We’ve been talking on and off for a while about getting a new mattress, and I just stumbled across this Slate article today, which pretty much sums up my feelings about most furniture purchasing decisions:
The secret to mattress shopping is that the product is basically a commodity. The mattress biz is 99-percent marketing. So just buy the cheapest thing you can stand and be done with it, because they’re pretty much all the same. And that’s all you need to know. But do read on—the world of sleep products is quite fascinating, and I’d like to share it with you.
From there, it goes into quite a bit of detail about what makes up the various mattresses, and what differentiates them (not much).
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We bought our mattress and some furniture from Wickes.
Ok, so you know my feelings, and this may be true for mattresses, but there is furniture made of pressboard and furniture made of Oak. One is better. Right? There can be a difference. Whether the markup is justified, probably not, but there is still a difference.
Yeah, I know there are general variations in quality, but even so some furniture (and I’m limiting the scope to stuff made with decent materials) seems outrageously overpriced, as if each one were a handcrafted piece of art rather than factory pumped out pieces of wood that get stuck together and have material put over them.
I thought we were talking about mattresses?
As long as it is functional, looks good and is priced good what does it matter that you know it’s fake?
oop. I should have said, “fake”. Since it is furniture.
We bought a cheap (but nice) queen mattress, but then splurged a little on the queen memory foam mattress topper that you can buy at Bed, Bath and Beyond. Pretty comfy, and it takes a lot less money to just replace the pillow top after a couple years than it does to buy the more expensive mattress in the first place.
Three days a week I sleep on our Coleman air mattress and that is comfy too- at the amazing price of $60.
But I would love to have a select comfort mattress. It’s my wish, maybe in like 10 years.
i am on the hunt for two twin mattresses (sets if possible)….for the kiddos. I was debating about just buying anything becuase the price was right or if i should shop for comfort.
Now if i could just find a good price.
anybody seen anything?
Did you check Craigslist? I don’t know about your kids but my kids don’t know the difference of cheap or not.
Big Lots sometimes has mattresses- and, yes, they are cheap!
You can pick up some $1.50 wine and knick-knacks while you’re there too.
i’ve seriously been sitting on craig’s list for like a week. The mattress listed go in like an hour. We found a place in oxnard…the mattress warehouse that sells sets brand new, cheaper than the goodwill. So I think I’m going there.