If you’re looking for a hot deal on a mattress, there are several opportunities a year for you to make it happen. Mattress retailers get new products a couple of different times a year. They also love to mark holidays with big sales that move a lot of merchandise. We take a look at the best times of year to snag a deal on a mattress and how to get the price even lower.
Best Annual Sales
Throughout the year, mattress retailers mark holidays with steep discounts on their products. Some of the best times to buy a mattress coincide with holidays like Christmas/Thanksgiving and long weekends.
Black Friday
The day after Thanksgiving is a good time to buy lots of different products, and mattresses are no exception. Mattress sellers offer steep discounts on Black Friday because they want to move as much inventory as possible for the Christmas season.
Even if you’re not interested in a Christmas gift, you can score a fantastic deal by taking advantage of the sales this time of year. In addition to discounts, mattress companies might also offer bundles that include a bed base and maybe even a bed frame with your mattress purchase.
Cyber Monday
Cyber Monday is the new Black Friday. While many Black Friday sales have gone online, the best deals are still mostly in the physical store. If you don’t want to deal with the massive crowds or the crazy-early hours, Cyber Monday deals are typically as good and a lot more convenient.
Cyber Monday sales are exclusively online, and online mattress brands pull out all the stops to compete with the bustle and excitement of Black Friday. As a result, you can find excellent deals on mattresses, accessories, and frames or bases, all from the comfort of your couch.
Holiday Weekends
Holiday weekends are also a great time to shop for mattresses. Many mattress sellers, as well as retailers of other furniture, have big sales to mark holidays like:
If you keep your eyes peeled, you’ll probably notice many TV ads for mattress sales around these and other holidays.
Best Months
Mattress sales aren’t limited to just the big holidays. There are also several times of the year that you can find deals on mattresses because sellers want to move merchandise to make room for new inventory.
Late December/Early January
Right after Christmas and New Year’s Eve is a wonderful time to take advantage of returned gifts. While mattresses aren’t high on the list of most popular gifts, many people may be returning the products they bought on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Maybe people realized they spent too much money over the holiday season. Perhaps they tried sleeping on their new mattresses and decided to swap them for something different. Maybe they did receive a mattress as a gift and didn’t need/like it.
Whatever the reason, returns for all products spike after the gift-giving season. Mattress sellers want to get rid of all these returned products as well as the products that didn’t sell during the holiday season. That makes mid-winter an awesome time to buy.
February/March
Early spring is the season when newer models are getting rolled out to retailers, and dealers are motivated to get rid of old stock to make room for the new. That makes it a great time to purchase a mattress that may be last year’s model or even from the year before.
You can get a huge deal on out-of-season mattresses. These are still new, out-of-the-box mattresses that just didn’t sell for whatever reason. That means you could have to compromise a little in the sense that you may not get the exact brand or model you want. But on the flip side, you could get discounts as steep as 60 or 70 percent.
May
Mattress companies often start rolling out new products to the public in the summer. That makes the tail end of spring one of the best times of the year to look for mattresses. Mattress companies that haven’t moved enough products might start getting a little desperate to make room on their showroom floors or in their warehouses.
You can take advantage of this desperation to get even better deals on mattresses than you could just about any other time of year. Many people argue that May is the best time to buy a new mattress.
Other Great Times to Buy
There are a few scenarios where you might catch a super sale on a random weekend. Most of these have to do with the manufacturer or seller’s successes or setbacks.
Store Closures
If mattress stores are going out of business, they want to try to mitigate their losses. So when they say “everything must go,” they mean everything must go. Any merchandise that doesn’t get sold before the closing day will likely be a total loss. That allows you to practically steal a high-quality mattress.
Sellers in a hurry to ditch that last bit of inventory may not just slash prices. They may also be more open to negotiation. That means you might just be able to get them to cut the price even further if you sharpen your haggling skills.
One thing to keep in mind about closeout sales is that stores may not offer the same services you could normally expect:
- You probably won’t get a sleep trial.
- All sales will likely be final.
- There may be no retailer or manufacturer warranties for any products.
- If it’s close enough to closing day, sellers may not even offer delivery. So you’ll be responsible for picking up your new mattress yourself.
Anniversary Sales
Some mattress stores or companies might make a big deal out of the tenth, twentieth, or fiftieth anniversary of their founding. If that’s the case, they might offer steep discounts on all their products—not just the older ones.
Of course, mattress companies are motivated by profit. They make a lot of money when they sell a lot of merchandise. But anniversary parties are also a great way to get attention for the company or brand name. They’re certainly more fun than store closeout sales. It’s a win-win. The store gets lots of attention, and you get a good deal.
How to Get the Best Deal Any Time of Year
Even if you don’t want to hit the sales, there are still plenty of ways to get a deal on a mattress, no matter what time of year it is.
Don’t Be Afraid to Negotiate
If sellers are motivated, you might be able to either bring down the cash price or get them to throw in some freebies. Negotiation isn’t feasible online, but in-store it’s still possible, even if it’s less expected than it used to be.
Individual store policies differ. Some retail salespeople might have the power to provide you with a 10 or even 20 percent discount if you ask for it. Other sales clerks might not have the discretion, or they may only have it on certain products.
However, even if the salesperson doesn’t have the ability to offer you a discount on the price of your mattress, they might be able to offer you something else. For instance, maybe they can throw in a free mattress foundation or box spring set. Perhaps they can waive the delivery fee. Maybe they can offer pillows or a sheet set. You’ll never know if you don’t ask.
