Tips for shopping for a mattress?

Check out this site. This guy is a mattress genius. He owns a mattress store in South Jersey, but he answers questions from everyone no matter where they purchase their beds. He knows everything about mattresses. He seems to think latex is the best material for mattresses, and seems to strongly prefer Sealy mattresses to others. He would probably recommend a lower-end Sealy Posturpedic in your price range.

Link

As far as where else to get deals on mattresses, you have to keep your eyes open, as prices tend to fluctuate wildly throughout the year. I got a great deal on a lower-end queen-size Sealy Posturpedic at Macy's a few years ago. It cost me $250 (a little over $300 with tax and delivery) for a bed that normally sells in the $500-$600 range. It replaced a ghetto bed, bought from a ghetto dealer, which cost me $200 in '97, and it was like a new world for me.

I haven't seen a price that low on a comparable bed since then, but sometimes they go for around $350 or so when the sale is good. Keep in mind that these prices are for the lowest level Posturpedics, but these beds will still be much better quality than the non-Posturpedic Sealys. Higher levels have more padding and higher coil counts, but tend to go up significantly in price. In fact, I have never seen beds at the next higher level from the one I bought offered for less than $500. It wasn't worth double the price to me for a bit more padding.

As far as whether prices are negotiable at the bedding discounters, they probably are, but you have to be careful and really know what you're doing. Many of these chains have been fined or sued for deceptive or fraudulent activities in many states. This will be far less likely to occur at a department store, or at a reputable local dealer with an established clientele, like Peter, who runs the site I linked above.

Good luck, and give Peter's site a good read and maybe even send him a question. (Keep in mind that the site is VERY popular, and it make take some time for him to post your question and his response, but he will reply.) You'll be amazed at what you learn.

Also check out this site.

http://whatsthebest-mattress.com/

A lot of your cheap mattresses won't hold up. But then again, a lot of very expensive mattresses don't hold up either. This site and the forums are very informative.

waterbed!

Oronis said: For the life of me, I can't figure out why people don't consider memory foam for a mattress first. The #1 arguement I hear is on the price, and the answer is always the same going from 'what else do you do for 8 hours a day, 1/3 of your life, that you can't spend $1,000 on' to 'if you sleep well, your whole day reaps the benefits'.

When we researched mattresses, it wasn't price that turned us away from memory foam. LOTS of reviews I read were people complaining about how hot they were. I would hate that!!!

Check for stores closing (legitimately, not those matress places that are "going out of business" every weekend) and stores that are changing ownership and such. DH and I got an AWESOME $3k king size pillow top Serta at Macy's for under $800 because it was when Macy's bought out May Co. and it was one that Macy's didn't carry and wasn't going to, they were just clearing out the May Co. warehouse. We stacked the clearance with a deal for getting a Macy's CC. ($100 off plus no sales tax). Good luck!!

seige7 said: I've been looking for a mattress as well and just found this information out Saturday: as of July 1, 2007 all mattresses sold must meet the new national standards for flame retardency (sp?).

If you could find out what they've done with all the brand new "old" models, ones that no longer meet that national standard, then I'm sure you can get a bargain. I know they'll unload them somewhere, where is the question.

Ideas anyone?Mattress manufacturers have known about this deadline for a long time...you can bet that the last mattress not meeting these new guidlines has already been sold.

yumpop said: We are in need of a new king size mattress. Neither my SO and I are extremely finicky. Memory foam was very nice but too expensive IMO. We were looking to pay around $500-600 for something good quality, not necessarily top of the line. Any recs?

We just went to check Costco and they didn't have any mattresses for sale like they usually do.
Also, are the prices at Sleep Train/Mattress discounters negotiable?
Thanks!

I picked up a king serta pillow top mattress at sams and am pretty happy with it. It was $548 or so in store. $200 more online here link

good luck

We found the best deal was at Value City Furniture. When you realize that the manufacturers make the same bed for all the stores, a low, mid and high end, and just name them different things... buying a mattress at a place like Value City is not a problem.

We got a Simmons Beautrest, the mid range in a queen with a split box.. and though I don't remember the price, it was by far the cheapest, cheaper then the Discount Mattress places and department stores. Plus with Value City it's always the same price, none of that pricing game.

We picked our Simmons based on reviews and comfort. Good luck

It sounds like you've already had a king size mattress, but if not, job one is to measure to make sure the f*&^%#g thing will fit through the doors and halls and stairs of your home.

Whenever I've shopped for mattresses in the past, I've always paid attention to my initial impression when I first hit the mattress. If you've ever stayed at a Westin and crawled into one of their Heavenly Beds, you'll know the feeling -- as soon as you're horizontal, you think to yourself "whoa this is amazing." Granted, you won't get that in the store because you won't have a mattress pad between you and the mattress, but you'll be able to come close.

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.

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.