Mattress Pricing Games
How to Navigate the Mattress Pricing Jungle

The mattress industry is infamous for its pricing practices. In general, these tactics are designed to maximize profits, which unfortunately can come at the expense of unwitting consumers. This guide will help you avoid the pitfalls and ensure you get the best possible deal on your mattress.

How mattress pricing works

Here are the two primary ways that most mattresses are priced:

• "MAP" (Minimum Advertised Price) models — Identical mattress models are sold by the same name at each retailer, but the retailer is not allowed to reduce their price below a certain amount.
• "Name Game" models — Identical mattresses have different names (and covers) at each retailer, but the retailer is free to set the price as high or as low as they want.

Both of these pricing methods are designed to prevent consumers from price-shopping across retailers. MAP-pricing achieves this by making prices the same across all stores. Name Game pricing accomplishes this by making it impossible for a shopper to know which are the equivalent models at other retailers. There are some isolated examples of mattress brands whose products are not MAP-priced but are sold under the same names in every retailer, however such cases are few and far between.

In choosing between a MAP-priced mattress and a Name Game mattress, each one has pros and cons for the consumer, so we wouldn't say either is better in all cases. Name Game mattress models have the greatest risk of over-paying (sometimes by quite a lot), but also give you a shot at negotiating a below-market deal. MAP-priced models provide certainty that you are getting a fair price, but do not offer the possibility for a below-market deal. On average, retailers make higher margins on the Name Game mattresses — so, just like when you gamble at a casino, the house generally wins.

"MAP-priced" mattresses

MAP priced models are ones whose pricing is regulated by the manufacturer.  Under MAP agreements, retailers are not allowed to advertise (or in most cases, to sell) a given product below a certain price. Given these protections against price comparison, most MAP-priced mattresses are sold under the same name in every store.

Since 2015, MAP pricing has become much more popular overall, especially with products in the mid-priced range and above. Virtually all mattress brands that originated online as a direct-to-consumer (DTC) company have always used MAP pricing — eg, Casper, Purple, Nectar, Avocado, Helix, Dreamcloud, etc. Likewise, all mid-range and higher-end products from the largest national mattress brands now use MAP pricing as well — eg, Tempur-Pedic, Beautyrest, Sealy, Serta, and Stearns & Foster.

Overall, a MAP pricing policy simplifies things greatly for consumers. You can decide where to purchase based on other factors — like convenience, customer service, return policy, or the like — and not have to worry about whether you are getting the best possible price. In practice, the pricing of MAP-priced mattress models will be identical at every retailer. This is because the vast majority of retailers set their price to exactly the minimum price allowed by the manufacturer. The only rare exceptions to this are when a retailer sets their price above the MAP price, which is technically allowed but tends to be easily spotted by a savvy consumer.

On GoodBed, the prices we show for MAP-priced products are the lowest allowable year-round prices. Any periodic discounts or sale prices that retailers are permitted to offer are shown on GoodBed as a promotion or coupon. On top of these intermittent holiday deals, you can also take advantage of GoodBed Cash Back (available for both online and local purchases). This is an additional savings that comes directly from us (GoodBed), not the retailer or manufacturer (see FAQ's for more details).

So do MAP-priced mattresses ever go on sale? Yes, they do — the key is that just like with the year-round prices, the sale prices and times are set by the manufacturer. And thus, holiday sale price that you see in one retailer will be the same as any other retailer. If you are unsure what the current sale prices are, you can check the manufacturer's website. The same holiday discounts they show on their website can be (and usually are) offered by any retailer who sells that product. In theory, a retailer could choose not to offer the manufacturer's holiday promotion, but in practice they usually do. 

For those who like to haggle, the MAP pricing approach does limit you in this regard. That said, even MAP-priced products can provide opportunities for bargain hunters, most often in the form of package deals. For example, if you are shopping for a MAP-priced mattress as well as some bedroom furniture, the retailer might be able and willing to give you a break on the price of the bedroom furniture if you buy them all together.

For more details on getting the best deal on a MAP-priced model, see our MAP pricing guide.

"Name Game" mattresses

Historically speaking, navigating the mattress "name game" was a standard, albeit dreaded, part of the mattress shopping experience. Fortunately for consumers, this practice is now relegated to a much smaller corner of the market, consisting primarily of lesser-known brands and lower-end products.

Name Game models are ones that are sold under a different name at each store. To mask the underlying similarity of these models, each retailer is typically given a unique cover design as well. As a result of this system, finding equivalent models becomes infinitely harder for the consumer. Even studying two models side-by-side can prove fruitless if their product specifications are unavailable or written in such a way as to further cloud their comparison. On average, this obfuscation results in consumers paying a higher markup on these products, meaning that the retailer earns a higher profit margin. That said, because retailers have more flexibility in setting the prices of these models, it can sometimes be possible for a hard-nosed consumer to find (or more likely, negotiate) a below-market deal on this types of mattress.

