Hi DaveC,
If a manufacturer or retailer lists or tells you their actual selling prices for specific products then they are being honest with their prices and then it’s up to a consumer to do the research and decide whether their price is fair or represents “good value” based on how they compare with other similar mattress (not based only on how they compare with the same mattress at a different and possibly “fictional” regular price). For example if the so called “regular” price (or the MSRP) of a mattress is listed as $5000 and it’s on sale for $2500 (and they are advertising a “huge sale” for a 50% discount) and there are other mattresses that are very similar that sell for $2000 that are also available to you then the $2500 sale price may not be particularly good value even though it is being sold at 50% off unless there are other factors that make the higher price “worth it” to you.
If regular prices (or MSRP prices) are inflated (which they often are in the industry) so that “so called” sale prices look better (are calculated as a discount on a “regular price” that nobody ever pays) then the percentage of the discount is very misleading and certainly wouldn’t be an indication of the “value” of a mattress. In other words … it would only be about marketing … not “value”.
While the price of a mattress is certainly one of the more important parts of the “value” of a mattress purchase … there are many other parts to the “value” of a mattress purchase as well and unfortunately there isn’t a “formula” that can be used to assess or “calculate” value because there are so many different variables and criteria involved that may be more or less important to different people. In other words … the “value” of a mattress purchase is always relative to the other finalists you are considering or to the other mattresses that are available to you in your area or online (if you are also looking at online options). There are many reasons that a mattress that may be “good value” for one person may not be worth considering for someone else.
There is more information about the 3 most important parts of “value” of a mattress purchase in post #13 here which can help you make more meaningful quality/value comparisons between mattresses in terms of suitability (how well you will sleep), durability (how long you will sleep well), and the overall value of a mattress compared to your other finalists based on suitability, durability, and all the other parts of your personal value equation that are most important to you (including the price of course and the options you have available after a purchase if your choice doesn’t turn out as well as you hoped for).
Better manufacturers and retailers don’t generally “negotiate” or have “fake sales” with large discounts based on the time of year or holidays. While they may have some sales with smaller discounts … I would treat retailers or manufacturers that negotiate their prices or have “major holiday sales” (that are often just rotating sales that only change their name at different times of the year) as a red flag because manufacturers or retailers that sell good quality/value mattresses don’t need to negotiate or have “fake sales” with misleading discounts to create a false sense of urgency and they sell good quality/value mattresses every day of the year at prices that are already very reasonable. There is more about “so called” sale prices in post #5 here and there is more about negotiating in post #6 here that may also be helpful. There is a big difference between perceived value that is based on a price that isn’t real or that nobody ever pays and real value based on how a mattress compares to other similar mattresses that are available to you at the “final prices” you would be paying.
Phoenix