I once avidly watched the PBS attempt at reality TV where they got a bunch of people to "travel back in time" to re-live the colonial experience. I remember there was a guy who was delegated to a servant position and he worked so hard to make a comfortable bed for his master. I think he stuffed straw and goose feathers into a large white sack and out came a mattress. When the master and his family had had enough of the "New World" they packed up and left. Before a new leader would arrive, the servant was able to use his previous master's bed, which was a huge improvement over sleeping on the floor, even if it was a little moldy, and he was so grateful.
Alas, if we could only go back to those simpler times (at least in our head). Now if you want a new mattress, you must decide amongst a billion and one different things. There are pillowtops, wrapped coils, reinforced sides, foam sides, solid foam mattresses, height and size to consider. And within each, there are thirteen other decisions to make -- soft pillowtop or firm? Memory foam? Medium firm, firm, or lumbar support? Locked grid? Number of coils? Silk, wool, polyester, or combination fabric? Box spring or not? You have to compare amongst brands Sealy, Simmons, Posturepedic. And don't forget price. For queen size mattresses, we've come across anything from $300 to $1700. To make matters more difficult, every retailer has different models so you can never be sure you're comparing the same thing. Even Bloomingdales and Macy's have different models, even though they're owned by the same parent company. A saleswoman said that if you comparison-shop for mattresses that are about the same in price (about $50-100 difference), with similar coil counts, you can guess that maybe the two mattresses are the same thing. The only way you can really be sure is if you try each one out, in all the positions that you usually sleep (back, side, stomach), to find the right one for you.
The other night we went to Macy's and bounced around from one mattress to the other. Yep, we're finally looking into getting a new bed, something my mother urged me to do before we got married so that we could start 'afresh,' as part of that impractical Chinese tradition.
We passed up a sale at Macy's because it was our first experience and we thought we needed to check out more than what's available at one store. I was also looking for closeouts that supposedly are marked down significantly for new stock, where they change little things like fabric.
Our next stop, many weeks later, was Sears, which advertised mattresses for $300. The place was terrible and I didn't even want to really shop there -- there were kids lounging and bouncing around on a few beds at a time, some mattresses were gated off, there were footprints on some mattresses, and absolutely no one approached us to help.
The next day, we went to Sleepy's. I wanted to check out what these so-called "mattress professionals" had to offer. Unlike at Sears, we got a lot of attention from the lone salesman, who asked us a series of questions like, what kind of bed do you like, when was the last time you bought a mattress, what size you want. Since we weren't sure what we liked, he had us try a firm and a medium firm. He made us take off our coats and lay fully on the mattress. I immediately disliked the firm and liked the medium firm a lot. Dear felt the opposite, but he also thinks he can sleep standing up. After seeing our preferences, the salesperson made us try a few more, amongst different brands, all without pillowtop so that we could get a real feel for what we liked. We even tried the Tempurpedic foam mattress, which was like a better version of the memory foam pad I once had. Supposedly lots of arthritic people like the Tempurpedic because there is no pressure on any part of your body. In the end, we settled on this insanely expensive medium firm mattress (the first one that I tried). However, we really didn't want to spend that much money on one thing, and I really didn't have a good feeling about the salesman. Even though he really helped us narrow down our choices (it is so overwhelming otherwise, where every mattress begins to feel exactly as the previous one did), I thought he was a bit sleazy. He had a typical sales pitch -- you missed the biggest sale of the year, but if you put down a deposit today, you can get that sale price, which is essentially a free boxspring and free delivery. He also kept telling us whatever we wanted to hear -- when we were trying the bed with reinforced steel sides, he said that it's the best one out there, especially when compared to the one with the foam sides, which could sag. But when we really liked the foam-sided one, he said having foam vs. the steel wired one was about the same. All that could have been fine and dandy, but when I asked him about closeout mattresses, he lied and said that they don't carry closeouts because they just ship it back to the manufacturer. I suspect that the mattresses in the back are the closeouts, which is why he kept us in the front. The guy was also full of lies -- he said he was the manager and so he was able to authorize the special price but he supposedly rotates among 15 stores so he may not be there the following day. Of course, he was there the next night when Dear went to cancel the order and get our deposit back. It was kinda sad to see him in that dead-end job though, trying to sell stuff that people only buy once every 10 years or so.
Back at Macy's, it was an entirely different experience, about halfway between the Sleepy's and Sears. The salesperson didn't really pay much attention to us and mostly let us experience the mattresses for ourselves and relied on us to ask him the questions. Most of the beds there have pillowtops, which makes it very difficult to compare with the one we had picked out at Sleepy's, but we settled on one that we liked last time. This time it was also on closeout, plus it was "Friends and Family" coupon day and we could save even more with the opening of a charge card, which I did. The mattress came out to be quite inexpensive and we could cut the price even more if we decide against the frame ($100) or the boxspring. We also made the cut-off to qualify for free delivery -- could it get any better?
All in all, I think there are great deals to be had at Macy's. I would stay away from Sears entirely, and I think going to Sleepy's helps you to narrow down what you like. You just have to be careful of the pushy salesperson. We also checked out the mattresses available through Costco, but we decided that it's too difficult to choose based on a description -- we needed to feel it in person.
Some pointers when shopping for a mattress:
- Test each one out. Be sure to wear comfortable clothes (take off your coat, relax) and lay in the position that you usually sleep in (on your side, back, stomach, etc.). Try to lay on each one for a while so that you get a good feel. If you have trouble remembering what a previous one felt like, go try it again.
- Compare, compare, compare! What I liked about the Sleepy's experience was that the salesperson first made us choose which one we liked among two types. Then he asked us to pick a favorite among a few, and then compare the favorite to other ones so that it is almost like having a control in a science experiment.
- Ask about closeouts, which should be plentiful especially at the end of the year. If the person steers you away from these discounted mattresses, you know he's not the most honest person out there.
- Once you've found a mattress that you like, if you feel you could find it cheaper, check out other places. Take note of the characteristics that you liked, the price, and any other specifics that you can so that you have the fairest comparison amongst various stores.
- In the end, despite all the hype about any one particular characteristic (you may not care for one that has more coils than another), I think everything depends on whichever one you feel most comfortable with.
You spend a third of your life sleeping, and a mattress lasts about ten years, so it pays to put quite a bit of thought into what could be a big investment.
Once we've had the mattress for a while, I will have to see whether the salespeople are correct, and we do indeed no longer have to flip the mattress every few months.
And I really like this chair:
