City Mattress Review: 2020 Top Picks and Buyers Guide

City Mattress Overview 

Founded in 1964, City Mattress is a third-party mattress retailer headquartered in Bonita Springs, Florida. The company now has dozens of brick-and-mortar locations in Florida and New York. City Mattress is known for its trustworthy sales process, a broad selection of high-quality mattresses and adjustable beds, and the customer service offered both online and in-store.

In this City Mattress Review, we’re giving you a closer look at the mattress brands offered at City Mattress stores. Keep reading to learn whether we recommend City Mattress and the top five mattress brands sold in City Mattress stores. We’ve also included a buyer’s guide with online alternatives to shopping at a City Mattress store and a look into the pros and cons of shopping online and in-store.

Top 5 Picks at City Mattress

• Tempur-pedic: Editor’s Pick
• Simons Beautyrest: Best Cooling
• Stearns & Foster: Luxury Pick
• Aireloom: Best Variety
• Sealy: Most durable

Reason to Buy

Tempur-Pedic has become a household name in the mattress industry thanks to the notable quality and unique feel of the memory foam used in their mattresses. City Mattress carries a broad selection of Tempur-Pedic styles, all of which are designed to help you get a good night’s sleep with materials that respond to your body’s weight, shape, temperature, and sleeping position. All Tempur-Pedic mattresses are sold with a 10-year limited warranty.

Reason to Buy

The appeal of Simmons Beautyrest as a brand is in its collections, each of which focuses on a unique need for sleepers. For example, the Beautyrest Black collection is luxurious, supportive, and has an advanced pocketed coil network for pressure relief. Simmons Silver mattresses are supportive, cooling, and comfortable, and feel firm. 

Read our full Simons Beautyrest Mattress Review to learn more! 

Reason to Buy

Stearns & Foster employs certified craftsmen to make their mattresses, meaning that every mattress is the “best it can be” to provide lasting comfort at night. All mattress collections from Stearns & Foster have a cooling performance fabric as the top later that regulates moisture and feels soft to the touch. Stearns & Foster offers an Estate Collection, a Lux Estate Collection, and a Reserve Collection for shoppers seeking the most luxurious and high-end mattresses possible.

Read our in-depth Stearns & Foster Mattress Review for more info! 

Reason to Buy

City Mattress carries a wide variety of Aireloom mattresses from their Karpen Luxury, Karpen Collection Sidestich, Aireloom Latex, Aireloom Hybrid, and Aireloom Preferred collections. The company has been making mattresses since 1940 and creates them with the idea of sleepers being able to “imagine California’s mountains, beaches, and deserts” while they sleep.

Read our full Aireloom Mattress Review to learn more! 

Reason to Buy

Sealy mattresses use only durable, high-quality foams that maximize comfort, and their lines incorporate a variety of other materials that are targeted at specific sleeper needs. Sealy sells three mattress lines that each include three collections or levels that range in price from affordable to luxury. With 130 years in business, Sealy is a trustworthy brand name carried by CIty Mattresses. Each Sealy mattress comes with up to a 10-year warranty.

Read our full Sealy Mattress Review to learn more about the brand! 

Online Alternatives

In recent years, shopping online for a mattress and other bedding needs has become somewhat commonplace. While it hasn’t yet replaced the traditional in-store mattress shopping experience, a large percentage of mattress shoppers are purchasing mattresses from the comfort of their homes. If the traditional shopping experience of heading to a mattress retail store or warehouse in-person isn’t for you, you have alternatives.

Buying Direct from Company

The direct-to-consumer mattress marketplaces have grown significantly in the last decade. The increasing number of mattress brands that offer their products primarily or solely online is a good thing for consumers: more competition typically means better prices, competitive policies, and more freebies.

