What the Fuck is Up with Mattress Pricing and Marketing?

The BBQ Pit
21

How to get just a mattress cheap, if you aren’t extremely picky:

Decide what you want and what you are willing to pay, for example, a queen sized mattress, with pillow top, in the medium to slightly extra firm range. $250.

Get that $250 in cash (tens will look better psychologically), then start going from store to store. Don’t hit just the big mattress shops, do the smaller local furniture stores, too. At each place, ask right away to speak to the manager – salesmen will be useless to you.

Once you’re speaking to a manager, lay out the picture: “I want XXXX and can only spend YYYY. That’s it, I have no flexibility on price at all, but I’m willing to consider any of the brandname manufactures, and I don’t care a bit what the fabric looks like.”

Manager says something like, that’s way too little.

“No, I know that YYYY isn’t a lot for a mattress, but we both know that bedding stores almost inevitably end up with a few ‘leftover’ pieces because the other half of the set was delivered damaged. I know you normally have to store those pieces until you have a clearance/mismatch sale, but I’m here now and I’ve got cash in hand. (flashing it in your wallet can be good here.) Do you think you have any mattresses that would suit me?”

If he says no and tries to move you up in price, just repeat you have no flexibility on price at all, but maybe add some other incentives if you can: “I know you usually throw in a bedframe and delivery, maybe a set of sheets, too, but I wouldn’t expect those. I’m ready to pay cash right now and haul it home myself.”

If the answer is still no, thank him and move on to the next store.
I have done this type of bargaining six times over the past eight years (for our bed and the guest room, plus for my parents and a sister-in-law who can’t face the idea of haggling.) In the worst case I had to go to five stores – but that was for a king mattress & boxsprings for only $450: the fabrics don’t match, but who cares? No one knows once the sheets are on. I got our own queen sized mattress at the very first place I tried, for just $175!
Remember: you HAVE to be speaking with a manager. Salesmen A) are’t authorized to make those kinds of deals and B) don’t want to, because they’d get practically nothing in commision. The manager, otoh, knows very well that storing the mismatched pieces is an inconvenience and an expense (since they already laid out money for goods they can’t sell normally) and there’s always the risk that the pieces will get banged around during storage until that clearance sale, and damaged to the point of non-salability at any price. To a sensible business man, getting a somewhat reasonable amount of money RIGHT THEN is better than hoping for somewhat more at a later date.

Good luck!

22

There are a lot of things about mattresses that irk me. First off, it’s practically a universal. Toilets, mattresses, and cooking equipment should be by far the most advanced technology in human society. And yet they can’t even keep pace with surround sound stereos, even given a millenia-long head start.

Second, mattresses as they stand should be cheap. Again, we’re talking universals here. There’s no justification for the idea that someone can’t make a cheap mattress. This is an item that could be readily manufactured with minimal technology on a wide range of scales. This is one of the markets that has completely left the bounds of competitive economics due to advertising and anti-logical customers. Ooh, this one is the same but costs less, we better not buy it.

Third, the typical mattress/boxspring combo you see most places really isn’t that comfy. The best bed I ever slept on was in a European dorm. It was one of those old school wooden slat affairs with a thin mattress pad on it (see The Great Escape for reference). Hammocks are also good. The japanese futon style beds are comfortable, but I can’t sleep on the floor for some reason.

23

My bed is wearing out. I’m considering replacing it with a nice wooden table. Seriously. I’ll have plenty of storage space underneath. I sleep just fine on a hard surface. I’m not sure what would happen should a woman desire to join me in bed, but since that hasn’t happened the entire time I’ve lived in this apartment, I’m willing to take that risk.

24

Those “memory foam” mattresses you get (they are at some mall store that is like Sharper Image, but isn’t…) are nice. They aren’t from a “mattress store” either.

25

Do you have any furniture outlet stores around? We bought a mattress, boxspring, and head and footboard from one such place (a HOM furniture outlet) for around $200, IIRC - it was a double/full. Check your yellow pages and see if there’s any outlets in your area and give that a go.
Snicks

26

I’ve got a metal framed IKEA bed with just a matress (the bed uses slats instead of a boxspring). It’s got so much room under that I can slide laundry baskets beneath it.

And, buying at IKEA, I didn’t have to deal with all the mattress salesmen. I think the whole “you have to have a mattress and boxspring” stuff is stupid. We spent millions of years sleeping on the ground, the majority of the world sleeps on mattress or futons only, and yet, Americans must have boxsprings or they’re risking back injury?

27

[hijack]I have an Uncle Tom with a cabin as Well! Is yours in Upstate NY?[/hijack]

… I got my futon with frame at Wally World for $100!!! Not as comfortable as many beds, but it beats sleeping on camping pads like I did before.

28

My beloved, who has put in 24 years at Sealy Mattress, says that each store has their own personalized line of mattresses. They all may technically the same, but Sealy cannot sell, for example, mattresses with tags meant for Sears to any other chain. This allows the chains to quote any price with the “guarantee” that that particular mattress will not be sold elsewhere for less-that particular mattress doesn’t even exist elsewhere to begin with. She also says that the current increase in mattress prices is due partially to an increase in the cost of material coupled with the increase in fuel prices. She suggests that Costco is the way to go for mattresses. It probably has *nothing to do with the fact that they only sell Sealy mattresses. :stuck_out_tongue:

29

Complaining about a few hundred dollars?

