Getting Back To Basics? One Person’s Back Misery Is Another Person’s Gold Mine

Joy Zucker has a special chair in her office, a special bed in her house, and something called a “Back Buddy” in her car.

All these gizmos are designed to help her aching back, and all came from a growing group of specialty back stores.

About 150 such stores nationwide sell adjustable beds, high-tech pillows, pump-action chair pads, electric massagers, footrests and a host of other back-friendly products.

“For me, it’s the difference between getting through the day without a migraine headache or not,” said Zucker, a television producer, as she demonstrated the $110 molded-foam seat back that gives extra support to her lower back and neck.

“Five minutes in someone else’s chair and I feel the stress” that often leads to a debilitating migraine, she said.

The sedentary lifestyle of most office workers and the graying of the baby boomers are driving the growth of back-friendly products, said Skip Schatz, co-owner with wife JoAnne of a chain of Washington-area stores called JoAnne’s Bed & Back Shops.

“So many people have bad backs, and they’re looking for products that can help them live their lives and do their jobs,” Schatz said.

Eight of ten people experience debilitating back pain at some point in their lives, said Scott Donkin, a Lincoln, Neb., chiropractor, author and consultant on ergonomically correct work areas.

“Back stores really are quite a hot item over the past decade or so,” Donkin said.

Back stores are part of the growth of the multibillion-dollar back treatment business in the United States - treatment that includes surgery, physical therapy, chiropractic treatment and various home health remedies, Donkin said.

“Ten years ago there probably would not have been that kind of market. People understand there are more things they can do to help themselves,” Donkin said.

Chains with names such as the Healthy Back Store on the East Coast and Relax the Back of El Segundo, Calif., have expanded in recent years, but comprehensive sales figures are not available.

JoAnne’s did about $4.5 million in sales last year, up from $3.8 million two years ago, Schatz said. They have been expanding to other states, and in May opened four stores in the New York metropolitan area.

Zucker belongs to the other major group seeking specialty back products - those with injuries. She suffered nerve damage in a car accident eight years ago.

Doctors increasingly refer patients to back stores for special products, and insurance companies sometimes pick up the cost, Donkin said.

Mail-order catalogs and high-end retailers such as Nieman-Marcus sell similar chairs and pads, and hospital beds can be had from home medical and other suppliers.

But the back stores, which typically advertise heavily, are aiming at the backs and wallets of a more general market.

At $1,300 and up, the cushy beds that raise one’s head or feet with the touch of a button are undoubtedly a luxury. But sales of the beds have doubled since the first JoAnne’s store opened seven years ago.

“People buy this because they see the need. It’s not conspicuous consumption. It’s not a gold Rolex,” Schatz said.

Still, the best customers are often well-heeled boomers.

“They are at the age now where they have some pain and complaints, and they have more disposable income,” Schatz said.

A hot seller at JoAnne’s is a high-backed office chair familiar to anyone who watched the O.J. Simpson trial on television.

The chair, a model with additional lower-back support and a variety of other features used by Lance Ito, retails for about $900. Sales rose more than 40 percent during the trial, and have remained high since, Schatz said.

“Judge Ito sits all day long. He understands the value of something like this,” Schatz said.