A few weeks ago, I published a colorful post on my experience with the ugly tactics of the mattress industry and the ensuing negotiations and ultimate victory. More recently, online companies like Casper and Tuft & Needle have been growing in popularity. Many people, however, still want to go to a physical store and try out a mattress before committing. If you are like me, and suffer from a princess and the pea complex, there is comfort (no pun intended) in trying it out in the store first.
What I learned is that the mattress industry, which has insane profits, makes it near impossible to price comparison shop. It seems mattress manufactures makes the same mattress for different stores, each with different names and slightly different specs. Instead of a mattress with 1100 coil count for Store A, Store B has 1105 coils. Instead of 1" padding layer, another store's "equivalent" mattress has 1.25" of foam.
So when the store's policy says they will match competitors price for the same mattress, its a seemingly futile task to find a comparable model. This way they can charge you more...but they didn't know who they were up against.
I found the best way to negotiate was to simply wear them down. I think they expected I would just go away, but I just sat there on my smart phone looking things up until they finally conceded and matched the price.
We will eventually need a new mattress for our guest room. Anybody try out Casper or another online option? If you didn't like it and ended up returning it, how was the return process?