There are a couple variations of how the Name Game system works, but in practice it results in a consumer finding a mattress they like in a given store and then being unable to find that same mattress at any other store in their area. In some cases, this is achieved by every retailer across the country getting their own unique model names. In other cases, unique model names are reserved for only the largest retailers in the country, and 3-6 other model name variations are created for smaller regional retailers. Either way, the system is designed to ensure that in any given region, only one retailer will carry a product that has this particular name and cover.

In some cases, even with product lines that are technically MAP-priced, the largest few retailers in the country may be granted unique model names for their versions. The retailer-specific versions may even boast an additional feature that is not found in the national line. In our experience, this 'bonus feature' is typically a red herring, meant to draw your attention away from other less-visible (or even invisible) downgrades relative to the national version. Ultimately, this flavor of the Name Game still has the same underlying effect, which is to deny consumers the ability to compare prices for like products. On balance, we have found that with most retailer-specific models, the consumer ends up paying more and/or getting less relative to what they would have gotten in the national MAP-priced line. As such, we generally recommend that consumers avoid these retailer-specific models.

It's also worth noting that Name Game models do sometimes have an "MSRP" (Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price). Although this sounds very similar to MAP, it is actually quite different. While MAP pricing is a binding agreement between a retailer and a manufacturer, MSRP is merely a suggestion and thus has very little significance in terms of the price a retailer can set or the price you should actually pay. In practice, MSRP may even be set artificially high in order to give retailers the chance to offer prices significantly lower than MSRP to make them seem like a great deal.

A common misconception about Name Game mattresses is that this system is driven by manufacturers. More accurately, the Name Game pricing system is certainly enabled by the manufacturer, but it happens at the explicit request (or even insistence) of the retailer. The retailer is the one who benefits from being able to sell products at higher margins by preventing consumers from being able to compare prices. The manufacturer is actually harmed by this practice, since they are severely hindered in their ability to build brand equity in their products when these products are sold under different names in each store. Thus, meeting the demands of their retailers is the only reason for manufacturers to offer this approach to mattress pricing.

One reason that Name Game pricing has been used less in recent years is that today's consumers want to see reviews of a particular model before they buy it. With Name Game models, this is much more difficult (and often impossible) to do. There are simply too many different names for each model, which means that any given model name is unable to garner a critical mass of reviews. Even here at GoodBed, we have to prioritize the expert mattress reviews we do based on overall interest from our readers. In practice, this means we aren't able to review products that are only available to a fraction of consumers, such as models that are only sold in one retailer.

For more details on how the name game system works, and how to beat the mattress name confusion, see our mattress name comparison guide.

Mattress sale prices

Another pricing trick used in the mattress industry is posting fictitious "list" prices that are artificially high. This is done in order to make the "sale" price look like a truly incredible deal — eg, 50% off or more. Sometimes we refer to this practice as "mark it up to mark it down." A key practical benefit of MAP pricing is that it eliminates this type of activity.

Conventionally, with a Name Game mattress, the list price is set to roughly 2x what the retailer ultimately hopes to get for the mattress, after all sale prices and negotiated discounts are factored in. At this level, a retailer can offer a discount of 40% off (eg, for a special "holiday promotion"), then allow the consumer to negotiate an additional 10% discount, and still end up right where they wanted to be in the first place. Of course, the markup and markdown percentages vary by retailer, with some stores setting their list price higher (as well as lower) than this mark. But in any case, it works the same way in principle.

The retailers that really want to keep you on your toes will even change their list prices from time to time.  In this way, even if their "sale" price is unchanged, the retailer can still change how marked down it looks. Since most consumers do not pay close attention to mattress prices over time (like we do), this is not a tactic that many people are aware of.

While the FTC is trying to crack down on these types of pricing practices, they are still quite common with Name Game mattress models. Observant consumers will note that this trend is the reason why many mattress stores have a SALE sign in their window nearly 365 days a year...

When is the best time of year to buy a mattress?

Regardless of whether you're looking at a MAP-priced or Name Game mattress, timing your purchase to coincide with a compelling sale from that retailer can save you a lot of money. As described above, sale prices for MAP-priced products will be the same across all retailers that sell those products — meaning they are discounted at the same time by the same amount no matter where you go. By contrast, Name Game mattress sales will vary by retailer, as it up to the retailer when and by how much they want to discount these products.

Mattress sales can (and do) happen throughout the year. Some retailers offer deep discounts during non-holiday periods when the market is less competitive and they can more easily attract the consumer's attention. That said, it is also true that the most prevalent discounting periods tend to coincide with major holidays such as Presidents Day, Memorial Day, and Labor Day, among others. Online brands run holiday sales just like the physical stores. If there's a holiday coming up, check GoodBed's lists of the best holiday sales and discounts.