Hi, I live near Tucson, AZ and I plan to go there today mattress shopping. Does anyone have any recommendations in regard to good retailers and/or manufacturers in Tucson? Thanks!
Hi tiredandsore,
The better options I’m aware of in the Tucson area are included in post #4 here.
If I was in your shoes I would probably make a trip to the Phoenix area which includes several of the members of this site
Phoenix
Hi Phoenix, I did not get your message before I headed into town and my shopping trip to the “big chains” was somewhat disappointing. I seem to have very specific/unusual needs and requests as evidenced by the looks on the faces of the sales people I encountered yesterday. I only found 3 mattresses that even come close to what I am looking for. My favorite was the Tempurpedic Cloud Luxe (super expensive), followed by a “liquidation special” (yikes) Sealy Coolsense Skyhaven Luxury Plush (which seems to be discontinued as it is not on the Sealy website) (I feel very uncomfortable buying a “special” such as this but I noted it for comparison purposes because I really like how the top felt), and in third place was a Beautyrest TruEnergy Bryanna. I was disappointed that I could only find those 3 to consider out of the many beds that I checked out. Most beds for me are much too firm/hard and cause me pain at those pesky boney protuberances. I plan to research each of these 3 beds, find out what they have in common, how they differ, etc., and then plan a trip to Phoenix to check out the retailers and manufacturers that are up there (thank you for the extensive list) and see what they have to offer. I may not be able to get up there for a month or more, due to my work schedule as I really don’t take weekends off and that’s at least a 200 mile round trip. I was thinking to temporize things I could purchase a 3" memory foam topper to get me by. Do you have any recommendations in that regard? I would prefer memory foam that has a lot of give and is squishy (like the top of the Sealy Coolsense), as opposed to heavy and dense (like the Tempurpedic firm pillows). Thanks!
Hi tiredandsore,
I would also suggest reading post #1 here which will give you all the information, steps, and guidelines you will need to make the best possible choice.
It will hopefully also keep you away from any of the major brands and chain stores and save you a great deal of time and frustration 
Researching major brands is like diving into a black hole because they don’t disclose the information you would need to make any kind of accurate assessments about them.
Phoenix
Hi tiredandsore,
I would also suggest reading post #1 here which will give you all the information, steps, and guidelines you will need to make the best possible choice.
It will hopefully also keep you away from any of the major brands and chain stores and save you a great deal of time and frustration
Researching major brands is like diving into a black hole because they don’t disclose the information you would need to make any kind of accurate or meaningful assessments about them.
Phoenix
I am already running into that. For example, I like the feel of the comfort layer of the Cloud Luxe. I looked at the Tempurpedic website and they do not disclose the density or ILD of their foam. I called them and they would not give me any information either, only that it is “low density” and “very soft”. That makes it extremely hard to convey to a manufacturer what I would like them to make for me. That seems a recipe for disaster, telling a manufacturer to make it “low density” and “very soft”. I like to be more exact than that, so I am not sure what I’m going to be able to achieve trying to get something manufactured for me. How do I find out a specific company’s foam specs if they keep that a secret?
Hi tiredandsore,
Unless you have inside information … basically you can’t.
This is why it’s so important to only deal with retailers or manufacturers that are transparent and who are willing and able to disclose the meaningful quality information about their mattresses.
ILD information is not important when you are testing mattresses locally because this is only a “comfort spec” which is not a part of quality and your own objective testing for PPP (Pressure relief, Posture and alignment, and Personal preferences) is much more important than knowing ILD information.
The information and links in the first link I posted has much more information about this and the steps you can take to bypass retailers and manufacturers that don’t disclose the information you need to know to make an informed and good quality/value purchase
Phoenix