When I first moved out to California some 11 years ago, I had just about nothing. After a few nights of sleeping on the floor with my camping gear I headed over to SleepTrain to acquire something more comfortable than my Thermarest from REI. After sitting on a few beds and $1000 later, I was off “to a better night sleep”.
After 11 years and 12 moves, the bed just isn’t as comfortable as it used to be. It’s got the roll to the middle syndrome and just feels tired. Ironic for a bed ain’t it? So I decided to go back to Sleep Train to get my second bed in life. I chose them for a few reasons:
- Free Same Day Delivery
- 100 Day Money Back Guarantee
- Free Removal and Set Up
- 100 Day Price Guarantee
The other place I was thinking about getting a mattress was Costco. Here is how I see them stacking up:
| Feature | Sleep Train | Costco |
| Free Delivery | Y | Y (me) |
| Love it guarantee | Y | Y (like everything at Costco) |
| Removal of the old mattress | Y | N |
| Price guarantee | Y | Y |
| Rebate on purchase | N | Y |
Being a more careful 30 something, I wanted to do a bit of homework on my purchase to ensure I was getting what I wanted. I visited the store and test slept (the 3 min power nap) on a few mattresses at the sales person’s suggestions. I then went home to see what I could find on those three mattresses. That’s where things got interesting.
The mattress makers only sold those three mattresses at Sleep Train. They sold “similar” mattresses at other places, but not the same ones. Thus you couldn’t really compare apples to apples. The stores then can easily offer price guarantees as they are the only ones that sell that particular mattress. The whole process is designed to be confusing. While Sleep Train may sell the Simonds WonderRest Serra Extra Plush Firm the other store down the road sells the Simonds WonderRest Forest Extra Plush Firm. Are they the same mattress? Who knows? Are specs clearly listed? Not really.
The only mattress maker that doesn’t play the game is Tempurpedic. They set all their prices so they don’t need to have muliple lines for different stores. If a product in their line is at price X, it’s at price X all over town.
I wound up getting my next mattress at Sleep Train. I’m going to be spending at least 4 years laying on this thing. The 100 days like it or love it sold me along with the disposal of my old bed. Double win for Sleep Train.
Featured photo by Stephen Andrews on Unsplash
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