Are there any ‘local manufacturers’ in the Western NC or perhaps SC that sell quality Talalay latex mattresses? We live in the Hendersonville - Asheville NC area. Does anyone have experience with 'The Original Mattress Mattress Factory" in the Hickory NC area? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks very much. Michael.
Hi Michael,
Post #6 and #7 here includes some good options in the Asheville area and also has links to larger lists centered on Greenville, Hickory, Knoxville, and Seneca/Clemson.
Original mattress factory is a larger regional factory direct manufacturer that make high quality mattresses with good value including a memory foam model, two latex models, and many traditional innersprings. They are quite open and transparent about the materials they use and are usually among the better value outlets in many areas. In your case however you have an unusual amount of factory directs fairly close to you and have a much wider range of high value choices than most areas of the country. A few phone calls though should help you decide which would be worth a visit.
Phoenix
Hi Phoenix,
Thank you so much for your swift reply. We have spent a great deal of time reading your and the Members comments and suggestions and have assembled a ‘list of questions’ to ask the sales people. That was a first step but until today we needed stores to visit, beds to try and people to talk to. Thanks to you we can begin our quest, take our list and begin visiting stores. Wish us luck and will keep you posted!
Best Regards
Michael
PS.
I must say again, you have done spectacular job designing your website but more than that the care with which you operate it is second to none!
Hi Phoenix,
Thank you so much for your swift reply. We have spent a great deal of time reading your and the Members comments and suggestions and have assembled a ‘list of questions’ to ask the sales people. That was a first step but until today we needed stores to visit, beds to try and people to talk to. Thanks to you we can begin our quest, take our list and begin visiting stores. Wish us luck and will keep you posted!
Best Regards
Michael
PS.
I must say again, you have done spectacular job designing your website but more than that the care with which you operate it is second to none!
Hi Michael,
Thanks for the kind words 
I’m looking forward to hearing about your “adventures”
Phoenix
Hi Phoenix,
We planned to vist Colton Mattress in Asheville NC tomorrow. When I Googled “Colton Mattress Factotoy Privacy Staement” a two page statement comes up that discusses at length how Colton will collect ‘personally identifiable information’ also ‘your IP address, computer hardware and software data will be automatically collected by Colton’. Colton also ‘collects and uses your personal information to operate the Colton Mattress factory’! There is a lot more included in their ‘Privacy Statement’
I must admit that I am quite naive when it comes to computers, hardware and software but is it common practise for companys that have web sites to collect all this personal data? Hopefully you will have time to Google it and give me your opinion.
Again thanks and I will stay in touch.
Michael
Information like IP address and web browser information is almost always normally captured by web sites, especially any kind of e-commerce site. This information can be funneled to advertisers for targeted advertising. For example, if you do a search for ‘mattresses’ and hit a few mattress sites, you’ll start to see targeted ads for mattress sites. It’s a pretty common practice and is mostly harmless. Mostly.
Hi Coventry,
Thanks for clarifying my question about the collection of personal data etc. I guess it is all part of ‘doing busieness’ today.
Best Regards
Michael
Hi Michael,
I think Coventry is probably more knowledgeable about these things than I am but from my understanding as well, there are two types of information that a site can collect. One is the information that a site can “gather” just by browsing it and the second is the information that you actually provide the site if you fill in any information in the process of ordering something or filling in any forms on the site.
From my reading of the privacy statement … it appears to be fairly clear about how they use each type and that they don’t provide any personal information to other sites or businesses but that they can use any information you provide to email you or contact you for various reasons. In other words … they keep the information they collect from your input to themselves.
They are also somewhat more open than usual in that they include a privacy statement in this depth and make it clear how they collect it and what they do with any information they collect.
There is a lot of controversy about the collection and sharing of information these days … especially from most social networking sites like Facebook and others … and while as Coventry mentions it is “mostly” harmless, there are also many who believe that the exceptions are far too many and invasive.
Phoenix
Hi Phoenix,
Thanks again for your comments. I feel that invasion of privacy has gone way beyond the collection of data for business purposes. At a minumum an individual should at least have the opportunity to say "no thanks: but I cannot see that happening, can you?
Anyway, we will all keep on keeping on!
Best Regards
Michael
The data they collect has a value to retaillers, marketers etc… it’s that inherent value that “pays” to keep the sites free for consumers. There is no free lunch anymore, but your shopping patterns, habits and preferences pay for your free browsing and research experience. Unless you live off the grid, you’re a number and a file somewhere :whistle: