big brands with low price or local factory with higher price

Hello,
Sorry to create new topic but could not find a suitable topic. I read the guides you provided when choosing matress very detailed but i still got confused. I live in new york city and i was shopping around I have found different deals. I have local furniture and matress stores offering me serta icomfort and perfect sleeper for queen size they give me around $500-$800 for matresses that in sears and other big stores and retail is more than $1000. They are selling to me that they buy wholesale from big stores and therefore they need to get rid that’s why they selling it so low. Now the question should i buy big brand name like serta or something not from big names which has retail price around $500-$800 i just don’t know quality wise is it better icomfort series and perfect sleeper or local bed manufactors? for same money

Hi, I’m in NYC too

You haven some choices …Craig’s beds is supposed to have a good selection but don’t quote me on quality, I have not been in there.
Nest Bedding is downtown on Bowery and they are not cheap but not too expensive. Wright bedding is downtown also but expensive, you can get the same feel from a bed at Nest for less.
If you want to spend even more money and I do mean more Essentia is in midtown

thank you for your reply and explanations. craigs i looked website has good prices. now i don’t know should i take serta pillow top? hybrid or icomfort. also good deal i found for “westin heavenly bed mattress” it is made for hotels western by simmons.

Hi renato,

Welcome to the Mattress Forum! :slight_smile:

While you said you’ve been reading here on the site, it seems there may have been a few things that you’ve missed, as you wouldn’t be considering the brands that you mentioned if you had found a few of the articles I’ll list for you below, so I’ll do my best to be assistive in your search.

First off, the major brands such as Sealy/Stearns & Foster, Simmons, and Serta all tend to use lower quality and less durable materials in their mattresses than most of their smaller competitors that will tend to soften or break down prematurely relative to the price you pay which is why I would generally suggest avoiding all of them completely (along with the major retailers that focus on them as well) regardless of how they may feel in a showroom along with any mattress where you aren’t able to find out the type and quality/durability of the materials inside it (see the guidelines here along with post #3 here and post #12 here and post #404 here).

It sounds like you may have accidentally passed over the first step in your mattress shopping process, which would be to read through the mattress shopping tutorial here which includes all the basic information, steps, and guidelines that can help you make the best possible choice … and perhaps more importantly know how and why to avoid the worst ones.

Two of the most important links in the tutorial that I would especially make sure you’ve read are post #2 here which has more about the different ways to choose a suitable mattress (either locally or online) that is the best “match” for you in terms of “comfort”, firmness, and PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and your own Personal preferences) that can help you assess and minimize the risks of making a choice that doesn’t turn out as well as you hoped for and post #13 here which has more about the most important parts of the “value” of a mattress purchase which can help you make more meaningful quality/value comparisons between mattresses in terms of suitability (how well you will sleep), durability (how long you will sleep well), and the overall value of a mattress compared to your other finalists based on all the parts of your personal value equation that are most important to you (including the price of course and the options you have available after a purchase if your choice doesn’t turn out as well as you hoped for).

Outside of PPP (which is the most important part of “value”), the next most important part of the value of a mattress purchase is durability which is all about how long you will sleep well on a mattress. This is the part of your research that you can’t see or “feel” and assessing the durability and useful life of a mattress depends on knowing the specifics of its construction and the type and quality of the materials inside it regardless of the name of the manufacturer on the label or how a mattress feels in a showroom or when it is relatively new so I would always make sure that you find out the information listed here so you can compare the quality of the materials and components to the durability guidelines here to make sure there are no lower quality materials or weak links in a mattress that would be a cause for concern relative to the durability and useful life of a mattress before making any purchase.

In its simplest form … choosing the “best possible” mattress for any particular person really comes down to FIRST finding a few knowledgeable and transparent retailers and/or manufacturers (either locally or online) that sell the types of mattresses that you are most interested in that are in a budget range you are comfortable with and that you have confirmed will provide you with the all the information you need about the materials and components inside the mattresses they sell so you will be able to make informed choices and meaningful comparisons between mattresses and then …

  1. Careful testing (hopefully using the testing guidelines in the tutorial) to make sure that a mattress is a good match for you in terms of “comfort”, firmness, and PPP … and/or that you are comfortable with the options you have available to return, exchange, or “fine tune” the mattress and any costs involved if you can’t test a mattress in person or aren’t confident that your mattress is a suitable choice.

  2. Checking to make sure that there are no lower quality materials or weak links in a mattress you are considering relative to your weight/BMI range that could compromise the durability and useful life of the mattress.

  3. Comparing your finalists for “value” based on #1 and #2 and all the other parts of your personal value equation that are most important to you.

I wouldn’t pay much attention to stories about one store “buying wholesale” versus another, because if the quality of componentry within the mattress is lower (or if you can’t even find out the quality of the componentry as I listed earlier in this post), it wouldn’t matter what the price might be. A low price on a lower quality item isn’t a good value.

As you mentioned a “hotel series” of mattresses, I’ll copy here some of my general comments about hotel mattresses from post #2 here:

It may also be worth mentioning that Hotel mattresses are typically lower quality and value than the consumer mattresses made by the same manufacturer in the same price range (in the case of Hampton Inn made by Serta). They are used much less than a consumer mattress, are typically newer, and just like most major brand mattresses use lower quality materials that they don’t disclose. As Sleeping also mentioned they are often not the same from hotel to hotel or a particular hotel may not have the same mattress as they are currently selling (see the small print at the end of the description here)

One of the “secrets” to many hotel mattress is that they usually use a bedding package that includes a mattress pad or topper that is a big part of how the mattress feels and can also add to the durability of the mattress (replacing a mattress pad or topper can be less costly than replacing a whole mattress because a mattress or sleeping system will usually soften or break down from the top down). In many cases the more subjective short term experience of sleeping at a hotel is an improvement over the mattress that people sleep on regularly and this often “translates” into the perception that hotel mattresses are better than they are. They are a frequent source of buyer’s remorse.

You can also see from the survey here that over half of all people (and that includes all people including those that are sleeping on old mattresses that are no longer suitable for them and people that are sleeping on mattresses that are working well for them) … prefer their own mattress over a higher end hotel mattress. In many cases … the reason that some people like a hotel mattress is because their own mattress is no longer suitable for them and they don’t have a good frame of reference and almost anything would be an improvement over what they are used to.

Like any mattress though … it’s never a good idea to make a choice without knowing the specifics of a mattress and hotel mattresses in general are usually an even worse choice than the consumer mattresses made by the same major manufacturer which in turn are usually not good quality/value choices either compared to smaller independent manufacturers around the country.

A few of the other posts around the forum that mention or discuss hotel beds are post #2 here and here and the first part of post #4 here (with some examples of wholesale costs) and in post #2 here and post #10 here, but the overall theme is the same … they are generally a poor quality/value choice and there are many better options available.

I hope this information will be helpful to you and if you have more specific questions after reading through this, I’ll do my best to be assistive.

Phoenix