Massage Chair Relief Blog

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

Posted: 07 May 2020 06:04 PM PDT

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

[SCREEN TEXT: SUBSCRIBE to Our YouTube Channel and be Notified of Each New Massage Chair Video!]

Alan: Hi, I’m Dr. Alan Weidner from ‘Massage-Chair-Relief.com‘ and today is our biweekly massage chair industry update for Wednesday, May 6th, 2020. I hope this video finds you and your family and loved ones safe amidst the pandemic, which still continues, and rages on, even though we are seeing some signs of life in Utah anyway. We’re seeing places opening up now. I saw a restaurant the other day that had some customers in it, and I got a haircut, which was a glorious day, after three months of not having a haircut.

[SCREEN TEXT: Happy National Nurses Day!!]

Alan: Also, today is National Nurses Day. I’m married to a nurse, so it has been made very clear to me that this is an important day, so happy National Nurses Day. We appreciate all the nurses, and particularly those who are dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak. You’re risking your lives every day to keep people healthy, or get them well, or keep them healthy, and also to help us help prevent the spread of this nasty thing. So, thank you, and I guess this week until May 12th is National Nurses Week, May 12th is the birthdate of Florence Nightingale. Now, I wouldn't have been able to tell you that some time ago, but now I do know that, and it has been shared, and consider yourself warned if you, if a nurse comes in to your life.

[SCREEN TEXT: Massage-Chair-Relief.com Site Redesign Update]

Alan: Alright, I mentioned on our last one, our last massage chair industry update, that we are, our site redesign, we thought it would be launched this week, but it’s been delayed another three or four days. I guess we’ve got like 3900 pages, and it’s kind of tough for the web developers to get everything figured out and straightened out, and we’ve redesigned a lot of things, and added a bunch of things, and I’m excited about a lot of it, especially in the support department, in the education department. We’re adding some nice features that will help your life be a little easier in the purchase and support of a massage chair. So, I hope that you find it as valuable as I’m hoping that it will be.

[SCREEN TEXT: Current Sales Extended]

Alan: The current sales have all been extended, you know, a lot of the ones I told you about, like Osaki and Furniture for Life, and well, those ones anyway, those have been extended until the end of May. Ogawa, those have all been extended to the end of May. If you want to know what they are, I’m not going to go through them now because there’s quite a few. You can reach out to me at 888-259-5380 and I can help you, let you know what sales are available, but there are lots of sales going on. Ogawa just dropped the price of the Kumo, or sorry, not Ogawa, but the JPMedics Kumo was dropped in price to $6999, and that includes the extended warranty. Now, JPMedics, Ogawa, and Cozzia are the same company, so they’re kind of one in the same, even though they’re three different lines, but the Kumo is a popular chair for us. It is pretty much the same chair as the Cozzia Qi SE, which has been a real popular chair for Cozzia, except the Kumo has parts that are still made in China, in the same factory that Ogawa and Cozzia chairs are made, but they’re exported to Japan for assembly, testing, and programming, and then they’re shipped to the United States. Therefore, they are considered, because of that, to be made-in-Japan chairs, and I’ve talked about what it means to be made in Japan, or made in America, or made in China, many times in the past, I won’t go in to it in this particular visit. We also have the Jupiter, the Titan Jupiter, has been dropped down in price from $4299 down to $3499, and that also includes a two-year extended warranty. Luraco just dropped their prices down, as of yesterday, or two days ago, on the price down on the Luraco iRobotics 7 Plus, from $8990 down to $8490, so $500 off. That Luraco iRobotics 7 Plus is our most popular selling S-track, along with the Infinity Smart Chair X3. Both great chairs, very different chairs, but both of them have a good stretch program, and that's something that people love about those S-track chairs. That sale is good for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, so that $500 off will be good until June 21st, and let’s see what else I can tell you.

[SCREEN TEXT: Infinity Genesis Floor Models for Sale – $2999]

Alan: Oh, we have floor models for sale. We are clearing out the Genesis out of three of our, all three of our showrooms, to make room for a newer Infinity chair, and so we’d like to invite you to, if you’re interested in it, we’re selling them for $2999. It’s a good price, the regular price on that chair is $64, well, actually, it’s $7299, but it’s on sale for, during the pandemic, for $6499. Also, the Riage X3 price has been dropped down from $6799 down to $4999. That's a very, very good price for a proven winner of a chair. That chair has been around since Brookstone was still in business. It was popular back then and it’s still a popular chair, but they dropped the price down, which is really nice. That’ll make it affordable for a lot more people.

