Buying a Mattress in the Amazon Age with an Exclusive Primer Discount Code for Leesa

Excited to partner with Leesa to bring Primer readers an exclusive $75 discount with code PRIMER. Click here to check it out! What is this?

I hate buying cars.

I mean, I love the excitement of finding just the right one, test driving it, dreaming about it being mine, and taking it home.

But I hate buying cars.

At this point in my life, I've purchased several. And the most annoying and aggravating part is deciding what you want, working out your finances to make sure you can afford it, and then being told what you really want is going to cost more by the salesman. A lot more.

“Well, how much can you afford?” the salesmen always ask.

Oh, well you need this warranty. And you need this other thing, sure you don't have to, but why are you even buying a car like this if you aren't going to get this other thing too?

It's always annoyed me that if a little old lady were to go in and buy a car she would be paying wildly more than someone who knows what they need and can dicker. A car should cost the same, no matter who is buying it.

And wouldn't you know, buying a mattress is the exact same aggravating process.

I've bought two mattresses and have helped girlfriends and friends buy them too. So I can safely tell you I've been put through the bed buying ringer enough to last a lifetime. It usually goes like this:

One of those inflatable dancing balloon men get my attention and I see the local mattress store chain –  named something bizarrely unflattering for a bed store like “Crazy Uncle Al's Sleep Store” – is advertising a new queen mattress at the year's lowest price and they all have to go.

So I stop in. I poke around, lay on a few. A salesman comes over and asks what I'm looking for. “A queen,” I tell him.

“Ok great, let's start with your budget.”

Here we go.

It feels like I'm about to make this salesman's day.

I tell him a number and he proceeds with a common technique marketers use called ‘price anchoring.' He shows me an average model and explains how bed coils work, yada yada, this one has this many, and a pillow top.

I ask him about the advertised one I came in for. “That's this one, it's not really the best for someone like you, it's really for someone's rarely used guest room or a college kid.”

Ah.

This is another technique mattress and furniture stores use, literally, every day. They use a promotional or sub premium mattress to draw in customers knowing full well that once people realize how crappy the advertised one is, they'll buy something more expensive.

Then the upsell begins. He walks me to another row of beds and explains how this one has “wrapped coils so the bed will never squeak,” *wink* *elbow nudge*

We eventually find one I like based on comfort and warranty but I tell him it's a bit more than I was hoping to pay when I came in. “Ok let me see if there are any outstanding manufacturer promotions I can give you.” He comes back offers like $15 off but this is still a Two Thousand Dollar Mattress Set. I tell him I can't do it.

“Ok ok, let me check with my manager.” And we go back and forth, back and forth, until eventually we get to a number that's a little more reasonable and I've been worn down enough – and I need to buy a bed – so fine, we start the sale process.

“Ok so that's $1,950, plus $100 for the bedframe, plus $100 for delivery…earliest I can get it to you is,” scrolls through calendar, “week from Friday.”

😱

Why would something as simple as a bed, be such a process?

And one of the biggest problems with shopping at mattress stores is you can't even compare prices from other stores. “Manufacturers sell the same mattresses at different stores just rebranded,” said Malorie Sellers of ConsumerSearch.com in an interview with Yahoo, making price matching impossible.

There has to be a better way.

This nightmare shopping situation is the exact reason the small team at Leesa decided to revolutionize not only the mattress (which, while being updated over the years, has gone virtually unchanged) as well as the hellish buying process.

Simply order which size you need, and in a little less than a week, a box with a compressed mattress is delivered via UPS and is waiting at your door when you get home. Shipping is free.

No moving men. No coordinating delivery times. No “5 hour delivery window”.

My mattress was right outside my door waiting for me when I got home!

Take the box inside, which is light enough to do all by yourself, unbox, remove the two layers of plastic keeping it compressed and let it expand right in front of your eyes.

Check out this video I did of unpacking it!

The Leesa mattress is 100% American made and is constructed of 3 layers of foam of different densities (2″ cooling Avena foam, 2″ contouring memory foam, 6″ dense support foam), all backed up by a 10 year warranty.

The result is a super comfortable bed that's medium firm but not hard: Since its memory foam, you sink in but are supported. I'm writing this while laying on it, that's how much I like it.

Foam mattresses don't need a box spring, just a solid platform. You can use a slatted bed frame, a hard surface, or your old box spring.

But hey, maybe you and I – maybe we like different things in our mattresses.

Leesa offers a 100 night risk free guarantee, if you don't like it, they'll pick it up for free and give you a full refund. 

So there's absolutely no reason not try it – you can always get your money back and go haggle with Crazy Uncle Al. *wink* *elbow nudge*  😂

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My pooch Leela is the only one who actually likes it when I play Wonderwall.