henny said:Yea, I've got advice. Give your wife the credit card and send her out. The only thing more boring then mattress shopping is listening to a Hillary speech.

Sounds like you don't have a lot of sex. Mattress choice is critical for the sexually active.

Go to the store, take your shoes off, lay on it. Easy....

"$1,000 on' to 'if you sleep well, your whole day reaps the benefits'. "

Perhaps, but your body doesnt care what it's on once it's asleep.

Costco and Sams Club are the places I'd be looking. Even if I had to join. If the one closest to you didn't have a matress that you wanted, go to another one. Am I missing something here or what was your problem with Costco?

yumpop said:We are in need of a new king size mattress.
Consider firm talalay latex with a wool fleece pad. Place a 1/4" x 4' x bed width wood panel over your present box spring toward the foot end for more push back support.

tedteddy said:I'm almost afraid to ask this... I'm thinking that a memory foam mattress would be too soft and make sex uncomfortable. Is this true?

If it's too soft maybe you should consider Viagra

KingMongo said:henny said:Yea, I've got advice. Give your wife the credit card and send her out. The only thing more boring then mattress shopping is listening to a Hillary speech.

Sounds like you don't have a lot of sex. Mattress choice is critical for the sexually active.

as long as she picked it out...then she is happy in it...as long as she is happy in it... the rest will follow.

I don't know much about mattress quality, but I can chime in with my thoughts on negotiation. You probably have a better chance at a smaller family owned store, as I doubt chain stores would allow much room for haggling aside from not paying tax.

One of my friends used to work at a mattress store, and everything was marked up about 50%. If you really pushed, you could probably get things for 60% of asking price, but everything was definitely negotiable, as long as you asked. They all buy their stuff from the same places, and out of the warehouse as long as they're making some money they'll sell it.

Make sure you find a bed you like and call around to see if you can order the same model from other stores. Even if a small store doesn't carry it, as long as its in a catalog, they can order it from the warehouse. Sure, it might take a bit longer (a week vs. a day or two from Sleep Train), but its well worth saving a few hundred bucks.

jayK said:I'm considering this memory foam mattress from Costco, Queen for $700 shipped:
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?prodid=11214008

If we end up not liking it, Costco will pick it up for free and we'll get a full refund.

Have you tried that Mattress jayK? My last mattress purchase was made at Costco due to rave reviews on FW. They didn't have one to "test" in the store so I went ahead with the purchase anyway. Big mistake, since the pillowtop made it waay too soft for my liking. Since it was a REAL pain to maneuver it up the stairs in my house I decided to just keep it and see whether it would "grow" on me. Well, it hasn't and I'm out looking again, but I won't buy one without trying it in the store again.

FYI
Sears is having a 50% off + 10% off mattresses sale.

I've ordered a Serta Maitland mattress set online, but am having second thoughts. I've been unable to find any reviews anywhere on the Maitland specifically, but the vast majority of the reviews on the Serta brand seem to be BAD.

The thing is, I understand one of the rules of product reviews is that when people are happy with their purchase, they tend to keep quiet -- and feel more motivated to issue a review (gripe) when they're UNHAPPY.

Since I can still cancel the purchase at this point, I'd like to hear the experiences of other FWers when it comes to Serta. Good, bad, whatever -- especially if you have any experience with the Maitland.