Hi rayski,
I switched your post to a new topic so your questions won’t get mixed up inside someone else’s existing topic.
There is more about the pros and cons of an online purchase vs a local purchase in post #2 here and in this topic.
Like any choice that involve some degree of “risk” … these are choices that involve “risk tolerance” and “risk management” and you will find that different people will be most comfortable with a different choices based on the cost, quality, and value of the mattresses they are considering and on how they compare to the other local and online options they have available along with the options they have after a purchase to fine tune or make changes to the mattress (be rearranging or exchanging layers for example) or to exchange or return it. The goal is always to replace hindsight with foresight as much as possible so that you have reasonable expectations and have taken all the many parts of your personal value equation that may turn out to be important to you into account as part of the “value” of your purchase. There is no “best or worst” choice here … only a purchase that you feel best about and you are most comfortable making.
There are many people that are happy to make an online purchase if there are good options available after a purchase that can lower their risk if their purchase doesn’t turn out as well as they hoped and there are even some that make an online purchase where the options they have after a purchase are limited or non existent because price is the only thing that matters (although I don’t suggest this approach). There are also many people (probably the majority of consumers) that would only consider a purchase that they can test in person before a purchase regardless of any of the options that may be available to them after a purchase but of course their options are limited to the relative “value” of their local options.
Testing similar types of mattresses locally (if they are available) can give you a general sense of how different types of latex and different firmness levels will feel to you … even if they aren’t the same as an online purchase you are considering … and in combination with the options they have after a purchase may be “close enough” for some people while for others it may still feel too risky.
These are all parts of the relative “value” of a mattress purchase (see post #13 here) and are questions that only each person can answer for themselves based on their own local testing, their conversations with online suppliers, their confidence in their choices or their local testing, the options they have available before and after a purchase, their risk tolerance, where they are in the “princess and the pea” to “I can sleep on anything” range, and all the other parts of their personal value equation that are most important to them.
Phoenix