[SCREEN TEXT: Make-A-Wish Foundation 40 Years Old on April 29, 2020]

Alan: OK, now, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, I don’t know if you’re aware of this, now I don’t know if you’re aware of this either, but I donate a portion of every massage chair to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The Make-A-Wish Foundation has been a thing close to my heart ever since I was a chiropractor. We sponsored a child, and helped grant a child’s wish when I was in practice, and that was such a moving experience, and we got to meet the child after, and we got to hear from the parents how much of a difference that visit to Disneyland, it was a visit to Disneyland, how different that visit was, it made a difference in the life of that child, and it touched me. And so, I went to the Make-A-Wish main office here in, or their office here in Salt Lake, their main office is in Phoenix, and I’ve got a video about that if you want to, if you can see it on the YouTube channel. I have visited there, and had a tour there, but the local one here in Salt Lake, it was a very touching, touching experience to have a tour through there, and to see what the process is of getting a wish granted. It was beautiful, and I’ve been a big fan ever since. Of course, I’ve got six children, one of my kids has diabetes, diabetes type one, so I’m kind of sensitive to kids, I’m sensitive to kids with you know, life-altering diseases, and so I’m a big supporter of Make-A-Wish. Anyway, they just celebrated their 40th anniversary on April 29th, and they were supposed to have a huge Disneyland thing scheduled to celebrate the 40 years on that date, but of course, Disneyland is closed, as are so many other businesses, including my own stores. So, they have postponed that, I think, until later in the year, but what a wonderful thing, and over that, over the course of that 40 years, Make-A-Wish has granted over 500,000 wishes, and that is absolutely incredible to me, and so I feel like it is a worthwhile project. And if you want to moved, touched, go to the Make-A-Wish site, or go to a Make-A-Wish office, or you know, local office, and read some of the testimonials of, you know, some of the testimonials of these kids and their families. It is one of the most touching things I’ve ever been a part of. So, anyway, kudos to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. I just saw a movie on, I think it was on Netflix called Wish, I think it was called ‘Wish Child,’ or something, but it was about the guy that started the Make-A-Wish Foundation with the mother of the first Make-A-Wish child, and how it all got started with this police department in Arizona, and how it blossomed in to what we know today as the Make-A-Wish Foundation, fantastic, fantastic foundation. So, anyway, congratulations to the Make-A-Wish Foundation on 40 years. I hope that we can continue to contribute. Our goal is to get to $100,000 in donations, and I think we’re up to close to $70,000 now. You can go to the, on my website, you can see where we are in terms of donating, and if you have, would like to donate, you can do that on my website too, you don't have to buy a chair from me, you can go ahead and donate, even if you don’t buy a chair from us. OK, that's that for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

[SCREEN TEXT: Stretch Programs – Segmental vs. Full Body Extension vs. Hip Distraction]

Alan: And then finally, and there’s not a lot, as you can tell, there’s not a lot to talk about, except sales and viruses, or vi-ri, but I’d like to make, just talk a little bit about stretch programs. Now, stretch programs are different from chair type to chair type. The traditional stretch was pretty much a segmental stretch, and I call them segmental stretches. It would stretch the neck, stretch the back, and then stretch the hips. Chairs like the Panasonic, you know, MA73, and the Panasonic JP1100, chairs like the JP1100, chairs like the Osaki Japan 4, I think it’s the 4S. All those chairs that are Japanese designed and engineered have this segmental stretch. Then, along comes Human Touch many years ago, and they introduced what I call a full body stretch. What that is, is that's typically what stretches became in these massage chairs. So, they went from segmental stretches, which they still do in the Japanese-designed-and-engineered chairs, to these full body stretches, what I call an extension stretch. So, the chair back reclines back, and the airbags in the shoulders pin your shoulders back, the seat remains horizontal, and then the airbags in the calves and feet grab your calves and feet, and then the ottoman drops down. So, it kind of arches your back in a full body extension stretch. Along come these L-track chairs, these L-track chairs now have rollers that go down the back, and then under the butt. So, now you've got an L-shaped track. The reason that the S-track chairs were so good and efficacious with the full body stretch is because you could flatten the chair out. An L-track, you cannot flatten the chair out, how do you flatten out an L? It was always going to be an L, so you can’t flatten it out like you can an S-track. So, the stretches were not a full body extension stretch. They’re what I can a hip-distraction stretch, because rather than extending your body all the way because you can’t flatten out the body, what happens is the chair reclines, but it reclines with the L, maintaining the integrity of that L-shape, it reclines, and then the legs, the calves and foot airbags inflate also, and then pull the legs down, the ottoman drops down, just like on the S-track chairs. The difference is that the chair is not flush, flat, it’s not horizontal, so it’s not getting a full extension stretch. So, what happens is when the ottoman drops down, it pulls the legs out a little bit, so it kind of pulls the legs from the hips. That's why I call that a hip-distraction stretch, so just be aware of it. You cannot really compare the stretch in an L-track to a stretch in an S-track because it’s like comparing apples to oranges. They’re different animals, even though people say ‘Well, I want the best stretch I can get, but I want an L-track.’ Well, just know that the quality of the L-track stretch is going to be different, so we have coined it the hip-distraction stretch versus the full body extension stretch of the S-track versus the segmental stretch of the Japanese, the typical Japanese chairs, so I hope that made sense. I wanted to explain that because there is people, when they call, they say they want a stretch, because stretch is one of the most common programs on a massage chair, but it’s important to understand that they are different. From chair to chair, they’re different, or from chair type to chair type. Now, the L-track engineers came up with the idea of a J-track, which isn’t a chair that has an S-track that goes down and then it’s a 90-degree bend under the seat, it comes down in an S-track and then it goes down at a 45-degree angle, so they call it a J-track. And the idea of that was to, a J to, there’s an L, and there’s a J. So, the J can recline more, it could recline back, and you have a more flat body positioning. But you know what, and there are some good chairs, there was the Infinity Presidential, and the Infinity Overture, that had J-tracks, and the stretches were maybe a little bit better, negligibly better, but it wasn't remarkable, like this Smart Chair X3 from Infinity, or the Luraco iRobotics 7 Plus. And the J-track, oh, the OHCO M.8 has what they call a max track, and the max track is like a J-track, and it does accentuate the stretch a little bit, but do not expect it to be like an S-track chair, just the physics will not allow it. So, we have to coin it something different. So, let’s go with segmental stretch in the Japanese chairs. We’ll go with the full body extension stretch of the S-track chairs, and we’ll go with the hip-distraction stretch of the J-track and L-track chairs.

