new mattress

We bought a new mattress today.
Our current mattress is less than 10 years old, but we didn't get a new box springs when we bought it, so it faded faster than it should have. We went out to the furniture store (AAFES in Feltwell) a week or two ago to look around. They only carry Serta brand, but that happens to be my old favorite. We found one regular mattress we liked, and one "Vera Wang" that was equally comfortable. Vera's was more than $300 higher than the other. In the back room there was a Vera Wang (the kind we liked) marked down for "dirty marks" to near the price of the regular mattress. So we went home to think it over. On the way out the door I picked up a sale flier.

The next day I checked the flier and guess what! Mattresses were going to be on sale starting the 22nd. So Saturday after the yard sale, and naps, we went back out. We got there just a few minutes before closing so we didn't have time to do much more than verify that we still liked the same two, and found out that the mark-down wouldn't qualify for the promotions of free sheet set and free counting sheep. Bummer.
Last night I did some looking up (again) and found that Sertas are made in the USA, that Vera has a much higher coil count than the regular one, plus a 20 year warranty as opposed to 10. Oh, and it's covered in organic cotton. So we pondered.

Today after church and lunch we went out. The marked-down mattress was still there. We pulled it out and laid it on the floor. As far as we could see there was one tiny smudge on the corner, and the rest looked and felt fine. I'd discovered that damaged goods don't qualify for the warranty, but that really we would nullify it soon anyway, as any stain will also disqualify it. Plus I'd read that it was difficult to get Serta to do much about a bad bed. So I went up front to negotiate. I figured since the new beds were on sale, the clearance one should be more on sale. All I had to do was ask. The manager said they'd take another 25% off the sale price. Which brought the total to lower than I'd intended to ask for. Cool! We got a new box springs, too, which were also on sale, and a mattress cover.

So maybe we'll be sleeping better soon. We did opt to pick it up ourselves rather than have it delivered for $100. SO no cute plush sheep, but we saved over $400, and I think we got a good mattress.