 2021, and I hope you do have a fantastic 2021, and I’m grateful for your patronage of our website, of our business, and your support, it has meant so much to me, particularly since we just started with a simple website back in 2005 that just, and I think back on the quality of it, and it’s amazing that we ever sold a chair through that website. But we’re grateful for all the support, and we look forward to many, many years to come, including, you know, new stores, and whatnot. But anyway, have a great New Year’s today, have a good month, a good year, and we will talk to you again in two weeks.

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

Alan: I’m Dr. Alan Weidner from ‘Massage-Chair-Relief.com.’ If you found this video helpful, please feel free to thumbs up ‘Like’ us on our YouTube channel, and of course, share this video with those friends and family of yours on your various and sundry social media platforms to help us spread the word about massage chairs. Have a great day, and I will see you in a couple weeks. Bye bye.

Click on the following link to watch this Massage Chair Industry Update on our YouTube channel.

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