Mattresses are worse than cars.

[dsrtao]

We're looking for a new mattress. It's worst than buying a car. At least with cars, a Ford Thumper is a Ford Thumper at all the dealerships. With mattresses, changing the outside fabric changes a Simmons ComforPedic Atlas into a Simmons Comforpedic Blue Sky... and every dealer offers a price match guarantee which cannot be claimed because only their store chain gets the Blue Sky -- there's a custom model for every single chain.

Argh. Oh, and I think Sleepy's is in violation of the Massachusetts law about sales -- there's always a sale, every single week, and never a regular price.

Comments

[evilnicola.livejournal.com]

Ikea? That is where our new mattress is coming from.

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

Plus some places, if advertising says "$300 each piece" for a queen or king set (mattress + boxspring), you can't buy just the mattress for $300.

[fangirl715.livejournal.com]

I got both the mattresses I've bought over the past 10 years* at Boston Bed Company, and have been quite happy with both the service and the products. They do deliver (I don't know how far out) and will haul the old mattress away for you, plus it give me the excuse to put their ad of a couple of years ago ("You'll never want to be on top!") on my fridge door. ;-)

*I'd still be using Mattress #1, except that my apartment flooded in February '08, and while the water wasn't anywhere near deep enough to get to it, all 3 cats then in my household did (it was the highest, driest spot in the place), and somebody peed all over it in their sheer terror. You can't make this stuff up...

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

I recommend http://www.gardnermattress.com/
Family owned and operated, and local.

My mattress from them isn't _perfect_. It didn't soften up to quite what I was expecting, but I still wholeheartedly recommend them.

[metageek.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this tactic was in response to a lawsuit about 20 years back that shut down more straightforward price-fixing.

[dlevey.livejournal.com]

Home Depot, et al, are also guilty of the same sort of "our chain only" products. It's easy to offer a low price guarantee when you know that no-one else will be selling the same things.