How about this top of the line model, now available and manufactured* here in the good ole US of A:

$12,000 HYPNOS MATTRESS PROVES TO BE SLEEPER HIT

The wisecrack possibilities that could accompany this story are limitless - but at the risk of continuing the hijack, I’ll forgo.
*And who said all the good mfg jobs are going offshore?

30

Several years ago I believe it was the The Furniture Guys I was watching, and they did a little expose on mattresses. If it wasn’t their program, it was something similar, but I seem to recall Furn Guy Joe on a mattress.

Anyway, they explained that on the mattress tags there’s a quality designation that is consistent from mattress to mattress, manufacturer to manufacturer. Of course it’s probably just a broad statement of quality, but it could be helpful when comparison shopping. I think it was a number, with 4 or 5 being the highest. I dunno - our mattress is so old there’s no tags on it to refer to. And when our box spring gave out, I threw the old futon frame on the floor & put the mattress on that.

31

Beloved says that the Sterns And Foster division of Sealy, which is the top of the line for that company, indeed divides their mattresses into eleven quality levels, with eleven being the highest.

32

I’ve got a king made by Sterns and Foster and would not think of going cheap after sleeping on it. While I had a hard time getting over the fact that a good mattress costs so much, I’m now a total believer in spending the money to get a high-end mattress. The additional pillow top makes me long for my mattress whenever we go on vacation or otherwise sleep somewhere besides our house.

Consider the amount of time you will spend sleeping on the mattress and what the benefits of a good, comfortable night’s sleep will be. People will go all out on a car that they spend a fraction of the time using or many other things which they use much less but will want to go cheap on the mattress.

To each his own but after many years spent on cheap mattresses, futons, sofas and sofa beds, I’m sticking with the more expensive mattress.

33

Amen…I absolutely adore my 1700$ queen-size pillow-top mattress. When I first moved to Dallas from Chicago to live with my fiancee, we slept on his futon for a month before my furniture arrived from Chicago.

When my stuff finally arrived, the first thing I did was throw my mattress on his futon frame, right over the old pad (there wasn’t going to be room to set up my monstrous 4-poster bed till we moved into our new place a couple months down the road).

When he came home from work that day, first thing I made him do was lay down on “my comfy-lovey-hug-you-to-sleep bed”.

I seriously thought the man was going to pass out from sheer comfort. I adore my mattress, and it’s the most comfortable bed I’ve ever slept in.

No more cheap mattresses for me, ever.

34

I have to put in another word for The Original Mattress Factory. They are low pressure, but they do explain to you what the three levels of mattresses they sell are about, and why their mattresses are better than the name-brand ones. They have ripped-open samples of all their own mattresses, as well as Sealy, Simmons, and so forth, so you can see what the differences are.

They also still sell mattresses that can be flipped, which extends the wear. Sealy and Simmons are now offering mattresses that “don’t need to be flipped,” but I suspect that it’s just cheaper for them to make only one side of the mattress suitable for sleeping on, and then market the change as a “feature.”

On top of all that, TOMF stuff is cheaper than the others. We got their top of the line mattress in King with a pillow top, in the medium softness, and it was $900 for both mattress and box spring.

35

Well, about 6 months ago, we really were pretty much in need of a new mattress, but after pricing them and discovering we really didn’t have money in the budget for one right now, we bought a memory foam mattress topper at Sam’s Club for about $120.00. I’m guessing it’ll get us a couple more years of wear out of our current mattress, and it’s quite comfy.

36

And I personally can attest to the fact that they are THE most comfortable mattresses in the world! Well, mine is, anyway.

We had to replace ours (well, just about the whole house, after a fire) and decided this time we were getting a decent mattress. Since insurance played a factor, we were going to spend a little more.

We ended up spending about $3000 for that mattress/box springs set, but it was well worth it. I’ve never had a better sleep, and it also came with a ten year warranty! Ours wasn’t even the most expensive of the S&F line, either. I think it was like the third most expensive. We tried out the more expensive ones, but this one fit the bill much better.

37

OOoOoo I know what you mean…as a christmas present my friend Chrsis flew me to Germany for a vacation, and the bed there was a very very firm pad about 4 inches thick and rock solid with the perfect amount of ‘give’ to it. And it had yummy flanel sheets…and I got to sleep with my window open and nobody complained=)

<giggle - I cant help it if I am comfy at Schwabian winter temperatures…that is what eiderdowns are for=)>

I would KILL to have that bed here…
and for that japanese tatami and futon combination, may I recommend Tatami!

38

I actually have a coffee table that is big enough to put a full-sized mattress on: it’s about 6" off the ground, and it’s sturdy enough to put a lot of weight on it… We call it the Coffee Table From Hell since we can never figure out where the hell we’re going to put it.

The one concern I’d have with most tables is that they normally aren’t really built to hold a lot of weight (espically long term) and if you’re… er… partaking of adult activities upon said table, there’d be the problem of the legs giving out. :eek:

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39

I have one of those Tempur-pedic mattresses. They are the best of the foam ones and were developed by NASA. They are firm but not hard. Perfect support. They react to your body’s weight, shape and temperature. I will never get anything else. LOVE IT! LOVE IT! LOVE IT!

Yes, it costs a lot, but it is worth every penny.

We ordered ours right over the internet from Tempur-pedic.

40

Hey Zoe

I’ve been wondering this for a while. Those temperpedic beds seem awesome( I got a memory foam pillow and love it), but I have one reservation – sex. It just doesn’t seem to be good surface to have sex on. no recoil, sinking into the bed… etc.

So my question is… it any good for sex?