Hi Ed,
Unfortunately, the closest local manufacturers to New Orleans are in Baton Rouge and Lafayette and there’s not a lot of options right in New Orleans. The manufacturers are listed in post #191 here.
There are also some local retail outlets who carry some brands and models that may be better quality and value than most of your other local choices and I’ll post a list of these tomorrow once I’ve had a chance to confirm that my information about some of them is accurate (I called a few today and some of the website information wasn’t accurate). ADDED: These are included in post #4 of this topic.
If Baton Rouge is too far away (although I’d definitely call the first one on the list regardless as they did impress me with their range of selection and knowledge) … Then an online purchase can make a lot of sense as a source of great quality and value. It would still help to do some local testing to get a sense of what you need and prefer to use as a guideline for your choices. The members of the site that specialize in shipping across the country are listed in post #21 here. They all offer a range of different options but they are all used to giving good guidance about their various options on the phone.
Custom Sleep Design does have a profiling system that they use for their custom zoned mattress which IMO is very accurate yes.
I’ll update this thread tomorrow with any local options that may either be worth including in your research or for testing purposes.
Phoenix