Bed Shopping Advice?

[VladtheImpaler]

I am in the unique position of never having bought a bed, so I am wondering if I can get some advice re:

- best places to buy
- the usual haggling margin
- does one typically buy bed + matress together?
- any other useful tips

Thanks...

[JonDuke]

I have no advice except to avoid the brick.
www.Facebook.com/iHateTheBrick

Best of luck in your search!

[PIMking]

what sucks is that all the bed companies make the same model lets say model a for all the different stores but each store is branded a different model by the company so it makes it nearly impossible to store shop the prices against one another.

I will say this since I went through this not to long ago, get something comfortable and spend the cash. It's something that you will need to get a good nights rest on. For example, we bought an individual coil mattress at our place about 2 years ago and it was a little higher than what we wanted to spend. But after sleeping on that pile of #### that her dad has at his house in Indy for the last week I sleept like a king when I got home.

[meanmachine13]

I went to the Simmons Sleep Centre by deerfoot meadows and it was a great experience. Tons of different options to try, very little pressure to buy, very knowledgeable and helpful.

I liked it a lot more then sleep country and the brick.

[photon]

Sleep Country was pretty helpful to me, though their margins must be insane.. I went to check out the boxing day deals there, the prices didn't seem very good.. went to Sears who had 60% off and found one I liked that felt nice, then went back to sleep country and he sold me one that was about equivalent (features, coil count, etc) for less than Sears', for less than half what Sleep Country's boxing day sale price was. I've heard stories of people getting even more than that off their mattress.

I hate shopping for mattresses

[prarieboy]

We just bought one from the Bay. 65% off sale. They had way more selection than I would have expected. Not a lot of pressure to buy.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by VladtheImpaler

I am in the unique position of never having bought a bed, so I am wondering if I can get some advice re:

- best places to buy
- the usual haggling margin
- does one typically buy bed + matress together?
- any other useful tips

Thanks...

Where the hell have you been?!

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by prarieboy

We just bought one from the Bay. 65% off sale. They had way more selection than I would have expected. Not a lot of pressure to buy.

And to contribute to the thread I'm going to echo this... We bought ours at the Bay after looking pretty much everywhere.

[PIMking]

Take your wife with you and get her in the missionary position act like you knocking out a piece and tell them you're testing it out for noise pollution.

[Rathji]

Markup in mattresses is huge. Don't pay full price.

Most mattress sets come with a frame, so you don't need to buy a frame from the same store, and you can wait a while to find something you like. If they won't throw a frame in for free, kijiji is good for stuff like that.

The following is stuff I am glad I considered when I bought my current mattress. It seemed to hold true for mattress purchases I have been involved with for family. YMMV, of course.

Go firmer than you initially want, but not by much. A soft mattress gets softer sooner than a hard mattress does.

If you go firmer, and it ends up being too hard you can add a memory foam or pad to the top to soften it up, if it ends up being too soft, can't do much about it. The only thing that can save you with this is an exchange program, and like 30 days for example.

[VladtheImpaler]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Where the hell have you been?!

Parents, ex-wives... never needed to buy a bed yet.

[Daradon]

I bought a bed this year for the first time. The big thing is to look for sales. As mentioned a few times here the mark-up on beds is insane. Often stores will put the beds on 40% off or more to get people in the stores, which makes the mark up a bit more reasonable. Haggling is possible, but obviously the bigger the sale, the less you will be able to haggle. I got mine this year for nearly 60% off, so I didn't feel the need to haggle too much, though I did get them to throw in some freebies.

The second thing is to test every bed you can. Don't be shy about it. Get on those floor models and find out which will feel the best to you. You're going to have it for a long time and will be spending a lot of time on it. A bad bed can be the cause of a lot of problems in life and a good bed can help with sleep, healing, energy, etc. Try every bed you can, and before you make a choice go back and try the models you want again after a short break, see if they feel the same.

Most companies will give you a month or longer to bring back your bed or change the model or size if you aren't happy with that. Use that trial period to make sure you have the right bed and don't go with a company that doesn't have a trial period.

Hope some of that helps!

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Where the hell have you been?!

Have you forgotten that Vlad is a vampire and was unchained from his coffin

[Minnie]

Costco, LOL. We bought a king size there about 10 years ago for around $800, name brand (have to go look at which, can't recall off the top of my head at the moment). It's been fine.

[Canehdianman]

Originally Posted by Minnie

Costco, LOL. We bought a king size there about 10 years ago for around $800, name brand (have to go look at which, can't recall off the top of my head at the moment). It's been fine.

I came to say this. Bought a Costco memory foam mattress just over a year ago and we love it!

[Buzzard]

You might find this helpful.

http://www.mattressscam.com/

[First Lady]

Originally Posted by Buzzard

You might find this helpful.

http://www.mattressscam.com/

Anyone else read that URL as "mattress cam" and didn't dare click?

Oh NM, forgot this is CP - that would be a click asap.

[kermitology]

I also recommend avoiding The Brick. I had such a terrible experience there trying to get a foundation for my temperpedic mattress. I thought it would be faster than DirectBuy (where I got the mattress) and turns out it wasn't, and DirectBuy was way less painful to get it.

[Titan]

Originally Posted by First Lady

Anyone else read that URL as "mattress cam" and was sorely disappointed??

Yes. Yes I was.

[Mass_nerder]

I posted some tips for mattress shopping in another mattress thread a while ago:

some tips:
-stiff doesn't equal support.
I worked in a mattress shop a few years ago, and everyone always came in asking for a firm bed, which always led me to ask whether they were looking for a firm bed, or a supportive bed.
Plenty of softer beds provide just as much support as a firm bed.

-A lot of retailers will try to dazzle you with the mattress's spring count. You might think that a higher spring count equals higher quality and better support but this is often not true.

-A lot of mattress manufacturers run their helical lacing (thin wires linking the independent springs) head to toe, which can cause the hammock effect. It's generally better to find one with helical lacing running across the bed, from side to side.

-Pay attention to any awkward stairwells, or small elevators you will need to use to get the mattress into your place...most mattresses with a boarder wire don't have a large of range of motion when bending, without causing permanent damage.

-When you're looking at pillow top construction, latex is a good thing to have, because it's an open cell foam, meaning it won't trap body heat and still provides lots of comfort.

-Don't get sucked in to a bed because it includes memory foam. Memory foam, in the thin layers usually provided in a typical pillow top, doesn't really give you any noticeable added benefit. It's kind of a buzz word to get people excited about the mattress.

-Stay away from "full" memory foam beds, unless you have serious back problems; memory foam is a closed cell foam, which means it doesn't dissipate heat very well. Men are generally "hot" sleepers, so the build up of heat can make for an uncomfortable night. A lot of memory foam mattresses aren't a full slab of memory foam either...Generally you get about 4-5" of memory foam on top of a generic foam base.

-A box spring is an important part of the whole "sleep system", so don't try to skip out (unless the mattress is specifically designed to go with out i.e. Ikea)
The box spring amounts to about 1/5 of the entire price, so you're not going to get a huge discount if you skip it. Most manufacturers require you to have a box spring in their warranty terms.

-Mattress manufacturers sell the same bed to multiple retailers with different model names, so it's tough to compare mattresses from store to store. Look at what's in the mattress, rather than the name.

-I'm sure it's been said several times, but don't pay the listed retail price; you can always get a discount. Keep your eyes out for sales at all times.
Again, speaking from experience, we had a mattress promotion on almost every week, selling them for 30-40% less than the typical listed price.