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One of the hardest tasks for a homemaker these days is buying a good mattress. While this product is less complicated than say, buying a car, marketing practices have so crept in on the mattress business that it's now next to impossible to compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges. To begin with, there are lots of confusing terminology being tossed around, just some of which are: pocketed coils; Microtek foundations; Fiberlux; silk damask ticking; etc.
So let me share with you the secrets to getting the mattress that you want at a price that is below $1,000. A rule of thumb is if you're shelling more than this amount, you're getting ripped off! Another rule of thumb is to follow what your body wants which means conducting the litmus test of lying down the mattress at the showroom and trusting what you feel. I don't advise that you lie down on every mattress, though, as this will certainly annoy the sales rep. Just pick, say, one or two of what you think are the best and take the dip (do it slowly though)!
Your only other choice if you're too shy to perform this public stunt is to understand all the mattress terminology around; and if not, prepare to get ripped off. Now before you head for the shopping mall, here are a few more tips with which to arm yourself.
1. Don't trust everything that the mattress sales rep tells you. Remember that he gets a commission out of every sale, so he will most certainly recommend the mattress that will fatten his paycheck. So here's another rule of thumb: try going the opposite of what the sales rep recommends and back this up with the litmus test I taught you.
2. Review the following very important mattress terminology.
a) Innerspring mattress: this is the heart of an innerspring mattress. Otherwise it's just foam, cotton, quilting, stitches or who really knows what's inside?
b) Pillowtops: soft layers of foam (or cotton, or wool) sewn to the top of the mattress. They're popular, but may add a few hundred dollars to your purchase. (Why pour out extra on springs just to negate the effect with pillowtops, anyway? If you really want to sleep on foam or cotton, go for this type of mattress right away.)
c) No-Flip Designs: Herein lies another marketing obfuscation. Your grandmother says to flip your mattress every three months. Yet there's this new mattress design which boasts a "no flip" design that has got a lot of people fooled. Do you know what it really means? There's block foam built in on one side. In other words if you so much as stain or rip the sleeping side, your mattress is finished! And you are going to pay more for this feature?
d) Coils: The more the coils the better, and consequently the more costly. But the fact is, most mattresses with more coils use thinner wires--so there. Don't be fooled! Again, don't let this coil count confuse you, apply the litmus test at once!
e) Thickness: The thicker the better. Wrong. All the thickness does is make the bed stand out in the showroom. Wait 'till you need to bring the mattress up your stairs!
f) Box Springs: I find these unnecessary. To give your bed "more give and support," your next-door neighbor argues. If you listen to this version, you'll keep adding more box springs and never finish while the sales rep gets a boxfull more money!
g) Specialty mattresses: air, water, foam, latex. If you like the comfort of the innerspring stuff, none of these more expensive varieties will make you feel any good. Personally, I find the air and the water varieties scary, especially when you've got kids around the house.
3. Your homework done, it's time to head for the shopping mall, but watch out for these two marketing ploys mattress salesmen love to dangle in the air, terms which I like to call the mattress industry's twin-bed strategy: warranty and watch your back. In many cases, the warranty you'll sign up for will amount to nearly ten percent of the mattress' cost already--if not more. To me, a good few months of warranty say between three to six is ideal. Why? Within such a span of time you can already tell whether the mattress is perfect for you or whether it will really last. And good for your back? This is usually an expensive proposition, as the sales rep will explain to you that some models are more back friendly than others. Of course, the most expensive one will always be better for your back! Figure out the hole in the theory. Sales commission might be behind this proposition. And besides the mattress is not alone, responsible for a bad back, unless all you like to do is stay lie down all your life!
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