In the middle of moving house. What a nightmare. Budgeting for new furniture, started wondering why a new mattress was basically going to wipe us out.
This guy has this weird little website. He gets so. Goddamn. Worked up about the mattress industry. For whatever reason, this is his calling, and he's not gonna rest until you know the truth.
Started reading because I just wanted to know how to mattress bargain, kept reading because why is mattress bargaining a thing, stayed up into the wee hours because his passion for the subject matter is infectious. And now I spread his pillowy gospel to you.
Bizarre. I've bought three mattresses brand new - Two identical Sertas from the same sales guy six months apart (the ex took the whole bed - which was lame, as it was a $1500 frame and a $800 pillow-top) and a not-bloody-bad Ortho for like $600, which I sold on Craigslist a year later for like $300 because the remaining Serta came down to California.
My experience with mattress salesmen is that the shady ones are shady from space while the honest ones are mostly interested in selling mattresses. As there is nothing inherently bad about mattresses, there need not be anything inherently scammy about selling them. You can separate the wheat from the chaff with one simple sentence:
"I never buy anything on the first day."
The scammers will walk, the legit ones will say "Huh - that's an interesting position" or the equivalent and move on in their attempt to sell you a mattress in an honest and non-predatory fashion.