Best Place to Buy a Mattress: Purchasing Mattresses Online

Choosing the best place to buy a mattress might seem pretty difficult at first, but let me tell you - it’s actually a no-brainer.

In this article, I’ll tell you about the main ways and places where you could purchase a mattress. The tutorial will mostly concentrate on two big places - online and in a physical store.

We’ll talk about the pros and cons of purchasing a mattress in either one of those, and see if there is actually a clear winning method of buying yourself a mattress (spoiler alert - there is).

So, if you’re ready to get yourself a new bed, and want to know the best place to buy a mattress - read on!

What’s the Point of Learning the Best Place to Buy a Mattress?

Some people think that it doesn’t really matter where to buy mattress - that’s it’s basically all the same, and the only major difference is the speed at which the product will appear in your bedroom.

That’s very far from the truth.

First of all, if we’re boiling things down to the two main categories mentioned earlier (online and in a store), there could be some major differences pricing-wise. Various mattress providers might have different discounts and sales depending on your preferred method of bed acquisition - it’s something definitely worth looking in to.

Pricing aside, though, there’s also the question of comfort vs speed. I’ll get into this in more detail once we actually start talking about whether you should buy mattress online or in store, but it’s an important point to touch upon at the moment, too.

There is a constant debate online on the topic of “fast mattress delivery” vs “comfort and not having to do practically anything”. If you go into a store, chances are that you’re going to have to pack the mattress that you purchase, take it home and set it up yourself.

Buying a bed online saves you from this type of predicament. The majority of mattress companies that sell their products on the web offer free delivery and set-up services (Puffy is a good example of this) - you don’t even need to lift a single finger!

While it all boils down to personal preferences, let me tell you - in the “online vs in store” debate, there is an actual best place to buy a mattress. And if you say “online”, well, congratulations - you’ve guessed it.

Buying a Mattress Online

I’ll have to ask you to bear with me through this one, since there are many misconceptions surrounding the topic of “buy mattress online”.

With that said, I know what you’re thinking.

Isn’t it nonsensical to buy a product that you haven’t even seen in the real world?

And while I can understand the sentiment, I have to tell you - this is one of the most common of those before-mentioned misconceptions.

Breaking the Myth

As of late, there have been many different articles floating around about how purchasing a mattress in a physical store simply “doesn’t work”. The idea behind this is somewhat interesting - it has been noticed that people aren’t too fond of lying on a bed that’s wrapped in protective material and that has a store manager standing right beside it.

It’s actually kind of funny, when you think about it.

The most common argument for sticking with retail shops as the best place to buy a mattress is that you get to lay on the bed and test it out, while purchasing the same mattress online, you have no idea what you’ll receive.

Sounds good in theory, but it doesn’t really work that way.

Think about it yourself - can you really test whether a mattress suits you or not having a measly 10 or 15 minutes with it? Sure, it might give you some sort of a general impression, but other than that, you’re not really going to know if it’s the bed for you until you sleep on it for a week or so.

Besides, all other things aside, imagine that you need a bed not only to sleep on, but also to amp up your sex life. Are you really going to test out the responsiveness and bounciness of a mattress in front of a manager or the store cleric?

While I’m sure some people would definitely do it, the majority of us would probably push our hands against the edge of the mattress a few times, awkwardly blurt out that it feels “OK” and be done with it.

Comfort VS Speed

Also, let’s not forget the “comfort vs speed” debacle that’s present in most of the “best place to buy a mattress” discussions.

If you go along and buy mattress online, as I’ve already mentioned earlier, most of the transportation and setting-up is going to be done by the company itself. Even though you might not receive your bed on the exact same day, considering the hassle that you avoid, most people would probably say that it’s worth it.

Also, consider the fact that most mattress companies that sell their products online offer sleeping trials - a period of testing time for the bed, to make sure that it suits your wants and expectations.

While it’s true that physical stores also tend to offer such (and similar) features, these often lack in the amount of time given, and might not come with the chance to ask the store to collect the bed from you.

Where Should You Purchase a Mattress Online?

So, we’ve established the fact that the best place to buy mattress is from an online provider - here, you'll be able to find a bed that's going to allow you to get enough quality sleep^[1].

But which provider are we talking about here?

Well, it depends.

At this point, customer and expert reviews are your best friend. You have the resources of the entire internet to aid you in choosing the right product.

If you want some in-depth information, you should check out our list of the best mattress providers that are currently out there in the market. Just to give you a few examples, these would include:

• The New Purple - an all-around amazing mattress with some advanced temperature neutrality-preserving technology.
• Puffy - a full-on foam bed with some one-of-a-kind motion isolation.
• Nectar - a very durable and comfortable mattress.
• Saatva - one of the most responsive beds out there.
• etc.

