Transcript of Video Titled “Massage Chair Industry Update – July 23, 2018”
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Alan: Hi, I’m Dr. Weidner from ‘Massage-Chair-Relief.com’ and today is our biweekly massage chair industry update for Monday, July 23rd, 2018. We are right now in the dog days of summer, and for a hockey fan like myself, and for a basketball fan like myself, and for many of you, that is the time of the season where there’s not a lot of things going on. The same could be said for massage chairs. There’s not a lot of new models coming out, not a lot of sales, not really any sales – well, I shouldn’t say not any sales – but very few sales, and it’s a quiet time. So, not a lot of news, but I do have some things for you today.
[SCREEN TEXT: Infinity Evoke – $2299]
Alan: Infinity has lowered the price of their Evoke chair to $2299. I think the price before was $2899 – was it $2899, or $2699, or something like that – but they’ve dropped it down to $2299. That’s not a sale price, that’s a new what they call MAP price, a minimum advertised price.
[SCREEN TEXT: Panasonic MA70 Discontinued After Existing Stock]
Alan: Also, let’s see, the Panasonic MA70, which has been around a while is being discontinued, and it will not be imported anymore by Furniture for Life after the existing stock disappears, but there are good prices on it right now. It’s regularly $6999, and right now it’s on sale for $4999, and it’s a chair that’s like the MA73 in a lot of ways, but it fits a smaller body. The neck massage is not as strong as the MA73, but a good bang for the buck for a Japanese designed and engineered chair, even though it is 100% made in China.
[SCREEN TEXT: New Novo XT2 Replaces the XT]
Alan: Human Touch has come out with the new Novo XT2. Now, the Novo XT has been a popular seller for us over the last year and a half since it’s been out, a very popular chair, and it’s a 3D L-track chair. The new XT2 is a 3D L-track chair, just like the Novo XT, but this one has a different remote with a different – more of a, I guess it’s a touch tile – or touch tiles on the remote control. It’s a little different remote control, and it has Altec Lansing speakers, so it’s got a beefed-up stereo system. So, it’s going to be – I think it’s priced at $500 more than than the XT – and so you have to decide if that $500 is going to be worth the Altec Lansing speakers, and a little bit more user-friendly remote control, but that chair is out now. It has a different color brown than the XT, the brown on this one is an expresso, which is a dark, dark brown. The brown on the XT is more of a leathery, kind of a leather brown. The expresso is more of a dark, coffee-colored brown, which is a more traditional brown color for most massage chair companies. Anyway, you can read about the XT2, pretty much the same chair as the XT, except for those two major changes. White-glove delivery is included with those.
[SCREEN TEXT: Our Novo XT Floor Models for Sale – $4999 Each]
Alan: Oh, and because the XT is being discontinued, we have both of our floor models for sale. Now, remember, that chair is usually $7999, and we’re selling our floor models for $4999. So, if you’re interested in those, let me know. They’re both dark gray, which is the most popular color, and I’ll be putting them up on our pre-owned directory, along with an Ogawa Refresh Plus, I can’t remember the color, but we have that one, and that one’s only a few weeks old. That one is for sale, and I believe we have a – I think it’s a black Luraco iRobotics 7 that’ll be for sale – and it’s returned, and that one’s a couple of months old. That was one of our local California customers, they ended up not using the chair as much as they thought they would, and so they just wanted to return it. So, there’s nothing wrong with the chair, it’s in immaculate condition, like new, and I think we’ll be selling that chair for $6490, if I’m not mistaken, so it’s $2000 off the retail price. Anyway, those are some chairs that you will see on the pre-owned directory, we’re putting those up this week. OK, enough about that.
[SCREEN TEXT: Utah Store Hours]
Alan: Now, I mentioned to you that our Utah store is now open with regular hours, 11 to 6 on Monday through Friday, and 10 to 3, Saturdays.
