As recently as just a few short years ago, almost nobody knew about memory foam. Since then it has become much more popular, although there is still a lot keeping it from truly becoming a household name. Mainly, many people complain that the price is too high – this is actually quite a fair complaint, as full-sized memory foam mattresses can easily run into the several thousands. For whatever reason, the prices of memory foam mattresses still remain pretty high. In spite of the low sales, it appears that the companies that manufacture memory foam products do not seem fully convinced that a price drop will increase their sales and allow them to profit.
Part of the reason for the high price is no doubt linked to the high cost of producing memory foam. This high production cost makes sense, because memory foam is a space age material, a very complex compound – it was invented, in fact, by none other than the engineers at NASA, who were looking for a way to reduce the discomfort that astronauts experience when taking off and landing in the space shuttle, due to the high gravity forces. Eventually, someone had the brilliant idea of converting this into a mass consumer product, and the brand took off – but not enough so that the cost of producing it would drop.
In response, the companies that create memory foam products have started offering cheaper alternatives, perhaps in a bid to convince customers that they can sort of “sample” the full sized product without paying the full sized price. Things like the memory foam topper, which is much smaller than the full sized memory foam mattress, are now available at a much lower cost, which means that there will be many more people buying them. Hopefully, asserts the mattress pads guide, this serves to increase awareness about the product, as it has many benefits – not just comfort, but health benefits as well (it is said to prevent back problems). If awareness increases and the price drops, maybe more people will purchase memory foam.