Hi Daniel,
The Los Angeles list includes all the better possibilities that I’m aware of in the Greater LA area and I believe that most of them would be well worth an initial phone call and a longer drive (depending on the outcome of the call). Of course in an area this large there are hundreds of options in the general area and some of them that are not on the list may also offer good quality, value and service and this article will give you some guidelines about how to tell the better choices from the worse ones for those that are not on the list.
When I search an area … I usually just use a google search with the search term “mattress, city/area, state” and then go page by page as far as google will allow (usually 50 pages or more) and look at every website that sells mattresses. I exclude any that only offer major brands and look more closely at those that either manufacture their own mattresses or that offer smaller local or independent brands that may have better value. If the focus seems to be on major brands or typical “sales tactics” … the odds are good that they will not be knowledgeable about the materials in their mattresses and will be selling the sizzle more than the steak and there would need to be a compelling reason for me to look at them any further. I would then call the ones that looked most promising and talk to them along the lines of the article I linked earlier to get a sense of their level of knowledge, service, and transparency.
If I was making the choice … I would certainly lean towards Selectabed vs Healthy Foundations which I don’t believe have the best value available (or at least many options because a “one size fits all” choice is not usually the best one) or have the most “accurate” information on their website. Select-A-Bed has several lines and they either offer or make memory foam mattresses that can be as firm or soft as you may prefer. they also use high quality materials and are skilled at helping their customers make the best possible choice “in person” among the many options they carry. You can see more of my thoughts about them (and Dr Rick) in post #9 here.
As you can see from the sleeping position guidelines here … a side/stomach sleeper will generally do best with a comfort layer that is “just barely enough” to provide the pressure relief on their side so that their alignment on their stomach is more suitable. The healthy foundations mattress you purchased has thick layers of soft memory foam (all memory foam is relatively soft over the course of the night and this type of construction with some 4 lb memory foam over some 5 lb memory foam would be similar to the Tempurpedic cloud series which are their softer versions) ) and I would tend to avoid memory foam comfort layers this thick/soft as a primary stomach sleeper. Any type of support layer (innersprings, opolyfoam, or latex) can be suitable as long as it has the right firmness for you (they all come in softer or firmer versions) and the overall construction of the mattress is suitable for your height and weight and sleeping positions and you have tested it for support in all your sleeping positions (post #11 here can help with this). I think that the “symptoms” that came with your mattress had more to do with the mattress not being suitable for your sleeping positions than it did with the type of material it used in the support layer.
If I have the chance over the coming days … I’ll see if I can do some searching in the Santa Monica area to see if there are some possibilities there that may be closer. They will generally take some further research and a phone call to make sure they are worth visiting and carry the types of mattresses that you want to test before you visit them though. While this can take many hours or sometimes days the good news is that it doesn’t need to be done very often and sometimes turns up options that for some reason I didn’t catch the last time I researched a particular area. In general, if a “better” outlet is within about 50 miles or so (and you have talked with them on the phone to confirm what they carry and their overall level of knowledge and service) it will save you a lot of time … not to mention have much greater odds of finding a better quality/value mattress that is more suitable for your needs and preferences … than focusing on more local choices where the shopping and research may be much more difficult (in terms of finding out what is in your mattress) or where the choices or value are not as good.
I realize that visiting a retailer or manufacturer that takes an hour to get there can be more time consuming but testing mattresses where finding out the information that you really need to make meaningful comparisons is more difficult can be even more time consuming and frustrating yet.
The advantage of buying a mattress that has thinner comfort layers is that they will also tend to be a little less (of course depending on the materials they use). You certainly have some good options in this price range (depending on the size you are considering) and I would particularly focus on using the best possible quality materials in the comfort layers which tend to be the weak link of a mattress. This means that some kind of hybrid which uses less costly polyfoam or innersprings in the support layers and either higher density memory foam or latex in the comfort layers can make a good choice.
Phoenix