[SCREEN TEXT: My Son, Rob Weidner, is Managing our Utah Store]
Alan: My son, Rob Weidner, is running that store. Of course, I’m still there, by appointment, with certain customers and whatnot, but he’ll be there every day, so people don’t have to go and see the sign on the door that says ‘By Appointment Only.’ I know I’ve ticked off a few customers over the years because of that. It’s always been that way, but when people go down to the store, expecting to see it open, and it’s not, it’s very frustrating, and I get that. Well, no my son is going to be there from 11 to 6 Monday through Friday, and Saturday, 10 to 3. So, that is available for our local Utah customers, but I wanted to also mention that because my son, Rob, is going to be doing some videos on our Facebook page. He’s a real big – he loves social – he’s a young guy, he’s 26, so obviously he loves social media, and he’s always been ragging on me, trying to get me to do more social media stuff, because I’m kind of weak on the social media because I’m an old geezer, I guess, and I don’t have what it takes, according to him, and all of my kids. But he’s going to be putting up videos, like I like to call them spot videos, where he’ll talk about a particular feature of a particular chair. Now, of course, I’ve done videos on our YouTube channel, and I’ve, of course, mentioned them on my Facebook page, about reviews of chairs, and about particular features of chairs, in a series of videos about massage chairs, but this’ll be just a particular feature that my son really likes about a particular chair. I think he mentioned something about the Maestro, I think he spelled it wrong, I think he spelled it Mistro, but it’s Maestro, the Osaki Maestro, which is a new chair, and I believe he talked about the neck-and-shoulder massage, which is very, very strong in the Maestro. For the 3D L-tracks, and 3D meaning three-dimensional rollers, where you can adjust the depth of the rollers to make it more or less intense, and the L-track means the rollers come down the back, and then under the butt, to massage the glutes. That’s what a 3D L-track chair is, and there’s a whole new breed of 3D L-tracks, the Osaki Ekon, the Osaki Maestro, the Infinity Presidential, the Human Touch Novo XT, and the XT2, which I just talked about earlier, and you can also classify the Luraco Legend in that category. Well, these chairs are good chairs, and they’re a little bit – they’re a cut above the typical Chinese chairs – these are a little bit better quality, better components, of course, they’re more money. But this Osaki Maestro has the strongest neck massage, neck-and-shoulder massage. It’s one of the few chairs, of any of the chairs, that actually comes up and does a pretty good job on the traps. There are some others, but as far as the L-tracks go, it’s probably the best one. So, he’ll be doing little videos like that, he’ll also be doing videos that maybe compare one aspect of different chairs, like, I think we were talking about the low-back roller massage of the Infinity X, sorry, the Infinity IT-8500, the Luraco iRobotics 7, and the Novo XT, which one had the stronger low back, and we found that by sitting in the chairs, one after the other, and experiencing the low-back massage, the Luraco iRobotics 7 had the stronger low-back massage. So, that is information that’s kind of just, kind of, what we do from to time just for our own sake, or to answer an email from a customer, but that’s good information that I’ve asked Rob to put on the Facebook page. So, he will start doing stuff like that.
[SCREEN TEXT: Monthly Giveaway!]
Alan: Also, at his behest, we’re going to be doing a monthly giveaway of a massage chair product, like a foot massager, or a handheld massager, or an eye massager, whatnot. We have access to these products through our suppliers, and I don’t sell them on the website, but we do give them away from time to time to people that come in to the showroom and visit, or people that buy on the same day that they’re at the showroom, and so we’re going to be making available a monthly giveaway for these things. And so, you can go to our Facebook page, and it’s ‘Massage Chair Relief’ on Facebook, and there, if you ‘Like’ it, ‘Like’ the page, you will be notified whenever we have a giveaway. Also, you’ll be notified every time we put up, like my son puts up a new video. And then of course, by following us, we also would ask you to, you know, maybe ‘Like’ the page, you know, share it, and spread the word, with your friends and family, about massage chairs. But anyway, my son will be doing that, those will be monthly giveaways, and spot videos about particular, you know, one to two-minute videos about features that he kind of likes about each chair that we have in the showroom. If you want to see what chairs we have in the showrooms, both the California and the Utah showrooms, you can go to our website, and go to the ‘Store Locations’ tab on the navigation bar, and you’ll see that you have a link to each of the stores.
[SCREEN TEXT: Buyer Beware!]
Alan: But I think that’s just about it, of course, as I have been prone to do, more so lately, buyer beware, be careful out there when you’re shopping for massage chairs. Watch out for some of the no-name branders. Watch out for some of the low-ball pricing on chairs that you may never have heard before. Watch out for reports that show up on Google that say ‘The Top 10 Chairs’ or ‘The Top 8 Chairs,’ or whatever. Be very aware of these things, make sure you understand the warranties of the chairs that you’re getting. Make sure you understand the money-back guarantee of the chair that you’re buying. Make sure that you check the reviews, in two ways, make sure that there are good reviews about a particular chair, or a particular retailer that you’re thinking of buying from, but also, check the validity of the reviews that you read on Yelp and Amazon. There’s an app called ‘FakeSpot,’ fake, F-A-K-E-S-P-O-T, ‘FakeSpot,’ that will run all the reviews through for any particular vendor on Amazon or Yelp, and tell you what percent of their reviews are good, or what percent are fake, or paid, or not legitimate reviews, and you’d be surprised. There are some vendors out there that sell their own chairs, or sell chairs for others, that have a very, very high percentage of fake reviews, or paid reviews, or illegitimate reviews. So, those are just, again, that’s kind of my warning call to you. I do it pretty much every two weeks now, because I’ve seen so many people get ripped off, or have significant regrets about getting a chair, and not able to return it, or fine print that may say one thing, and then ends up being another. I’d just be really careful and make sure you understand what you’re getting yourself in to. Read the fine print, always read the fine print, and of course, if you have any questions, give me a call. I’m always available, whether you buy from me or not, I’m always available to answer questions for you, and believe me, a lot of people do call for me, and don’t buy from me. You don’t have to feel bad for doing that, I’m kind of used to that.
[SCREEN TEXT: Please “Thumbs Up” Like This Video!!]
Alan: But anyway, 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, on Facebook, as you start to see videos popping up there. And of course, help us spread the word about massage chairs by sharing this video on your, you know, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Plus, Twitter, Instagram, I guess, or whatever accounts, to help us spread the word. I hope you have a fantastic day, and I will see you again in two weeks. Bye bye.
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