Don't Get Fleeced Buying a Mattress

Shop for a mattress and you'll be faced with hundreds of options: ultra premium this and that, super coil density here and pillow tops made from angel feathers there. Read on to avoid getting fleeced.

Photo by chumpboy.

Seth Stevenson decided to do a little mattress shopping to get to the bottom of things. His article over at Slate is a good starting point to avoid getting ripped off at the mattress store. The biggest point to consider?

Here's the lowdown: Mattress makers rename identical products for each different retail store. Different labels, exact same guts. Why? Obfuscation. It's hard to shop for the lowest price when you can't compare apples to apples. Lucky for you, they're all subtle variations on the same apple-not only within each brand, but even among different brands.

If you ever wondered after a day of shopping for a new a bed how it was possible there were thousands of mattresses, now you know why. Alright, so you can't trust the naming or the wrapping on the mattress, what can you trust? Certainly not things that would appear to be standardized measurements like coil count. Just like with high thread-count sheets, mattress makers play fast and loose with their methods of counting coils. Not all coils are equally sized or the same thickness or strength or does count really indicate what's going on under the surface of the mattress. Everything in the process of buying a mattress is designed to confuse the consumer and make them think they're getting their money's worth out of the huge markups. So what can you do?

Look for a mattress store with a solid return policy, look for a comfortable mattress on the lower end of the price scale and try out the bed in the store. If it seems comfortable enough in the store, give it a trial run in your home. For more interesting information about mattresses, check out the full article. If you have your own advice about mattresses and a good nights sleep, let's hear about it.