What Sleep Train pays for their Mattress before they sell it to you.
May 25, 2009 6:18 PM
Joined: May 25, 2009
Points: 1

Interesting story about pricing of mattress and what Sleep Train actually pays for their mattress.  

I shopped at a local Sleep Train in the San Jose area.  The list price on the Sealy Reserve Plush models (Sleep Train called Glen Marie) is shown to be $1449.  Keep in mind, Sleeptrain normally includes mattress, boxsprings, and frames in their pricing. 


I managed to negotiate the prices down to about $800 before taxes.  Then I sat there, and watched the guy go to work.  At some point, they made a mistake, and managed to put in $732 on the computer, since the guy thought the manager said $800 out the door. Then the person asked a question to the manager, as I happen to glance over. 


The computer had displayed the following message, "Priced at below 45% margin.  Proceed (Y/N)?"


That background kind of gave a reference on what Sleep Train and their pals at Mattress Discounters were paying for their mattresses, margins are typically calculated this way:

 

Margin is calculated as: (price – cost) /price = margin.


My price was $732, if I assume to margin is 45%, the computer said less, but let’s make the 45% assumption.   You can come up with a cost of $402 for the mattress, at least that’s what Sleep Train and Mattress Discounters has paid for it.


So, their list price of $1440 is about 3.5 times what Sleep Train actually pays for the beds.


For everyone who shops there, remember, the cost to Sleep Train and Mattress Discounters  for a Sealy Posteurpedic Reserve Plush model beds (Glen Marie for Sleep Train) is around: $400 for mattress, box, and frame (plus delivery)


I ultimately decided not to buy the bed, but hope this information is helpful to other people out there.  At least those in the SF Bay area.

Re: What Sleep Train pays for their Mattress before they sell it to you.
Reply #1 May 25, 2009 9:46 PM
Joined: Mar 1, 2009
Points: 9
No one in their right mind would pay list price for a mattress set.  The going rate for the big 3 (Sealy, Serta and Simmons ) is about 50% off of list.  With a little work one can get it down even more.
Re: What Sleep Train pays for their Mattress before they sell it to you.
Reply #2 May 26, 2009 11:26 PM
Joined: May 22, 2009
Points: 64
Pah, they're all gigantic rip-offs. My Sealy Posturpedic died after about two years...I managed to eek a few more years of life out of it via a rotating collection of toppers. The Big Name mattress makers can kiss my soon-to-be latex-ensconced arse. I am so through with them!
Re: What Sleep Train pays for their Mattress before they sell it to you.
Reply #3 Jul 16, 2009 5:09 PM
Joined: Jul 16, 2009
Points: 2
Wish I would have read earlier!! We bought a Glen Marie at Sleep Train, paid the stupid price!  We have had it about 2 months and are getting divets or indents on each side!! They are suppose to have a  90 day 100% money back guarantee.  Not sure if we should try to have it replaced or just get our money back and go somewhere else???  Any ideas?

Thanks,

Carol

Re: What Sleep Train pays for their Mattress before they sell it to you.
Reply #4 Jul 16, 2009 9:16 PM
Location: Yosemite area
Joined: Sep 10, 2008
Points: 249
Really good to know!  Goes to show just what the cost of materials would be, too.  Sheesh. 
Carol, YES, get another bed, or your money back, or something!!!!  Armed with what you now know, you should be fighting mad.  I had the same thing happen to me with a Sterns and Foster.  It sagged in just a couple of months.  Took me much longer than that to get someone out here...and that person said that the bed was fine, I didn't have a claim.  THEN she wrote up the service call and said that I didn't have the proper support under the bed so it was out of warranty!!!!!!!!  I HAD EXACTLY THE CORRECT BEDFRAME THAT THEY CALLED FOR IN THEIR WARRANTY BROCHURE!  How do you think these people can afford to hire these dimwits and keep all these places going...from all the extra money we pay them for their cheapo products.  Grrrrrr.
Good luck!\
Kait
Re: What Sleep Train pays for their Mattress before they sell it to you.
Reply #5 Jul 29, 2009 2:04 AM
Joined: Jul 16, 2009
Points: 2
Update on the mattress.  I called Sleep Train and told them of our problem of indents, she said to measure them and if they are more than 1 1/2 inches they would send someone out to look.  So we measured and they were only 1 inch.  But the mattress really looked terrible with 2 indents and the big hump in the middle.  My husband said he was okay with it but the indents did bother him.  I was not happy with the mattress at all but was't sure if I wanted to have to plead my case with them.  Thought about calling a consumer hotline to find out the best way to approach the company but couldn't find an appropriate comsumer action to call.   So today while shopping in the area I decided to stop by and just ask what my options would be if I felt the mattress was not comfortable and I was not happy with the indents.   The salesman was very nice about it, said it must be a manufacturers defect because they shouldn't indent at all, much less within the 90 days, which by the way has been changed to 100 days.  He had no problem with exchanging the mattress.  We are exchanging like for like because my husband did like the firmness of the Glen Marie CP.  Hopefully all goes well and we get our new mattress.  If not I'll let you all know. 

Carol

Re: What Sleep Train pays for their Mattress before they sell it to you.
Reply #6 Aug 25, 2009 12:14 AM
Joined: Aug 24, 2009
Points: 1
Thanks for posting Blago97.

Last week I went into a Sleeptrain and was considering purchasing the Sealy Glen Marie. It was listed for $1449. I told the salesman that that was too expensive and I want a better deal. He looked online and supposedly found it for about $1200 at Mattress Discounters. After the 5% discount it came out to $1140 + tax. He said he had to bypass some warning message and that his manager wouldn't be too happy about this. He said he'd also include the boxspring and bedframe.

You're telling me I could have gotten it for $800 out the door??? And that they paid only like $400 for it??????

Now I know what price I can really get it for.

Thanks for posting this info. And does anyone know where I can find a comfortable and afordable latex mattress?
Re: What Sleep Train pays for their Mattress before they sell it to you.
Reply #7 Aug 31, 2009 3:00 PM
Joined: Aug 31, 2009
Points: 69
Mattress retailers typically operate at about 45-50% margin. That's just what the industry is. It's neither right nor wrong it simply is.

Not to come off as confrontational but if the message said "Below 45%" it could have been anywhere from 44.9% to 0%. There's no real way to tell simply from that information.

-Alex