I live in Chicago. I’m moving my son to an apartment in Boston next weekend where he’s attending school. Is there a national mattress company where we could shop for the mattress in Chicago and order it here and then have it delivered by a place in Boston? Or do we just have to wait until we get to Boston and shop there?
Hi ptc712,
There are many mattress manufacturers that are nationally distributed through different retail outlets throughout the country but the vast majority of them would be major brands that have much lower quality and value than manufacturers that are distributed locally, regionally, or even smaller national manufacturers. The types of retail outlets or chain stores that have a wider geographical presence across the country where you could order in one place and pick it up from another outlet of the same chain would not generally sell high quality value mattresses compared to smaller or more local alternatives.
There are exceptions of course where smaller manufacturers are distributed in a wider area but these would need to be on a case to case basis because a model that you test locally in Chicago may not be available in the Boston Area. they would also be distributed through different chain or outlets in each area so you still wouldn’t be able to buy in one area and pick it up in another. While some of these may be more widely available than local or regional manufacturers, they also tend to be more “thinly” distributed through specialty sleep shops which are not part of the same chain.
Both Chicago (see post #2 and #4 here) and Boston (see post #2 here) have some great choices though in terms of variety, quality, and value.
If you decide to shop in Chicago … you could always have the mattress that you chose shipped to you in Boston if a particular outlet is able to do this (and My Green Mattress/Quality Sleep for example ships across the country at very reasonable rates).
In general though, to do what you wanted to do, the first step would be to find a chain of stores that had a presence in both Chicago and Boston that would allow you to order in one city and pick it up in another and that also carried the kind of selection, quality, and value that you would prefer. I don’t know of any of these. Because of this I would tend to shop locally in either area and either ship it from Chicago or have it delivered locally if you purchase it in Boston.
Phoenix