Hi gordonlw,
Sparkleman has been doing a great job of providing some good advice that is the same as I would be providing if I was on the forum earlier (thanks sparkelman :)).
The manufacturers that are closest to Asheville are listed in post #4 here and it also has a link to a post with some of the local retailers and Asheville research done by one of the members here as well.
IMO … Coltons would certainly be one of the better choices available to you.
I didn’t even realize that Verlo had an outlet in NC (it doesn’t show up on their map or on a search on their retail locator so I’ve added them to the Asheville / Hendersonville list) Thanks for the heads up!.
As you can see in post #13 here and to echo sparkleman’s comments … I pay very little attention to reviews as far as mattresses go although they can have some value if they talk about the customer service of a store. It’s much more important to me to know the materials that are inside a mattress. Reviews about mattresses are certainly not the same as mattress research.
The post that links to most of the basic information you will need that sparkelman was mentioning is post #1 here. As you will see in one of the guidelines it links to … I would include Kingsdown in the “major manufacturers” group that I would completely avoid (along with any mattress where you aren’t able to find out what is inside it). They don’t disclose the materials in their mattresses and they are not very good quality/value. His comments are typical of retailers and salespeople who have no knowledge of the quality of what they are selling and can’t validate the quality/value of their mattresses for their customers and depend on “marketing stories” to sell mattresses.
Hope this helps … along with sparkleman’s great comments.
Phoenix