How to Buy a New Mattress: How Much to Spend?

Buying a new mattress has to be one of the hardest things to do as a consumer - even harder, is to try not to get too caught up in name-brand marketing hype. You watch slick TV ads with beautiful beds that look oh-so-cozy or get a cute song stuck in your head, and associate a brand name with a quality mattress.

Generally speaking, most people believe that you get what you pay for in a mattress - the more you pay, the better you get. In fact, we have actually had people walk out of our showroom because they didn't think our mattresses were priced high enough! This "get what you pay for" thing may work Ok when you’re comparing mattresses within a brand, but what about when you're comparing mattresses between brands?

Most of the big-name brands spend a lot of money on research, development, and marketing - and these costs are built into their prices – in fact, you can pay anywhere from an extra 40-55% just for a brand name. This is not necessarily a bad thing - people like things to be researched & developed. Just be aware that you will be paying extra for those things, and a name-brand bed won’t necessarily last you any longer even with the extra research & development that has been poured into it.

You can also get a great bed that rivals the big name brands in quality with a good warranty from most local mattress stores just as you can buy a poor-quality mattress in an expensive name brand - in fact, a lesser-known brand mattress of equal quality may well cost you half as much!

Here at Seattle Mattress, we appreciate the value of both our own locally-made, double-sided mattresses as well as our Internationally-recognized name brands, Serta, Therapedic, Magniflex and EcoMemory Foam.

I know we're starting to sound like a stuck record, but people really are very different when it comes to so many things about buying a new mattress. Some of you are simply looking for the best mattress for your body - which is where your mind "should" be at if you are really serious about getting a good night's sleep.

Other people come into our store looking for "the cheapest mattress available" and could care less about the comfort/quality; while still others of you come in wanting to buy the most expensive mattress because you are "sure" it is the best one. While that may be true, it may not necessarily be the "best mattress for your body". And while we do enjoy an easy, large sale (who wouldn't?), that is not the way we recommend picking out a new mattress. Money is important, however...

You spend about 1/3 of your life in bed, and how you sleep has a significant effect on your daily mood and health - so it is a very important decision. If you are someone who is having a hard time spending money on a new bed, ask yourself how much your cell phone or your laptop cost you, and then how often will you replace it? Now... How important is sleep to you?

You'll find the mattresses on the Seattle Mattress showroom floor to be high in quality for the price you'll pay - always. We never sell our mattresses at full manufacturer's suggested retail price; and in fact - they average $150-$350 less than everyone else around even when we don't have them on sale! How can we do that?

We have one beautiful showroom in Ballard not far from our manufacturing facility that services the entire Pacific Northwest, the Pacific Coast, Alaska and the WORLD in Home, Marine/Boat and Custom-made mattresses! We don't have nearly the overhead that chain stores have; and frankly our priorities are alot different - we love our neighbors and care about helping them find the right bed.

We feature NEW beds made with all-new materials in our own locally-made SMC brand as well as locally-made mattresses from Therapedic (Auburn, WA) and Serta (Puyallup, WA). We also have one of the best selections of Eco-friendly mattresses in town at the best prices - including our best-selling pure, natural, solid Talalay Latex mattress. Our collections come in a wide range of comfort levels and price points to suit just about anyone's wallet:

Twin: $99 - $1249

Full: $149 - $1849
Queen: $199 - $2049
King: $299 - $2599

Before you venture out to any mattress store, set a realistic budget for yourself - what can you reasonably afford to spend? It’s very easy to be convinced by a good sales person that you need a more expensive mattress - and maybe that would be nice and it might even be true, depending. But if you set a budget for yourself and insist on staying in that ballpark, you might be surprised at just how good & comfortable the bed is that you can really afford.

Basically, all mattress manufacturers - including the big National Brands - make "levels" of mattresses - there are the low-ends, the decent low-ends, the good ones, and better ones, and the best ones, etc.

*Table features mattresses only approximate pricing

	Low-End	Med Low-End	Good	Better	Best
Twin / Single	$50-$200	$200-$500	$500-$800	$800-$1200	$1200 and up
Full / Double	$100-$300	$300-$600	$600-$900	$900-$1400	$1400 and up
Queen	$200-$400	$400-$700	$700-$1100	$1100-$1500	$1500 and up
King	$300-$500	$500-$1000	$1000-$1500	$1500-$2000	$2000 and up

What makes one mattress worth hundreds or even thousands of dollars more than another? Sometimes it isn’t much - a different name or a different kind of ticking, maybe. Sometimes the more expensive mattress coil count or configuration is more complex than the cheaper model. Most of the time, if you’re looking at a row of similar beds with small differences in pricing, foam is the factor. Different densities of foam are used to provide the different comfort levels for each bed; and the varying combination of foams is often the thing making one bed slightly more or less expensive than another.

Sales people will tell you all about the coil count & foam in an attempt to sell the bed. They will show you cutouts of the mattress and try to explain its composition. But you are likely to forget everything they said by the time you get to the next mattress. Our best advice is to go by the feel. If the mattress feels good to you, then it might be the right mattress for you. Make sure you give it a good, thorough test for at least 15 minutes; and while you're doing that, ask about the quality next.

It IS possible to get a good quality mattress at a reasonable price from a local company that cares about your comfort and satisfaction. Stop by our showroom in Ballard today and try us! :)