Randall Sinkiewicz
Shopping for a mattress can be a daunting task. The following tips will assist you in navigating the convoluted world of mattress sales. For starters, mattresses have a tendency to always be on sale.
Sales promotions don’t always include money taken off the sticker price. Some other promotions are financing specials, free accessories, or year-end closeouts deals. The best deals tend to come out during the big three-day weekend holidays like Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Presidents Day.
To add to consumer confusion sleeps shops will all have a different sales promotion that is targeted to have them stand out above the rest. As a consumer, how can you best arm yourself when shopping for a mattress? The answer begins with the mattress name game.
Like any industry, there are a few tricks of the trade that can assist you with buying a mattress. Understanding how the mattress name game works can give you a generous head start as a consumer.
If you were to Google local sleep shops you should find that there is a large number of options to select from. Mattress Firm is the largest mattress retailer in the United States and chances are you are close to one. If not, you will still find plenty of options to go into a location and try out mattresses.
How to figure out mattresses?
Here’s how the mattress name game works. There are a few major manufacturers of mattresses that have been in the industry for a long time. Simmons, Sealy, and Serta provide mattresses to sleep shops all over the United States.
Let’s take Simmons for example. They supply the same line of beds to Mattress Firm, Beck’s Furniture, Ashley Furniture, and Macy’s. Each company is assigned their own name for their mattresses. From there each company is free to sell the mattress at their set pricing and offer their specific set of services.
As a consumer, if you shopped at Mattress Firm and looked at the Simmons Beautyrest Fairview Pillow Top, the same bed would be called something different like the Silver Stream Pillow Top at Ashley Furniture (please note that these mattress names are entirely fictional).
Aside from a few aesthetic differences, the inside supporting structure and layers of comfort are the same. There are three core sections of a mattress:
- coil type
- coil count
- foam comfort layers
These mentioned features are the core sections of an innerspring mattress. They are the essence of a mattress and are the main features to pay attention to. Everything from coil type, coil count, and foam comfort layers. Those layers are what will support you, cradle your pressure points, and allow for a good night’s rest.
Overcoming the mattress dilemma
To overcome the mattress name game, you must be willing to shop in more than one sleep shop and compare their prices and services as well as pay attention to the details of the mattress that interests you.
Knowing the name of the bed isn’t enough, you need to know the type of coils, how many coils, and the major foam layers utilized for instance memory foam. With that information, you can walk into another sleep shop, ask to see a Simmons Beautyrest with those specifications and then compare the two sleep shops sales promotions and services.
Everyone wants the best price or the lowest price, but don’t dismiss the services for the price. A simple service like free delivery is great but knowing that you can return the bed after a few months of sleeping on it is exponentially greater.
Final Tip: when shopping for a mattress understand that the floor models will not feel like the bed that is delivered to you. It takes time to break it in. Your body needs time to adjust. If your body doesn’t agree with the bed you do not want to be stuck with it. Make sure you can return it or exchange it without incurring additional costs.
Randall Sinkiewicz has nine years experience working in the mattress industry. He is currently a communications student at CSUG.