If you need the best place to buy a mattress, be sure to check these providers out. Now, let’s take a look at the physical stores.

Buying a Mattress in a Shop

So ya. That’s also an option.

As you can probably tell from the previous chapter, this isn’t really the best place to buy a mattress. Physical stores require you to go out of your way to find a product, spend time walking around and trying to decide, and can even get confusing.

While looking at where to buy mattress online, you always have the option to have a separate browser window open to read the various different reviews about a particular brand or a product. While it’s true that you can do the same thing while being in a physical store, it’s not really going to be the same.

The main reason for that? Simple - the feeling of having to rush.

Time Restrictions

Online, there are no lines of people waiting to see a particular product. When it’s just you in your room looking at a mattress’ product page, it becomes (for a lack of a better word) intimate. You have all the time in the world to read about the product, talk with customer support and other customers, etc.

In a shop, there’s always going to be another person behind you who thinks that this is the best place to buy mattress, and you will have a pretty limited window of time to look at a particular product. Since a mattress is often a really personal and important purchase, you might get thrown out of the loop and make a rash decision of buying something you’ll come to regret.

The only redeeming quality of physical shops as the best place to buy a mattress is that you get to touch the product in person. I did mention that this rarely makes any difference, but if you absolutely have to see the bed live before deciding whether or not it’s worth paying attention to, then sure - a shop might serve you well.

That said, this is where yet another issue tends to arise - a lot of the mattress shops located in physical locations don’t offer beds from the top-tier providers. They might have some in stock, but more often than not, it’s going to be a rare occurrence.

While there are a few factors that influence this, the most prominent one would have to be that the industry top-dogs choose to sell their products exclusively online. I’m not going to go into details about for why that’s the case (mostly because I don’t want to bore you to death), but let’s just say that it has to do with their business models and the feeling of exclusivity.

Options for Buying a Mattress in a Physical Location

If you’re still adamant on seeing a mattress in person (that sounds weird, doesn’t it?) before making the decision of whether or not it’s worth buying, there are a few options available to you.

Retail Shops

If you want a new, out-of-the-box mattress, then retail shops are the most popular option for you.

Depending on where you live, you will have different shop chains around your area. It’s probably pointless to start naming brands - there are hundreds of them out there, and they all function more or less the same.

That said, do keep in mind that, as mentioned earlier, many of these shops won’t have some of the most popular mattresses out there. This fact alone prevents physical shops to be the “best place to buy a mattress”, not to mention some other notable quirks.

Second-Hand Shops and Marketplaces

Naturally, this is NOT going to be an option for most, but if you’re really short on money and need a mattress fast, you COULD go ahead and visit a marketplace to search for a second-hand bed. While this is often not advised, it’s an option none-the-less.

Summary

Up to this point, we’ve talked about the best place to buy mattress, mentioned both physically-located shop and online provider pros & cons, and I’ve even given you some suggestions of mattress providers you could visit if you’re looking for the best of the best.

So, just to make sure that the information sticks, one more time - why are online shops the best place to buy a mattress?

The most important factor for why online shops are the way to go is time. If you want to really learn about a product, you must invest a certain amount of time into it - that’s something you cannot do while standing in the store.

Furthermore, if it’s something that you tend to experience, you won’t need to deal with the social anxiety of having to talk with the store manager in order to choose the best product for yourself. Anxiety can drive you to make rash and spontaneous decisions - not something that you’d want happening when choosing a bed that you’ll likely sleep on for the years to come.

All of these factors, combined with some other details, make it so that online shops become the best place to buy a mattress.

Conclusions

So, that’s it - we’ve reached the end of this “What is the Best Place to Buy a Mattress?” tutorial.

I hope that this article was useful to you, and that you now know that you don't have to drag yourself into a mattress retail store in order to choose the best product for yourself. Remember - if you need help with deciding which mattress would be the best for you, do check out our list of the best beds in the current market.

Sleep doesn't only affect your brain activity, but it also has to do with how your body functions, in general^[2]. That's why you should take the time and pick the best mattress possible!

All in all, whether it be an online store or a physical one as the best place to buy a mattress, I wish you the best of luck in finding the perfect bed for yourself. Also, do check out our other tutorials for more information about the mattress industry!

Scientific References

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: 'How Much Sleep Do I Need?'

2. Ron C Anafi, Renata Pellegrino, Keith R Shockley, et al.: 'Sleep is not just for the brain: transcriptional responses to sleep in peripheral tissues'