Researching Buying a Bed

[Zarkon]

I'm looking at buying a queen-sized bed early next year.  I need something relatively soft (a test at a Sleep Number store puts me at about a 40), but I don't want to spend a ton of money.  I'm looking in the $800-1200 range. 

Anyone have any good places for me to start?

[leo8877]

Costco

[Zarkon]

Don't have a Costco membership.  How about Sam's Club?

(Was looking more at what kind of matresses et al)

[rshetts2]

Check Sears as well.  I recently purchased a Stearns and Fosters queen.  It was a higher end model  ( medium firm ) and I got the set for around $1600.  Ive had it 2 months and its made an amazing difference in not just my sleeping but quite honestly my quality of life.  It has reduced my chronic back pain to almost nothing and I can sleep a solid 6-7 hours now .  I researched prices and models for 2 months before I bought a bed and checked out several places.  Sears had the best overall deals and they included delivery and set up plus moved my old bed into my guest room as well.
   I highly recommend that you test out several beds in making your decision.  The bed I bought before this newest one, I did very little research and in the end regretted it.  It was too soft and ended up giving me back issues.  Go lay down on different models for a minimum of 5 minutes to get the true feel of the bed, compare what you like to other models and narrow down to what is most comfortable for you.
  Be careful of getting a bed thats too soft.  In the short term it may seem like a good idea and everyone wants to sleep on that fluffy cloud, but more often than not people get too soft a mattress and end up having back pain as a result.  The best advice I got was not to buy a bed because its less expensive, if youre going to sacrifice comfort. You spend way too much time in bed to make that compromise.  

[Ironrod]

The mattress business ranks a couple of rungs below used cars for sleaze. Manufacturers change the names and model numbers of identical products to make comparing across retailers and getting accurate reviews nearly impossible. It's also hard to do reliable research online, which makes it easy for salespeople to blow smoke at you. It's an oddly competitive industry for a purchase that most people only make every 10-ish years.

Pick one that feels comfortable and fits your budget from a well-known manufacturer and you should be fine. We bought one from Sleepys (or Sleep-eze?) a few years ago. They had a big selection at good prices.

[Punisher]

It's an oddly competitive industry for a purchase that most people only make every 10-ish years.

Wouldn't this BE the reason for the competiveness? If you only had 1 shot to impact your customer every 10 years, wouldn't you want to be competetive?

[CeeKay]

I bet you could find one heck of a deal buying a used one off of Craigslist

[Ironrod]

It's an oddly competitive industry for a purchase that most people only make every 10-ish years.

Wouldn't this BE the reason for the competiveness? If you only had 1 shot to impact your customer every 10 years, wouldn't you want to be competetive?

What's weird is that there's so much competition. It seems like there's a mattress store in every strip mall. Granted, it's one of those commodities that everybody needs to buy sooner or later...and based on the sales people's ability to dicker and deal, the markups must be enormous.

Oh, there's another tip for you: If you're at all good at bargaining, you shouldn't have to pay sticker price. If they won't barter on price, they will deal on extras like frame and linens.  

[rshetts2]

Manufacturers change the names and model numbers of identical products to make comparing across retailers and getting accurate reviews nearly impossible. It's also hard to do reliable research online, which makes it easy for salespeople to blow smoke at you. It's an oddly competitive industry for a purchase that most people only make every 10-ish years.

This is why in store research is important.  Its virtually impossible to compare models as the exact same mattress set will have several different name, so you need to compare the stats on how its made for price comparison.  Things like coil count and coil material, if youre looking at innersprings and foam density as well.  Because of the name game they play it puts a lot more on the buyer.  Research well and bring your bullshit detector.  If a salesman tries to bullshit you or you catch him in a lie, just walk, his interest is more in getting your dollar than in helping you find the right mattress.

As far as mattress construction goes, I ended up liking a hybrid mattress ( a combination of innerspring and memory foam/latex )  far more than a straight memory foam.  It gave me a combination of initial softness from the foam combined with superior body support from the innerspring construction. 

[Purge]

You know, some of the best deals I've found were at a national chain in Canada called Sleep Country.

One thing you want to do is ask for mismatched. Often they knock 30-45% off the price of a mattress because the fabric doesn't match from the mattress to boxspring, or have a visual defect on the fabric of the mattress itself. Frankly, you're putting sheets on it so that shouldn't be important.

Also, I highly recommend buying a micro mattress cover. It has saved my mattress many a time with pets, kids and other stain opportunities. (spilled a full cup of coffee on the bed... didn't get to the mattress!!)

[wonderpug]

Oh, there's another tip for you: If you're at all good at bargaining, you shouldn't have to pay sticker price. If they won't barter on price, they will deal on extras like frame and linens.  

You shouldn't have to pay sticker price at all.  Buying a mattress is like buying a car; the sticker price is just a starting point.  Almost all of the car purchase negotiation tactics apply to mattress purchase negotiations.

[Ironrod]

Oh, there's another tip for you: If you're at all good at bargaining, you shouldn't have to pay sticker price. If they won't barter on price, they will deal on extras like frame and linens.  

You shouldn't have to pay sticker price at all.  Buying a mattress is like buying a car; the sticker price is just a starting point.  Almost all of the car purchase negotiation tactics apply to mattress purchase negotiations.

