Will Gallery Furniture REALLY save me money?

[Hoosier Daddy]

We're looking to buy a new mattress in Houston and haven't lived here long enough to know the best stores. We hear the commercials for Gallery Furniture and some place "where the beanbags" are but we don't know if they have good prices or good marketing.

Can anyone suggest a good mattress store in Houston? Should we go to Costco and buy whatever they have?

My girlfriend was trying to compare prices online but it seems like the manufacturers sell different lines to different stores. Maybe to intentionally make comparison shopping difficult. Since we can't change the game, we want to find a store with good prices and a good selection, and we'll go in and buy the one we like best within our budget. That's possible with a single store but not a dozen stores, so I figured I would ask you guys (and my coworkers) for recommendations.

Thank you.

[Teamless]

Gallery does a good job and is competitive with the other big furniture stores.

if you are looking for a bed to go 10 years or so, go with Gallery.
If you are looking for a low price bed, to last a few years, go to Mattress Firm.
We got our master bed at Gallery and our spare bedroom bed at Mattress Firm and my mom's bed also came from Mattress firm, she likes it.

Whats the difference?
Well, you can get varying types of mattresses and box springs, but most (at least of what I looked at) the beds at Mattress firm will have just the standard frame rails for the box springs to sit in,
but if you go to Gallery, you will see a lot of different bed frames, with head boards, foot boards, etc to choose from.

[boomerang]

Gallery does a good job and is competitive with the other big furniture stores.

if you are looking for a bed to go 10 years or so, go with Gallery.
If you are looking for a low price bed, to last a few years, go to Mattress Firm.
We got our master bed at Gallery and our spare bedroom bed at Mattress Firm and my mom's bed also came from Mattress firm, she likes it.

Whats the difference?
Well, you can get varying types of mattresses and box springs, but most (at least of what I looked at) the beds at Mattress firm will have just the standard frame rails for the box springs to sit in,
but if you go to Gallery, you will see a lot of different bed frames, with head boards, foot boards, etc to choose from.

Does this affect mattress life? If so, it seems like you could add slats to the basic metal frame pretty cheaply for more support. Buying a fancy new bed frame cuts into the money you can spend on the mattress (for most people, on a budget) especially if they already have a headboard they like.

I don't know anything about Gallery Furniture except their commercials. I got my bed at a department store (I think Dillards) during a sale.

[TraCoun]

We used Gallery once and were very satisfied with their prices .... HOWEVER ...
We were in a position to pay cash. I was tempted to go ahead and put it on their credit card/payment plan until I took a look at their interest rate. I think it was, at the time, somewhere around space-station altitude.
There delivery time and service were great.
TraCoun

[WildBill]

We used Gallery once and were very satisfied with their prices .... HOWEVER ...
We were in a position to pay cash. I was tempted to go ahead and put it on their credit card/payment plan until I took a look at their interest rate. I think it was, at the time, somewhere around space-station altitude.
There delivery time and service were great.
TraCoun

That's an excellent point! By the time you pay it off, it's time to buy a new bed.

[Teamless]

Does this affect mattress life?

the quality of the mattress and box springs affect the life of the bedding.
For the frames, no, its only aesthetics having a headboard and footboard and side boards for that matter.

We bought our living room furniture there a year ago, did it on 12 months no interest (as long as you make the minimum monthly payments (or more of course)) and paid no interest, as we did pay it off prior to the term expiring, but

their credit card/payment plan until I took a look at their interest rate

as TraCoun said, it can get pricey.

[UpTheIrons]

We got a real good deal on a pair of armchairs at Gallery several years ago. Their prices ARE good.

...BUT...

When you are in the market for a mattress you've got to (which you probably know) spend a good 15+ minutes laying on the blasted thing before you buy it. Bought one many years ago at Costco without laying on it and regretted it. Not that Costco has bad mattresses, but we should have tried them out elsewhere first. We bought a new bed about 18 months ago (the very LAST thing we ever financed), and the winner, by far, was a Tempur-Pedic.

Years of inner-spring mattress woes have disappeared. Some like the Select Comfort, I can't imagine sleeping without the Swedish foam. Which stinks when I'm away from home for more than 3 nights in a row, because I can't sleep then.

YMMV, and you may know exactly what you want, but the try-before-you-buy thing was very important to us.

[driver8]

We bought a new mattress 3 months ago. Checked Gallery and they seemed to push mostly memory foam. His conventional mattresses were no name. We ended up with a latex. Costs a little more but there are no springs to poke ya. They're known to last forever if you get a good one. No regrets with this one so far. We looked all over the place and wound up getting this one at Pearland Furniture. Mattress Giant has a terrible reputation and Mattress Firm I don't know about. Check out the latex though.

[marksiwel]

Foam, Spring, Latex, Feather, air, water, doesnt matter, go lay on it for awhile, if you like it, buy it.
OR if all else fails a hammock, I can sleep like a baby in a hammock

[driver8]

Like Mark said. But you still better be careful where you buy it . Question the warranty.