Shopping for a mattress

In all my life I've never purchased a mattress before. That's pretty strange if I think about it because I've purchased a home, a number of cars, sofa, appliances etc.  but never needed to buy a mattress because there's always been one around, somewhere. 

The whole mattress buying  experience is really confusing and I believe it's meant to be that way.  First there is Pocket Coil or Inner Coil or Foam? Even Air! (Sleep Number beds).  I like the feel of foam but I'm not convinced it's a great long term choice, besides how does one justify $3000 for a large piece of Sweedish foam. Next there is Tight Top, Pillow Top or Euro Top? # if coils per mattress. How about silk, wool or Elastvisco?

There are also different luxury levels within each make and the names are intentionally confusing. For example, the Vivaldi vs. the Gershwin. The Belmont vs. Conrad vs... you get the idea. What I also uncovered is that no reseller sells the same model by name, even though the mattresses are 100% identical. This is by design to prevent consumers from taking advantage of price matches since the models will never be named identically between competitors. I'm also convinced they model their marketing after the automobile industry. Did you know the high-end Sterns and Foster is really a Serta, kind of like what Lexus is to Toyota.  

 

Here is some trivia, did you know ost mattress manufacturers have been around since the US civil war? This is one industry that does not assemble in China. It's all made domestically, even in Canadian plants.

The pricing model is a bit of a joke. The Bay or Sears will list a mattress for $5800 and offer 55% discount while Sleep Country will list the mattress for $3300. When was the last time you opened a flyer and didn't see a mattress sale.

After 3 weeks of Googling, reading and shopping we ended up buying a Simmons mattress from Sleep Country but a upgraded to a King size. The mix and match sale almost saved us $1000, and no we don't care that the fabric on the boxes don't match the mattress. The salesman was extremely knowledgeable and pleasant to deal with. He even refunded us $30 for a parking ticket we incurred outside the store while shopping there. Nice.

Well now I've bought a mattress what's left?