Okay. Ever since I spent one night at a hotel equipped with memory foam mattresses, I’ve realized it is time to upgrade. I have concerns about the chemicals used in memory foam as well as concerns that it would sleep too warm in my apartment, so I’m pretty well locked into the idea of buying a latex mattress.
Big kudos to Phoenix for maintaining such an informative site. There is a ton of information here. Before finding this forum, I was groping around in the dark. Now I see the light.
I’m planning to purchase a full size 100% natural latex mattress. I’ve visited some of the stores local to my area in NYC. The best shopping experience I’ve had was at Clean Bedroom. Louis, their sales associate, was very helpful. None of the hard-sell tactics…just helpful and informative. I tried three different latex beds (actually both halves of three different beds). The one I liked best was the Naturally Organic Oyasumi with a 6" medium support layer and a 2" soft comfort layer.
Although I would like to support a local business, I’m finding the price tag a little too much to swallow. Actually…more than a little too much to swallow. The mattress without foundation is $2530. Add sales tax and the total comes out to $2754.54.
I also spent about twenty minutes on the phone with Ken Hightower of the Arizona Mattress Company (aka www.mattresses.net). Ken can build a mattress with similar specs (all dunlop latex 2" soft topper, 6" medium core, natural joma wool, bamboo stretch knit cover) for $1295 plus shipping which he estimates will be about $140 to NYC. I came away from that phone conversation very comfortable that this is a quality person with whom I’d like to do business.
I also visited some other local business and have spoken with other online retailers. The closest to the mattress from Arizona Mattress I have found is plushbeds.com. Their 8" botanical bliss mattress seems very similar at $1599 though not exactly what I would get from the other two companies. Also, their sales manager really tried to put the hard-sell on me when we spoke. That’s kind of a red flag to me.
In short, it certainly appears the best option is to buy the built-to-spec mattress from Arizona Mattress. I can’t imagine there’s any way Clean Bedroom will come close to the price Arizona Mattress is offering. I would love to support a local business, but I can’t afford a $1000 price premium for this.
If anyone has any suggestions or additional thoughts on this (aside from brow-beating about buying from an online retailer), I’d love some feedback.