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Comment by SketchySeaBeast | Hacker News Reader

That's so bizarre. A couple of weeks ago my wife and I bought a mattress (the one we currently had was starting to draw blood from a broken spring) and didn't think about going online. We went into a store, tried a couple, did a quick google search price match, and decided we'd take it. I never even considered online.

I was trying to do research after the fact (cause why would you do it BEFORE you bought something) and found that I couldn't find any sites that screamed "objective" to me - it all seemed like a bunch of sites that were advertising far more than reviewing.

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> We went into a store, tried a couple, did a quick google search price match,

Even this is tricky, because they'll sell the same matress as "super deluxe" in one store and "premium super" in another store.

True. I gave up pretty quickly. The whole thing seemed like a fog of disinformation.

Yup. The mattress producers make the same products with different model names and SKUs, as well.

Is there a website somewhere that helps you navigate the fact that the same mattress will have different names at different stores?

That seems unlikely because every mattress store is its own thing with its own made up names. I imagine there are some tags somewhere on these mattress with some kind of product model that you could look up to see where it actually came from.

It would be a lot of work to organize this mess of information.

Sleep Number is especially scummy in this regard. They'll have a specific model at a very deep discount when compared to their other models, but they won't have it in the stores. They'll have the expensive models in the stores, but assure you that the discounted model is very similar to one of the expensive models. If you fall for it, you'll end up with a very poorly made mattress that was nothing like anything you experienced in the store. They do this because they charge exorbitant "shipping & return fees" which cover their costs should you return the mattress, so the worst they can do is break even, while you're out real cash money. Their salespeople are especially pushy, like at a scummy used car dealership.

Online mattresses became popular because of the multi-naming, multi-branded, high-margin existing world of mattress sales which was, and is, way scummier than online mattress sales are. Plus, how are you really going to judge a mattress by lying on it for a few minutes?

Wirecutter is owned by the NY Times and does very good reviews. You can also spend a few bucks to buy a Consumer Reports subscription for a month and access their huge testing database and years of experience.

Where were you two weeks ago! Ah, now my next 10-20 years of sleep will be bothered by knowing my mattress, which I enjoyed last night is sub-optimal for my sleeping style!

Seriously though, thank you, I'll keep that in mind for my next major purchase.

For sure, you may have very well got a good mattress at a good price. However, things you did like price-matching don't work in mattress-land because all the companies release the same mattress under different models, brands and SKU's, precisely to defeat those tools.

Online mattress sales became popular precisely because of those scummy tactics, as well as very generous return policies, where you can actually use your bed for a significant amount of time before you make a decision on it.

> how are you really going to judge a mattress by lying on it for a few minutes?

When we purchased our mattress ( a Vi-Spring ) the store only accepted our order after we had lain on a matching configuration in-store for 20 mins. Or was it 30?

If felt odd lying in the middle of a shop but apparently it was the only way to enable the softness-exchange warranty. We could switch up or down one softness grade but had to find the starting grade like that.

While we're having this conversation, how should I go about finding a good mattress for side-sleeping?

Are you looking to buy or build?

Buy, obviously?

Well yes, but the state of the market implies things about building too.

FWIW I really like purple.

If I may high-jack: looking for good mattresses which will also be good in 2 years, I came to the conclusion that DIY is a good way to know what you get and save some bucks. Any recommendations?

My current plan is to have either a spring or dunlop latex base, with then 3 inches of firm dunlop and 2 inches of medium dunlop latex on top. Side sleeper (mostly)

It makes sense strangely. Did you see the emperor bed build 6 months ago? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17558719

I haven't. Thanks for the pointer!

Wirecutter's mattress reviews specify sleeping style.

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