How to Get the Best Mattress Deal

There are a couple different ways furniture retailers sell mattresses and box springs these days. Would you know what store is using which method and could you then find the best value on a new mattress. Based on what I have seen in my years of retail experience the answer is no. So today we are going to help the consumer have a fighting chance.

First we need to understand each method:

1. Suggested Retail Pricing:
   I used to work for a store that used Suggested Retail Pricing and is now out of business. I still to this day do not understand how they got away with it. I really believe there were some illegalities to the method but I am no lawyer. Price tags were inflated several hundred dollars above the actual selling price. This was used as a selling tool and was negotiated off of. Customers perceived savings of money as a great deal though I’d only witnessed a mattress sale for the tagged price once and never sold one myself for the tagged price.The actual lowest price was never revealed until the customer got fed up and started to walk out the door or tipped their hat that they had found a cheaper bed price. In the nearly one year I worked there I only saw a mattress sell for the tagged price once. Many 30, 40, or 50 percent off retailers would even drop below the lowest actual selling price, but only after being authorized by a manager. Unfortunately one guy might buy a mattress 100.00 below actual selling price while another might unknowingly pay an extra 100.00 above it. I am telling you this is not fair to either consumer so follow this simple rule of thumb. If a store keeps taking bucket loads of money off the price through discounting, you’re going to lose run like the wind. Why would they give you their money? You wouldn’t give them yours.
2. The Second method is the Every Day Low Price Method.
   • Be a smart comparison shopper. Compare apples to apples and you will never over pay for the mattress with the Every Day Low Price method because a salesman is holding back no reserve money.
   • In an instance where you referred a friend or family member or were referred yourself by someone else you can rest assured everyone paid the same fair price.

   I encourage you to focus on the feel of the mattress; this is what I recommend to my customers. The great thing about it is I do not have to remember what I sold it to your auntie Susie for. The price you see on the tag is the same price she paid. I know, a little boring and not a lot of fun in that, but this method allows the retailer to give the customer the best deal in every respect of the transaction. The customer is not blinded with a smoke screen that includes hundreds of dollars of ridiculous savings I like to call Monopoly Money.

   In the everyday low price method customers are not distracted with huge percentage savings that really aren’t savings at all. In this means of pricing, the idea is to keep the customers focus on the task at hand. The task is to find the most comfortable, durable mattress for the very best price. It is very important folks take the price out of the equation until you find something you like. I’ve said it before I will say it again. It doesn’t matter what a bed costs, if it’s built like a tank and feels like crud why would you want buy it? Keep looking.

If you have found a mattress that is built to expectations and feels great yet is plainly out of your budget, it is important ask your sales associate to find a comparable mattress within your price range.  After all this is their job, to help you. You don’t have to tell them what you want to spend, just tell them you want to spend less. Finally with the Every Day Low Price Method it just makes since that the price marked on the tag should be the guaranteed best price even after the sale for up to 30 days.