I live in Fairbanks Alaska and we have a limited (very) manufacturing base. I have not been able to find any local or regional manufacturers. What options do I have?
Hi BryanAK,
I hadn’t done much research in the Alaska area and there are no manufacturers there so I thought I would see what was available from the local retailers.
Since there are only 4 of them that came up on a local search … I thought I’d list all 4 and provide a few comments.
http://mattressranch.com/ Fairbanks. They sell Lady Americana made in Washington State which tend to have better quality and value than most major brands. They have all latex, latex hybrids, gel memory foam, and traditional innersprings. These would probably be among the better local choices and they have spec sheets for all their mattresses.
http://www.baileysfurniture.com/store/browse/mattresses Fairbanks. They carry Englander made to their own designs which include latex, latex hybrids, memory foam, gel memory foam, and innersprings. They also said they would provide any specs of any of the materials in their mattresses.
http://www.fwfairbanks.com/ Fairbanks. They carry Comfort Solutions (which makes King Koil) and have latex/polyfoam hybrids and traditional innersprings. They are not provided with any foam specs by their manufacturer so you won’t be able to find out the quality of the mattresses they carry and I would limit my choices here to the latex hybrid if you consider anything here.
sadlers.us Fairbanks. They carry mainstream brands which I would ignore but also carry Easy Rest which is a memory foam mattresses manufactured in Oregon that uses good quality materials made in China but Certipur certified.
post #21 hereIn cases like this where there are no local manufacturers … I would first look at your local options and test mattresses there. This will give you a sense of the types of mattresses and materials you prefer. I would then make a few “apples to apples” comparisons with similar mattresses made by some of the better online manufacturers in terms of quality and value (you can see a list of these in ) in terms of quality and value. If the difference between similar mattresses available locally and online (including any shipping the ones which ship to Alaska may charge) is significant (more than about 20% or so) … then I would consider online options as a possible source as well.
Phoenix