Massage Chair Industry Update 4/6/23
Dr. Alan Weidner: [00:00:15]
[00:01:05]
And a lot of people ask me why they can’t get … Well, this is what they’ll do. They want to get a cheap chair price or a discount on a chair, but then they want 48 months financing. And we cannot do the two things at the same time because of the cost of our merchant processing fees with our financing company, Synchrony Bank. So anyways, I wrote an article about it because I get a lot of questions about that. And you can read about that. And I also wrote an article last week about footrests and the different types of footrests and what you should know about them when you’re considering getting a massage chair. The footrests doesn’t seem like a big thing. It just seems like … When you think of a regular recliner, you think of an Ottoman and you put your feet on it and you’re good to go. But there’s so much more to an Ottoman or a footrest with a massage chair. And I go into great detail about those differences.
[00:01:59]
So anyways, you can take a look at those articles on my website, on the blog/article library. It’s under the education tab on any page of our website. There are quite a few sales going on this month. I’ll begin with the Human Touch Whole Body Rove. And I talked about that recently in my last industry update because I visited Human Touch and I sat in that chair. It’s a good chair. It’s a 2D L-Track chair, regularly 4,999 on sale for 3,999. Infinity has reduced prices on their Kyota models, and the Yosei is down to 4,999, the Genki to 3,499, and the Kenko to 2,999. These are pretty low costs for those chairs, but anyways, that sale is good until the end of April, starting … Well, no, I can’t mention one that’s starting on the ninth because that wouldn’t be fair.
[00:03:02]
So, on my next industry update, I’ll talk about another company that has a sale. Also, Furniture for Life is offering a free five-year extended warranty on the Ocho R.6, the Positive Posture Bro sport, and the three Panasonic models, the MA 73, the MAJ 7, and the MAK 1. And that is good until the I believe, until the end of April as well. And Luraco is offering $1,000 off on their Luraco i9 Max and $1,300 off on their Luraco i9 Max Special Edition. And those prices are good until I believe the middle of May. I think it’s May 15th or something like that. And those are those prices are for Easter right now and Mother’s Day next month. And Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are pretty big times of the year for massage chair sales, so keep your eyes peeled. But this is a good sale on the Luraco, on the i9 Max Special Edition.
[00:04:00]
We have the Special Edition in our showroom. And that’s a very, very nice chair, a leather appointment, upholstery. It’s got arm rollers, calf rollers. It’s got a split roller track. A very, very nice chair. And it’s one of the few … It’s the only chair I know of that has a full leather upholstery as a standard option. That is it for the sales. Now, we have some backorders. The Ocho M.8 midnight color is back-ordered until June 1st. The Brio Plus in black is back-ordered until May 18th, and the Positive Posture Brio Sport is back-ordered until the 25th of this month. So, the beige Osaka Maestro LE is, I believe they’re out of stock permanently, and so if you want a beige one, you can still order it on our website, but what gets sent to you is the Maestro LE 2.0.
[00:05:06]
And the 2.0 is basically the same version as the LE, has a different remote control, and I think that’s about it. So, you’ll get one or the other. The Maestro LE has the remote, I think. Well, you know what? I’m not even going to say because I get confused when I try to think of the differences, the subtle differences. But anyways, the remote control is a little different. But if you want the beige-colored Osaki Maestro LE, you’re going to get the 2.0 version, which is not that bad. It’s a little bit of an upgrade, but the upgrade is in something that does not affect the massage programming or anything like that at all. Also, the Ogawa Active XL 3D, that’s the upgrade to the Active L 3D. And it’s an upgrade in the way that it fits a bigger body, so it’s got a wider seat. I think it’s 3 inches or 4 inches wider in the seat, in the shoulders as well, so this will be a chair that will fit bigger bodies.
[00:06:06]
BBB, bigger bodies better. There’s no ETA on it, though. So, that one won’t be in. Well, I have no idea when it will be in, but when it is in, we will let you know. Let’s see what else we got. There’s still some Japanese-made chairs that are supposed to be coming to market. One of them was supposed to be here already, but it’s not. We’ve got some other ones that are supposed to come in the third or fourth quarter of this year. But these are going to be all Japanese. Oh, that reminds me. The new Synca JP3000 is out. And the JP3000 is an upgrade to the JP1100. And I talked a little bit about this because of at Furniture Market, I sat in that chair. And I’m just looking for the email that has the information about it. But that is a Japanese-made chair.
