Hi sbp,
I certainly understand the confusion and frustration that can come from mattress shopping. In case you haven’t already … the first place I would start is this article on the main site. This will help you avoid most of the worst choices and better focus on the remaining better choices that are available to you.
Reading the overviews in the mattresses section of the site will also give you more general knowledge than most of the people in more mainstream outlets that are trying to sell you a mattress (even if you don’t remember it all).
For most people … buying a mattress is a completely blind purchase and it’s sad to me that because there are so few places where people can find out the actual quality and descriptions of the layers in a mattress that they end up buying something that has such a significant effect on the quality of their life and yet buy from an outlet which either can’t or won’t tell them what is in their mattress. Buying a mattress based on trusting a person who is selling it who has little knowledge of the most important parts of what makes a good mattress makes little sense to me and it becomes in most cases a matter of the blind leading the blind. If you ask some of the quesions that the overviews will help you to ask … you will see many eyes glaze over and answers that are based on generalities and stories more than real information.
Knowing where to shop is half the battle and I personally wouldn’t consider any of the options available from Sleepy’s or more typical chain stores across the country who focus on the major brands (who don’t disclose most of the most important information about their mattresses) and who are more focused on their profit margin than on the long term satisfaction of their customers.
Your budget is certainly enough to buy a much higher quality mattress than what you are considering including in many cases an innerspring/latex hybrid. I would suspect that any “latex mattresses” that you’ve tried weren’t even really latex at all because most of the major brands have only thin layers of latex mixed in with polyfoam. The ones that really are all latex are significantly overpriced compared to equivalent mattresses made by local manufacturers. A quick look at the law tag of what many outlets describe as “latex mattresses” will quickly tell you if they really are all latex (thee types of foam are listed by weight) but even this won’t tell you where the “other” layers are located and whether you are sleeping on latex or on the other layers of polyfoam in the comfort layers or the quilting of the mattress.
Post #2 here will give you a list of some of the factory direct outlets and better sleep shops in the NYC area who will be more willing to give you the correct information about the layers in their mattresses and where you can better trust the information you are given. Post #7 here will give you a little more idea about what you can expect to find at most of them. the second link includes some that are further away from you and I would tend to focus on the three options in the last group of five on the list that are closest to you.
Phoenix