Webster’s defines a mattress as:
a large pad for supporting the reclining body, used as or on a bed,consisting of a quilted or similarly fastened case, usually of heavy cloth, that contains hair, straw, cotton, foam rubber, etc., or a frame work of metal springs.
(Notice the word “supporting”)
Everyday someone calls me and ask the same question. “What is your cheapest mattress”?
(These people are trying to shop for a mattress over the phone. They think that if it is called a “mattress” it is a mattress. They believe that all mattresses are the same. Whoever gives them the lowest price is going to get their business). They will then go into that mattress store and ultimately pay more than the price quoted over the phone and at the same time likely not get their best mattress deal.
One of my competitors is selling queen mattress and box sets for only $200. These don’t have any steel in them. (steel is expensive) They are just big pillows. They do not offer any support. Therefore these are not mattresses! However, some people will still buy them because they look like a mattress and the people selling them call them mattresses. These pillows are the very lowest construction cost possible. Even the polyurethane foam that they are made from is the cheap stuff. Most of the overhead in these is in the shipping and even that is low because these pillows don’t weigh much.
Many of my competitors sell “Corsicana” or “Hampton Rhodes” mattresses. These might not fall under the category of a real mattress either. The construction on these is so low that in a short time the support feature is a thing of the past, if it ever was there at all. The box springs are mostly cardboard.
At Charleston Bedding I do not sell anything but real mattresses. My low priced mattresses contain plenty of steel and offer great support along with good quality foam. When you compare our $250 queen set price to the $200 queen set down the street, ours are much better buy and will provide years of good sleep. The $200 pillows my competitor sells will not offer any support and therefore are not really defined as mattresses. I understand that many of these shoppers are simply trying to just get something to sleep on and the lowest price they can find. The problem is that these pillows do not really provide enough support in order to be able to sleep. That should be another element of the definition…. “If you can’t sleep on it, is it really a mattress?” or “If it looks like a mattress, is it really a mattress”?
There should be a law defining if what you are selling is really a mattress or just called a mattress!
Compare quality and price before you buy and get a real mattress!