[00:07:02]
And again, when you say made in Japan, there may be components or parts of the parts that are made in another country and then imported and then they’re assembled in Japan. But I want you to be aware that made in Japan, I use that term loosely, and we’ve discussed this many times in the past. Okay, just a minute here. Uh, doggone, I thought I had this email ready to tell you the information. But anyways, needless to say, that chair is out and it is ready for purchase. I believe it retails. We’ll see … I can’t … Oh, for heaven’s sake. The email is missing. It’s missing. So, let me get this for you. Okay, here we go. I’m sorry. All right, so this chair, it is priced at … The JP1100, which is the other Japanese-made chair from Synca Wellness, that chair retails for I believe it’s 9,999.
[00:08:03]
The new one, the 3000, it’s retailing for 10,999. And it’ll have a strong AI component to it. AI in the operation of the roller track and the feedback mechanism of what the chair feels on your body, and how the roller intense, the roller depth, and the roller function adjusts to that feedback from the AI component from your body to the chair. So, it’s got a really cool AI feature. The lines on the chair are a little more smooth than the old JP1100. But anyways, that is the new JP3000. That one should be on our website soon. We just received the email about it. But I’ll let you know more about that on the website when the chair posts. All right, I just want to clarify this, that I am the owner of Massage Chair Relief.
[00:09:08]
We had someone come into one of our stores and say, “Hey, listen, is that Weidner guy associated with Massage Chair Relief?” And when my staff member told me that, I laughed because they probably think that I’m just a paid shill for Massage Chair Relief when I make these videos. No, no, Massage Chair Relief is my business. It’s my blood, sweat, and tears for the last 18 years. And as a matter of fact, we are 18 years in business in May. So yes, I am the owner of Massage Chair Relief. I’m not a hired gun or a hired shill. I do try to speak for the whole industry, though. When I do these industry updates, when I write articles, I am trying to speak on behalf of the entire industry, not just for my store. I don’t know if you noticed this, but in these videos, I don’t ever say I can sell you this chair or whatever, or here’s a special for today only. I don’t do that. I just give you the information as I have it and I share it with you so that you can make whatever decisions you need to make.
[00:10:06]
Of course, I’m not going to complain if you buy the chair from us. But having said that, this is my store. These are my stores. This is my business. And I hire the people and we have weekly staff meetings. And I am very, very connected to my business. As a matter of fact, next week, I’m going to be flying out to Boston to meet with the folks at Infinity massage chairs. And I am embarrassed to say that I told them the last time I was out there, I think was seven years ago, and that was before they moved to their new place. And I said, I’ll be back. And every time I see Michael Malone or Michael Garceau or Jim Coppins at one of the trade shows or whatever, they always say, “Oh yeah …” I always say, “I’m going to come out and visit you guys.” And they always go, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.” They don’t believe me anymore. I’ve lost complete credibility with them, but they still remain my friends, which I truly appreciate.
[00:11:04]
And we’re going to be going out there on Wednesday. We’re going to spend the day on Thursday at their new facility, and I’m looking forward to see my friends there, talk about some new their new chairs. They’ve got the new Luminary, which I talked about from the Furniture Market. I just received an email this morning that says they’ve got a new Riage 40. The Riage 3D was a pretty popular chair, but they discontinued that some time ago, and now they’ve come out with a 4D. And well, I’m interested to see how that one looks and feels., And hopefully I’ll do some videoing and some recording when I’m there and I’ll post that on our YouTube channel. And of course, I’ll mention it to you here, just as I did about my trip to Human Touch. And that video is on our YouTube channel and you can see my visit to Human Touch as we talk about the Whole Body 8.0 and the Whole-Body Rove which are their two new models.
[00:12:03]
I feel like I’m missing something here unless I’ve said everything. Nope, I think that’s about it for this week. I hope you have enjoyed this video and found it helpful. If you did, please feel free to thumbs up like us on our YouTube channel. And of course, if you have any questions about this video or any chairs that you’re looking at or anything, feel free to reach out to us on our toll-free number, 888-259-5380. And of course, help us spread the word about massage chairs by sharing this video or any of our videos. And we have over 750 of them, if I’m not mistaken. Share those with your friends and family on your social media platforms to help us spread the word. Anyways, I’m Dr. Weidner from Massage Chair Relief and I will see you again in two weeks. Bye-bye.