I’ve been researching mattresses for a few weeks now and this website has been an invaluable resource. I’ve finally settled on what I’m going to buy (Brooklyn Bedding’s Aloe Alexis), and hopefully I’ll have some feedback on that within a few weeks. Until then, I wanted to contribute to the forum, by providing some insight into the Atlanta area stores.
Phoenix provided a good list of many of the options available here in Atlanta:
Atlanta / Georgia Mattress Options
Ultimately, I decided to buy online, but I visited quite a few stores to get a sense of everything that was available, and also to gain a better understanding of the industry in general. Here are my observations about all the places I visited.
The Good
Tucker Mattress Company. Out of all the stores I visited, this was the one that I thought provided the best value. It’s located in Tucker, GA on the Lawrenceville Highway. It’s in an older building that’s easy to miss driving by, but don’t let that fool you. TMC had a double-sided latex mattress that the owner quoted at $1500 for the Queen. The owner was extremely knowledgeable and friendly. He also said it typically takes about 3 weeks for them to ship the mattress out to you. If you’re looking to make an in-person purchase in Atlanta or you want to support small business owners while also getting a great mattress, I’d recommend this place.
The Fair
Atlanta Mattress. Most mattress retailers are overpriced. Atlanta Mattress is no exception, but of the overpriced retailers, this one certainly had the highest quality stuff, and the owner was very knowledgeable and friendly. No high-pressure sales tactics when I was there, either. I visited the Buckhead store. They had a lot of interesting higher-end options, including Pure Latex Bliss (the reason I went there). If you’re looking to splurge and price isn’t much of an issue for you, this is a reasonable option. If you’re looking for value, however, Tucker Mattress Company or a quality online retailer would be much better.
Natural Sleep. I was pleasantly surprised by this place. It’s in the high-rent area of Buckhead, near the corner of Piedmont and Peachtree. Owner was knowledgeable and friendly. They carry a wide variety of Pure Latex Bliss mattresses (the best selection of PLB I found), as well as another higher-end brand of latex mattress. They had a few other options, as well. While their products were of reasonable-quality and the owner was nice, similar to Atlanta Mattress, they don’t provide particularly good value. If price isn’t an issue for you, it’s a reasonable option.
IKEA. No shortage of posts on IKEA here, but I’ll throw in my two cents. Went to IKEA to test out a variety of mattresses. I could not find their highest-quality latex mattress (the Morgongava), but did test out the Myrbecka latex mattress. It was fairly comfortable, but as pointed out in a few posts here, there are higher-quality options out there for the price. Moreover, IKEA has few options on firmness, meaning you’re less likely to find a mattress that suits your own particular needs. Still, it was a fun place to test out mattresses, and from a value perspective, better than the vast majority of mattress retailers.
The Not-So-Good
Mattress USA. Went to the Mattress USA up in Kennesaw. They carry a few of the higher-quality brands, including Pure Latex Bliss. However, the sales staff was extremely pushy, trying to get me to commit immediately and using common scare tactics. The salesman assigned to me told me I could buy the PLB for $500 off, but only if I committed to buying it that day. He asked for a $100 deposit to “lock-in” the deal. They came across as very slimy. .
Furniture stores / Mall retailers. Havertys, Ashley Furniture, Sears, JC Penney, and Macy’s don’t provide very good value, but I generally found that the salespeople weren’t that pushy. If you just want to try out a bunch of mattresses, these aren’t the worst places to go. Though, certainly wouldn’t recommend buying at any of those chains.
Costco. Costco initially seemed promising to me. Had a friend recommend it and their website had a variety of options that at least seemed interesting on the face of it. After reading more on Costco staples (such as the Novaform mattresses) and visiting a store myself, however, I was extremely disappointed. Not only do the Costco mattresses appear to be made of less than high-quality materials, but their physical stores carry very few of the models that are on the online site. Plus, most of their mattresses are merely set up against a wall like giant books, and you can not test them out for yourself. Overall, in spite of having a reputation as a low-cost retailer, I found Costco to be a huge bust.
Mattress Firm. Decided to take a visit to Mattress Firm, knowing full well I had no desire to buy anything there. Call it curiosity, but I had to experience it myself. First off, let me point out that there are 5 Mattress Firm locations within a 3-mile radius of my place in Buckhead. In fact, there are more Mattress Firms than grocery stores. Think about that for a moment; that suggests that this place generates some massive margins on every sales. My salesman was a very friendly guy, but knew very little about mattresses. He came at me with a variety of cheap sales tactics: (1) claiming that there was a sale for only a few days, (2) telling me I’d get the best deal if I locked in immediately, (3) making a big deal about how buying from them is practically like donating to charity (it’s not!). If you’re on this site, you weren’t considering Mattress Firm anyway, in all likelihood. I wouldn’t even recommend it to test out mattresses, because you’ll get harassed from the moment you walk in.
Would’ve loved to have visited more places, but unfortunately, it seems like there are not many good physical (as opposed to online) options here in Atlanta. Tucker Mattress Company was the only very good option within a 30-mile radius that I am aware of. If there are others out there, would love to hear about them.