Here’s a brief list of mattress brands you can buy directly from via their websites:

• Leesa—This U.S.-based mattress company has been around since 2014, distinguishing themselves by their commitment to social impact and their dense, mixed-foam mattresses that have a medium feel.
• Brooklyn Bedding—In business since 2009, Brooklyn Bedding offers six mattress models, with one having gone viral as the #BestMattressEver on social media.
• Casper—This mixed-foam mattress conforms closely to the body for exceptional pressure relief and has excellent motion isolation. It also makes no noise when bearing weight, making it a good choice for couples.
• Purple—All Purple mattresses feature Purple’s proprietary grid comfort layer, which helps the body sleep cool while providing pressure relief. Purple mattresses are an excellent choice for couples because they isolate motion transfer well and have relatively low price-points. 

Buying from Third-Party Retailers and Online Marketplaces

Online marketplaces have become popular in the last decade. Each of these online retailers has expanded its mattress and bedding selection as the mattress market has grown.

• Amazon.com—We’re sure you’ve heard of this online shopping behemoth, but you may not be aware that they sell and deliver (for free!) thousands of mattresses from major brands like Casper, Tempur-Pedic, GhostBed, and Nectar. Most mattress deliveries can come with old mattress removal for an added fee of $100.
• Overstock.com—Overstock carries a wide selection of mattresses from brands like Sealy, Lucid, Serta, and Simmons in a variety of styles. They offer free delivery in the contiguous U.S. and ship to Alaska and Hawaii for an added fee. Mattress removal is not included.
• Wayfair.com—Wayfair is a home-goods and furniture-focused website that offers mattresses, bedding, blankets, headboards, and bed frames, making it a one-stop-shop if you’re setting out to furnish the entire bedroom.
• Costco.com—Costco offers a wide selection of mattresses for their membership base both online and in their warehouse stores. Shipping charges are included in the product price and most mattresses come with free returns for a full refund.
• Walmart.com—Walmart carries brands like Allswell, Beautyrest, Lucid, Sealy, and Serta. In an effort to compete in the online marketplace, they’ve become more generous with their shipping and return policies. All mattress orders come with free in-store pickup or free shipping in most locations.

Pro and Cons of Buying In-Store versus Online

When deciding on the mattress that’s best for you, it’s helpful to not only understand the type of mattress you want to buy but the different ways to purchase one. Mattress companies can sell you their products directly online, directly at a brick-and-mortar store, through a third-party brick-and-mortar store or warehouse, or online through a third-party website. Each of these four options has both upside and downside for shoppers. Here’s a look into the pros and cons of buying in-store versus online.

Pros and Cons of Buying a Mattress In-Store

A growing number of online mattress companies are now opening brick-and-mortar store locations, which can offer the best of both worlds for shoppers. You can try out the mattress in-store and then head home to order it. Most of these stores also don’t have pushy salespeople. However, many locations are only in large cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, so not everyone can take advantage of this model.

If you decide to purchase from a brick-and-mortar retailer such as a department store, mattress store, or big box store, you’ll have the advantage of seeing many brands and models in person. Comparison shopping is made easy because of this, but brick-and-mortar comes with high overhead that is often passed down to customers. You may also find that salespeople are pushier in these scenarios, but you will have the opportunity to negotiate the price of the mattress you want.

Pros and Cons of Buying a Mattress Online

Online marketplaces and mattress brand websites both offer the benefit of convenience: you can skip the trip to the store and shop from the comfort of your sofa. While online marketplaces offer a wider variety of brands, both online marketplaces and mattress brand websites typically have better discount codes and promotional offers than their brick-and-mortar counterparts.

Purchasing a mattress online also bypasses salespeople, who have been known to be pushy because they work for commission. Most online brands and retailers also offer sleep trials, which means you can try the mattress at home and return it if you’re not satisfied. Additionally, shipping and returns are usually free.

On the downside, purchasing a mattress online means you won’t be able to try it before you buy it. Making the choice even harder, some mattress brand websites only display positive reviews prominently and hide negative ones, making it difficult to get a clear sense of customer satisfaction.