Go Online
Online retailers offer more variety and a more comprehensive price range than brick-and-mortar stores. They also save a ton of money because they don’t have to pay the overhead for a commercial space. They don’t have to pay salespeople. And they don’t have to ship floor models from the warehouse to the showroom.
All those savings can translate into some of the best mattress deals for savvy shoppers. If you get a mattress from a store that sells exclusively online, you could easily see double-digit savings just by virtue of not having to help pay the overhead for a physical space.
Pick Price Over Percentage
Price skimming is one of the oldest marketing ploys in the book. In this situation, sellers mark their product high to skim the upper end of the market for those willing to pay top-dollar for the newest product. Then, as the product ages, sellers mark it down to make it more palatable to a larger swath of the population.
For example, a seller might decide $1,500 is the ideal price to make a decent profit on their product. So they list the price as $2,500 and sell it to the people willing to pay that. Then, they incrementally mark the product down to $1,500 to appeal to everyone else.
That’s why you almost always pay less if you wait a few months after a product’s release. You’re really paying what they want you to pay, but they make it seem like you’re getting a discount of 40 percent.
All this means you should focus on price instead. Set a budget, and stick to it no matter how much the manufacturer has allegedly knocked off. Remember, if there isn’t a sale going on, you may not be getting a real discount at all.
If a mattress is above your budget but says it’s half-off, it’s still more expensive than a mattress in your price range. And it may not even be better quality. It may just be a few months younger.
Pay Attention to the Warranty and Trial Period
How little you pay isn’t the only factor that decides whether you got an amazing deal. The quality of your new mattress is also an essential factor. If you pay a low price for a bad mattress, you didn’t get a deal.
Warranties and sleep trials are two solid indicators of mattress quality. Whether you buy a mattress in-store or online, it should have a generous trial period and return policy. It should also have a long warranty that covers manufacturer mistakes and defects.
Usually a 10-year warranty and 100-night sleep trial is a good minimum to indicate that a company stands behind its product and prioritizes customer service. Also, keep in mind that the sleep trial should be risk-free. If it doesn’t say “money-back guarantee” or something similar, read the fine print before buying to ensure you can get a full refund for any reason.
Bottom Line
There are tons of excellent times throughout the year for shoppers to find the best mattress deal for them. However, if you keep a weather eye out and make the right moves, you can get an amazing deal on a mattress almost any time of the year.
Frequently Asked Questions
That depends on a lot of things. Material is one of the biggest factors in the cost of your mattress. Some materials are costlier than others. And of course, the bigger your mattress, the more expensive it will be.
There is a huge range of prices for mattresses. You can expect to pay anywhere from $200 for a lower-quality, smaller-size innerspring to $5,000 for a luxury hybrid. Some beds cost even more. Depending on the brand and construction, expect to pay anywhere from $500 to $2,000 for a quality queen-size mattress.
Remember your mattress has to keep your spine in alignment, support your hips and shoulders, and evenly distribute your body weight. If it cannot do all those things, you could suffer pain and poor sleep. That means if you want to skimp on quality, your new mattress may not be the place to do it.
If you’re looking for a hot deal on the best mattress, memory foam is more budget-friendly. However, if you’re looking for the best night’s sleep, a hybrid mattress may be better for you. Hybrids combine latex or memory foam layers with pocketed coils. This creates a contouring and cradling bed that does not sacrifice responsiveness and air circulation.
Hybrid mattresses are pretty sweet, but memory foam mattresses have their advantages. Aside from being affordable, memory foam mattresses are also more contouring than hybrids. Gel memory foam can be as cooling as a hybrid. And high-quality memory foam beds may also wind up being more durable than some hybrids because they don’t have any coils to break down.
While innerspring mattresses have the lowest initial cost, that doesn’t necessarily make them the most affordable mattress. Innerspring mattresses have an average price tag of $950. But they have to be replaced so often that whether or not they’re the actual cheapest mattress type is up for debate. So, expect to pay that $950 every five to nine years.
Hybrid mattresses are the most expensive beds on average, coming in at around $1,700 for a queen-size hybrid. Latex mattresses have a slightly higher initial cost with an average price of $2,000. But because latex mattresses are so durable, their cost over time is lower than that of a hybrid mattress. Hybrids will last an average of 15 years, while latex mattresses can easily exceed two decades of life expectancy. However, the high initial cost of both these mattress types dings their affordability despite their durability.
Memory foam mattresses are more affordable than pricey hybrids and latex mattresses, and flimsy innerspring beds alike. With an average price of $1,100 and a reasonable life expectancy of around 15 years, memory foam mattresses have the lowest cost over time.
That depends on a lot of different factors, but Memorial Day is often a good bet if you’re looking to find a hot deal and are willing to compromise a little on mattress material and brand. Memorial Day combines the month of May (one of the best months for mattress buying) with a holiday weekend sale.
A lot of manufacturers are looking for one last blowout so they can roll out the new models at the start of June. That means they may slash prices even further than what they did at the beginning of May to move the last bit of inventory.
Aside from Memorial Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales are another solid bet. Presidents Day sales also fit the category of a holiday weekend falling in a good buying month. But sellers still have some time before summer, so they might not be as desperate to get rid of older inventory as they are in the last bit of May.
The material your mattress is made of is one of the main factors in deciding this. Latex is highly durable and can stand the test of time. The average latex mattress will last around 20 years, though some latex beds have been known to last twice that with proper maintenance and care.
You can expect memory foam and hybrid mattresses to last anywhere from 10 to 20 years.Meanwhile, coil mattresses won’t normally last more than a decade. Some cheaper innerspring mattresses might not make it more than five years. Latex is the clear winner in the durability category.