Mattress shopping

Mike and I finally reached the end of our rope with our hand-me-down base-model Select Comfort bed last weekend. It has been uncomfortable for me since day 1 (despite the nice mattress topper and extra foam insert we bought), but now it's especially uncomfortable due to the (1) ripped seams around the mattress, causing the air pockets to separate and the crack in the center to widen into a crater, and (2) broken plastic slats on the foundation (aka box spring), causing the bed to further cave in at the center.

I spent a lot of time online Sunday, researching how to buy a new mattress set. Basically I discovered (1) first you should choose your size of bed and your general budget, (2) then you need to narrow it down to firm, pillowtop, latex/memory foam or specialty (e.g., sleep number bed), (3) in general it's a big scam. The big mattress manufacturers (Sealy, Stearns+Foster, Simmons, etc.) will sell different lines (actually the same bed, but called different things) to different stores, making it impossible to comparison shop between stores, (4) most retail stores ridiculously overprice their mattresses. So much that every website I read said not to spend more than 50% of the MSRP. (Ugh! I hate haggling.)

So then I turned to my friends on facebook. I got one recommendation for Ikea, one for Select Comfort, and several for the Original Mattress Factory. Based on that, and on the info in the above paragraph, I immediately ruled out any of the department stores in the area (Ashley, Hom, Macy's, Sears, etc.) and decided to only focus on those 3 stores. I planned out a trip to Bloomington, where all 3 are located within a few miles of each other.

Mike and I started off with dinner after work yesterday (Monday), in order to have the energy necessary for a long evening of lying on beds. :) We then started at the Original Mattress Factory. I had read on several online sites that you should bring your own pillows, so we did just that. But apparently hardly anyone actual does that because everyone in each store laughed at with (?) us! Oh well. At OMF, the saleman gave us his well-worn spiel about their mattresses - you could tell he had recited that same information about a million times, as he was unable to make it sound even remotely novel. Then we got to try out beds. We spent about an hour there, trying to spend a full 10-15 minutes (what was recommended online) on the couple beds we liked of the eight total that we tried. Luckily we both liked the same one: the orthopedic ultra firm. We were about ready to just buy it then, but we figured we should do our due diligence and check out the other 2 stores on our agenda.

Next up was Select Comfort in the Mall of America. Apparently they only get tourists and no real customers at that location, so the saleslady was super excited to be helping us out. She kept raving on and on about how wonderful it was that we already know how amazing Sleep Number beds are - I didn't have the heart to tell her that I have always hated ours! I was pleasantly surprised by how comfortable the newer models are, though. We spent about 45 minutes there as we tried out 3 different models, and eventually agreed on the one we liked best (similar to this one, but not exactly). Super comfy, but an incredibly uncomfortable environment - so many people walking by in the mall turned and stared/laughed at us trying out beds. Awkward!

Finally, we went to Ikea. We really debated whether we even needed to go there, but eventually we did just so I could be 100% sure that they didn't have what we wanted. Plus we needed some candles and some plastic storage containers for kitchen dry goods. We got up to the mattress area (we left our pillows in the car for this store), and were immediately appalled at the mattresses - we couldn't even find one that we like sitting on, much less wanted to test lying on! Wow.

So then we just had to make a decision between the Sleep Number bed and the OMF bed. We debated for awhile in the car:

Sleep Number:
-way more expensive (but still in our budget)
-pressure to haggle for an even lower price
-way more expensive for delivery and for disposal of the old mattress
+adjustable over time
-our own negative experiences with it
+slightly more comfortable than the OMF bed
-we don't really need dual chambers since we both like the same level of firmness

OMF:
+much cheaper
+no sales or haggling (love the transparent pricing!)
+cheaper for delivery and for disposal of the old mattress
+not adjustable
-unknown how long it will hold up over time
-what if our firmness preferences change over time?
-slightly less comfortable than Sleep# bed, but likely would be 100% comfy with our memory foam topper at home

Eventually we decided to go for...(drumroll, please)... the OMF bed. Mike is going to order it later this morning and then we're hoping to have it delivered on Saturday. I'm so excited!!!!!! It's like the end is in sight after 7.5 years of nighttime annoyance. I can't wait!!!!