[SCREEN TEXT: 888-259-5380]

Alan: So, I hope that was clear, I hope I didn't confuse anybody, and you can always call us at 888-259-5380 with any questions, or if you want to talk to me about the sale prices I mentioned earlier.

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

Alan: And I think that's just about it for this week. If you have any, oh, if you found the video helpful, please feel free to thumbs up ‘Like’ us on our YouTube channel, and if you have any comments about this video, please add them on to this YouTube video. At the bottom of the video, there’s a place for comments. And of course, help us spread the word about massage chairs by sharing this video with your friends and family, and we appreciate you very much. I am Dr. Alan Weidner from ‘Massage-Chair-Relief.com,’ and I will see you again in two weeks. Bye bye.

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

The post Massage Chair Industry Update – May 6, 2020 (Video) appeared first on Massage Chair Relief Blog.

Happy 40th Birthday, Make-A-Wish Foundation!!

Posted: 07 May 2020 10:01 AM PDT

A Little History…

You’re probably wondering why I am writing a blog post about the Make-A-Wish Foundation on a massage chair website. Well, Make-A-Wish Foundation and I go way back to even before I started Massage-Chair-Relief.com back in 2005.

When I was in private practice, our clinic did a fundraiser for a Make-A-Wish child. We raised enough money to send our Wish Child to Disneyland, which was her wish. Usually the sponsors don’t get to meet the Wish Child and their family, but this time we did. For me, the whole experience was life changing. Being the father of 6 children, one of whom has Diabetes Type 1, I am quite sensitive about children’s issues. That is how we got started with the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

A few years later, when I started Massage-Chair-Relief.com, I vowed to donate a portion of every chair sale to Make-A-Wish, and have been doing it every since. As of the time of this writing, we have donated a total of $62,000. You can see our progress at this link on the Make-A-Wish website…

https://secure2.wish.org/site/TR/?px=2661198&pg=personal&fr_id=3402#.XrQxFmhKhPY

Getting To The Point…

Now, the primary reason for writing this blog today is because on April 29th, Make-A-Wish celebrated it’s 40 birthday. It was 40 years ago that the first wish was granted. It was in Arizona, which just happens to be the location of the worldwide headquarters of Make-A-Wish. They were planning a huge celebration at Disneyland for that date with events leading up to it, but because of the Covid-19 pandemic, everything has been put on hold.

Did you know that since 1980, Make-A-Wish has granted over 500,000 wishes?!?! And a trip to Disneyland or Disney World is the most desired wish by the children. What a fantastic partnership that has become for our children. I am so proud to be a small part of it. We are excited to sell more massage chairs so that we can donate even more money to this cause.

By the way, you don’t have to buy a chair for a donation. If you choose not to purchase your massage chair from us, you can still go to the above link and donate personally in your name.

When we opened our new Arizona store last fall, Make-A-Wish invited me to tour their headquarters in Phoenix. It was a wonderful experience and was amazed at the breadth of the Foundation’s worldwide effort. I wrote about that visit in this blog post:

https://www.massage-chair-relief.com/blog/make-a-wish-foundation-massage-chair-relief/

Thank you for you support of Massage Chair Relief. It has benefited the lives of many children!

Dr. Alan Weidner

P.S. Give us a "Like", “Share”, or “+1” and leave me a comment or question below to share what you learned or ask any questions, so other folks can benefit from this material.

The post Happy 40th Birthday, Make-A-Wish Foundation!! appeared first on Massage Chair Relief Blog.