First post in a while, I was in Afghanistan for a couple years sampling some of the worst beds known to man. Since my last post I have decided against memory foam and want an all Talalay latex mattress. I also have some concerns about how I can validate that the mattress is indeed all Talalay latex. It seems a common practice for some places to misrepresent some of the layers.
Hi gcrain,
Welcome home … I’m glad to see you made it through Afghanistan safely 
Some of the better options in the Richmond area I’m aware of are listed in post #5 here.
Since most consumers wouldn’t know the difference between types of latex even if they could open up the mattress … you are dependent on accuracy of the information you receive and the knowledge and integrity of the the retailer or manufacturer you are dealing with.
In addition to the Richmond list … you can see the Pure Latex Bliss dealers near you on their retail store finder here. PLB is owned by one of the two manufacturers of Talalay latex in the western world (Latex International).
Phoenix
It looks like it is just Healthy Back Store. I have been there a few times and they have some nice stuff but it is overpriced in my opinion. In Richmond they carry Tempurpedic, Bliss and Dr Scholls. An additional factor I should have mentioned is I am rehabbing a herniated S1 disk from a 5’ fall. I have made good progress but I still have a ways to go. Surprisingly none of my Doctors had any recommendations regarding beds. My 2 issues now are the low back pain from the injury and recently some aches in my upper back and shoulders in the morning. I currently have an extra firm 17" Sealy Posturepedic but I just found out my wife accidentally got the wrong box springs out of storage so that probably isn’t helping. I’m not really interested in spending the extra money for the temperature regulating latex. The online sites that interested me so far are Brooklyn Bedding, FloBeds and SleepEZ. I’m on the fence about zoning and haven’t finished researching that yet.
We are both side sleepers and back sleepers. I sleep more on my back and my wife sleeps more on her side.
Hi gcrain,
There are a few other Pure Latex Bliss Dealers in the area as well (you can just put your zip in the store finder on the PLB site). PLB has MAP pricing (minimum advertised pricing) but in most cases they will also go down when you are in the store.
That’s not particularly surprising to me. Most doctors have little knowledge about which mattresses may be most suitable for their patients. The lower back issues point to the need for good alignment which usually means firm enough in the support layers so your hips/pelvis don’t sink in too far. The upper back issues usually point to the need for a little more pressure relief and comfort layers that are too firm may also aggravate the disk issue by allowing too much pressure. All of this will also depend on your body type and sleeping positions so your own careful and objective personal testing using the testing guidelines linked in post #1 here would be especially important and I would make surre that you spend at least 15 minutes on any serious candidate after you are completely relaxed in all the sleeping positions you normally sleep in.
All of the online manufacturers you listed have good quality and value and are very knowledgeable about their mattresses and I would encourage you to have a more extended conversation with each of them on the phone. Zoning can be helpful in unusual circumstances or with more “difficult” body shapes. You can read a little more about zoning in this article and in post #11 here. Some good local testing can be useful guideline for an online purchase.
Phoenix
I think my current bed was actually a pretty good bed at the time but its around 10 years old now. It’s an extra firm eurotop and I think the comfort layers have lost a lot of their cushion now which is causing the upper back and shoulder aches as you said. I think the bed is too firm for my lower back for both back and side sleeping. I have larger than average glutes and hips for a guy so I need a decent amount of cushion in that area for proper alignment. This was more obvious at the beginning of my recovery where the wrong position would be quite painful. I had to sleep on my back with my knees bent to get the proper alignment. Thank you for the info on zoning. It sounds good in theory but I agree with the concerns that the execution has to be almost perfect to get the benefit. I think I will avoid zoning for now, maybe on the next bed I will consider it again. Let me ask you one more question, what are your feelings on 3 layers vs 2? It seems 3 layers would allow more ability to combine comfort with support but I may be over thinking it and under estimating latex.
Hi gcrain,
You can read some of my thoughts about having more layers that can be interchanged or exchanged in post #2 here and post #14 here touches on this as well. There is a range of “needs and preferences” that is suitable for each person that puts them somewhere inside what I call the “I can sleep on anything” to “princess and the pea” scale. For those who are more sensitive to variations in pressure relief and alignment/support and may need to do more fine tuning or have a more challenging body type or circumstances, then more layers can provide more design flexibility and combinations of layering to fine tune ether pressure relief/comfort or alignment/support by re-arranging or exchanging layers and may be a significant part of the “value” of a mattress regardless of any difference in cost or any additional complexity that may be involved…
Phoenix
Another visit to the store was really a game changer. I went early while I was still aching from the previous nights sleep. I much preferred the softest memory foam beds they had. I’m a little mystified by this and previous visit when I preferred the latex but my hunch is it because it was much later in the day. Looking at the posts here it really seems memory foam has fallen out of favor and latex is the gold standard so not sure what to make of today’s visit.
Hi gcrain,
I don’t think that memory foam has fallen out of favor and it’s still the most popular specialty foam in the industry. Latex is more popular in some areas of the industry (such as smaller local manufacturers who in some cases have been manufacturing latex mattress since before memory foam even existed) that aren’t as affected by the marketing that goes along with memory foam or its newest variant gel memory foam but they are very different materials with very different properties and the choice between them is really about personal preference (see post #2 here).
Phoenix