Yup, I only mentioned "if they won't barter" to cover stores like Sears. A real mattress showroom has lots of pricing leeway.

[wonderpug]

Does Sears really not negotiate?  I know other department stores like Macy's do.

[rshetts2]

I found Sears to be extremely competitive on pricing but they are pretty much locked in.  They are constantly having sales and if you've seen a particular mattress set in store for less, previously they will meet that price  ( they did for me )  but thats about all the wiggle room they allow.  That being said,  I compared construction features on the bed I purchased with several other retail vendors and the price I got at Sears was in line with the best I could negotiate else where.  When ever I tried to negotiate down with most places they would try to drop me to a lesser model before they would get to a price point similar to Sears.    I would rather have a salesman tell me he cant help me than try to get me to buy a bed that I wouldnt be happy with.  Once again those salesmen are more about getting the dollar than helping the customer.  I felt at Sears that the guy I worked with wanted to do all he could to find me the bed I wanted. Of course unlike a lot of the other places Sears salesmen are not on commission.

[wonderpug]

Wow, good to know. That sounds great. The negotiation style selling is just so scammy feeling.

[Misguided]

So, what sort of discount should you expect? I was actually looking at a bed today at Sleep Country (in PNW, though, not Canada). I know they have a 10% coupon for signing up for their email list.

[wonderpug]

I'm sure it varies wildly by store and by mattress, but when I bought one from Macys 5 years ago I paid 25% of the sticker price.  It's pretty ridiculous.

[rshetts2]

Yeah MSRP is beyond ridiculous.  The bed I bought had a "MSRP" price of around $4000.  I paid just over $1500.  This type of pricing seemed pretty standard throughout all of the retailers I checked.   

[Misguided]

I think the prices Sleep Country lists are already well under MSRP. The mattress I looked at today had a price of 2000, but they told me I can get 15% off (for a coupon and by taking delivery on a weekday vs weekend, though I am not sure those can be stacked). That puts it at 1700/1800. I saw another place online that listed a "sale" price of 1870ish but listed the regular price at 3799. This is for a fairly high end mattress (Simmons Beautyrest Black Abriana).

Sears has a sale price of 1490 online, but that looks like it doesn't include the foundation which should run somewhere north of 300. So I think the price from Sleep Country is pretty good. Interestingly, Sears says the regular price is over 4100 for just the mattress.

[rshetts2]

Check sears for the price on the set as well, they usually sell those both as separates and as sets.  On my set they knocked $200 off the foundation price.   If they dont have a set price, the other place you mentioned sound like a pretty good deal.  One last piece of advice, check and make sure on the warranty, if youre not getting a warranty that has at least 10 years non prorated, look elsewhere. 

[Misguided]

Check sears for the price on the set as well, they usually sell those both as separates and as sets.  On my set they knocked $200 off the foundation price.   If they dont have a set price, the other place you mentioned sound like a pretty good deal.  One last piece of advice, check and make sure on the warranty, if youre not getting a warranty that has at least 10 years non prorated, look elsewhere. 

Looking again, it appears that Sears listing may be orphaned (I got there on Google, but can't from the Sears site). I believe the warranty on those is 10/10.

[Zarkon]

Okay, so I'm doing more research and I've come up with the following beds I'd like:

Simmons BeautyRest Warrenton Pillow Top:  $1299 at Mattress Firm
Sealy Posturepedic Irresistible EPT: 
Tempurpedic Cloud Luxe:  $3249 at Mattress Firm
Hampton Rhodes (Fuzzy Photo, 3 words), something 'Pillow Top

Where else should I look for beds?  Id really love the Tempurpedic but there's no way I can float $3k. 

Also, I want to get a bed frame, preferably one that goes to the floor.   I found Ikea at about $200-250, any other ideas?

[Harpua3]

I believe we purchased from sears last time. That was 6 yrs ago. Good experience. Need to do it again in the next few years...

Then you can break the bed in...

[Misguided]

I thought I had posted a follow-up in this thread, but I guess I forgot.

We bought a Beautyrest Black Mattress from Sleep Country. I couldn't find anywhere online that had a lower price than they did with a 10% off coupon I had. They also had buy one get one free on some of their pillows. Great buying experience. No sales pressure for add-ons aside from suggesting a super-thin waterproof cover (which we got because one of our dogs occasionally tinkles in her sleep when she's lying on the bed). Free delivery next day. Mattress is awesome. Pillow is awesome. Two thumbs up.

[rshetts2]

I thought I had posted a follow-up in this thread, but I guess I forgot.

We bought a Beautyrest Black Mattress from Sleep Country. I couldn't find anywhere online that had a lower price than they did with a 10% off coupon I had. They also had buy one get one free on some of their pillows. Great buying experience. No sales pressure for add-ons aside from suggesting a super-thin waterproof cover (which we got because one of our dogs occasionally tinkles in her sleep when she's lying on the bed). Free delivery next day. Mattress is awesome. Pillow is awesome. Two thumbs up.

Glad it worked out for you.  Beauty Rest was my 2nd choice, behind the Sterns and Foster I purchased.    Regarding the mattress cover, its likely they pushed that because most major mattress manufacturers require a cover or you could void your warranty.