Sears Mattress Reviews: 2020 Top Picks and Buyers Guide

Sears, once one of the largest retailers in the world, is no longer the department store giant that it used to be, but the company still has more than 400 stores open nationwide and an online presence. The 126-year old department store chain started off as a mail-order catalog company in 1888 and has evolved to include other categories such as clothing, accessories, home appliances, hardware, lawn and garden supplies, and mattresses.

The company has historic strengths in selling home goods and appliances, but should you buy a mattress from Sears? In this guide, we’re sharing the best Sears mattresses and a buyer’s guide to purchasing a Sears mattress with shopping considerations, the pros and cons of shopping online vs. in-store, and how to find the best Sears mattress for you.

In Sears Home & Life stores, which allow you to see and feel big-ticket items like mattresses in person, you’ll find household name brands like Serta, Sealy, and Tempur-Pedic. These are the top 5 Sears mattresses brands we recommend considering in your search.

Top 5 Mattresses at Sears

• Stearns & Foster: Best Luxury
• Simmons Beautyrest: Best Cooling
• Tempur-Pedic: Best for Aches and Pains
• Zinus: Best Value
• Sealy: Most Supportive

Reason to Buy

Stearns & Foster is a division of Tempur-Sealy that offers hybrid mattresses with multiple thickness options and customizable firmness. Shoppers will have the option to choose from five different models in the Stearns & Foster Estate, Reserve, Lux Estate, and Lux Estate Hybrid collections, and while these beds offer a high profile, strong edge support, and other benefits, they have above-average price points and questionable durability. 

Read our full Stearns & Foster Mattress Review to learn more! 

Reason to Buy

Beautyrest is a brand name under Simmons Bedding Co. that offers mattresses in multiple thickness levels, firmness, and style options. They tend to be temperature neutral, thanks to their cooling BlackICE covers and strong airflow through pocketed coil system layers, and have great motion isolation, but their edge support and value has been questioned.

Check out our full Simons Beautyrest Mattress Review for more information! 

Reason to Buy

Tempur-Pedic offers memory foam mattresses that provide a close, comfortable, and conforming sleep for all body types and sizes. The company offers a wide variety of firmness, composition, and thickness options, and all Tempur-Pedic mattresses are known for their durability, pressure relief, and virtually noiseless structures. The only deterrent here is the price point, but a generous sleep trial and warranty may help quell any fears around the investment.

Read our full Tempur-Pedic Mattress Review to learn more! 

Reason to Buy

Zinus is a mattress brand that’s available both online and in brick-and-mortar stores, including Sears. Best known for their significantly below-average price points, Zinus mattresses come in a variety of models (memory foam, innerspring, hybrid), thicknesses, and firmness options, meaning they can accommodate sleepers of any size, weight, sleeping position, and comfort preference for a reasonable price.

Read our full Zinus Mattress Review for more information! 

Reason to Buy

Sealy, an established mattress brand, is known for its Posturepedic technology and offers innerspring, foam, and hybrid styles in many sizes, firmnesses, thicknesses, and comfort levels. Posturepedic was developed with orthopedic professionals to provide extra support in the middle of the mattress where half of the sleepers’ bodyweights rest.

Read our in-depth Sealy Mattress Review for more info! 

Online Alternatives

As Sears attempts to reignite its strengths in selling home goods, there’s no doubt the company faces headwinds in the form of competition from trendy and digitally native brands like Casper, Wayfair, Nectar, and Purple. If you’re not set on purchasing your mattress through a Sears brick-and-mortar location or through Sears’ website, here are a few online mattress store alternatives.

• Casper—Casper Sleep sells its mattresses and sleep accessories like pillows both online and in retail locations. They’re known for close conforming, cool sleep for an all-foam model and great motion isolation for couples. Read the full Casper Mattress Review to learn more. 
• Tuft & Needle—Tuft & Needle offers all-foam and hybrid mattresses at low price points. They tend to be less conforming and more responsive. Read our full Tuft and Needle Mattress Review. 
• Purple—All Purple mattresses feature the company’s Purple Grid comfort layer, which is used as a central selling point in the company’s advertisements. Viewed as a high-value pick by critics, Purple mattresses conform to the body, sleep cool, and are affordable. Read our full Purple Mattress Review. 
• Nectar—Nectar Sleep is known for its flagship memory foam bed that’s constructed of three layers that incorporate gel memory and high-density memory foams. They have thoughtful construction, like a removable cover with TENCEL lyocell and cotton for enhanced temperature regulation, and work best for average and heavyweight sleepers who usually sleep hot on all-foam beds. Check out our full Nectar Mattress Review to learn more. 
• Brooklyn Bedding—Brooklyn Bedding offers six mattress models in a variety of firmness levels. They work well for a variety of body types and sleeping styles but are not recommended for sleepers who like the feel of all-foam beds, as Brooklyn Bedding mattresses are more responsive than most memory foam options. Read our full Brooklyn Bedding Mattress Review. 
• Leesa—Leesa currently offers three mattress models: a mixed-foam mattress and two hybrid models. All of Leesa’s options are constructed with mixed-foam comfort layers that cushion the sleeper’s body and result in above-average pressure relief. They’re also great at isolating motion, offered at a reasonable price, have strong airflow throughout, and come with a 10-year warranty, making them an appealing option for almost any shopper. Read our full Leesa Mattress Review. 
• Saatva—Saatva offers a variety of innerspring, hybrid, memory foam, latex, and airbed mattresses. Their flagship model is an innerspring mattress with a Euro-top cover and comfort layers, but customers can choose from different firmness settings in any mattress they select. Saatva mattresses tend to have a more responsive surface, making them a poor choice for most couples. Read our full Saatva Mattress Review. 

Pro and Cons of Buying In-Store vs. Online

When considering whether to buy a Sears mattress in-store or online, or whether to shop in-person or at your computer for your mattress in general, it can be helpful to understand the pros and cons of each approach. In this section, we outline the benefits and downsides of purchasing a mattress online as well as what to consider if you decide to shop for your mattress in-store.

The benefits of purchasing a mattress from an online retailer include the following:

• Online mattress sellers typically offer free returns or lower return fees than brick-and-mortar mattress stores. Unfortunately, while Sears offers a 60-day return window for mattress purchases both online and in-store, the original delivery fees aren’t refunded and a 15% restocking fee applies. 
• Many online mattress websites include free delivery with purchase. Many of Sears’ online mattresses come with free delivery, but it’s unclear whether mattresses purchased in-store at Sears come with this perk as well. It’s also unclear whether shoppers will be required to be at home when the mattress delivery is made.
• Shopping online allows you to avoid the pressure of salespeople, who can push you towards expensive models and unnecessary add-ons.
• Many mattresses available online are sold at a lower price with discounts and promotion codes than the same models in brick-and-mortar stores.
• Shopping online gives you a great advantage in comparison shopping. Simply open another tab or two on your computer to compare mattress specs or read reviews.
• Purchasing a mattress online bypasses the need to physically go to a store, making it more convenient and less time-consuming than in-person shopping. 

Despite the long list of pros, buying a mattress online also has its downsides:

• You’ll miss out on the tactile experience of touching, lying on, and feeling the mattress prior to purchasing.
• You may be responsible for moving the mattress indoors and assembling it, depending on the company’s delivery policy.
• Personal assistance isn’t offered like it is in-store, and most online “customer service chat windows” don’t offer much help, so you’ll need to do the research on your own.

As we’ve outlined above, perhaps the greatest advantage of shopping in-store for your mattress is the ability to experience the mattress firsthand. If you’re someone for whom no amount of online customer and critic reviews could convince to purchase a mattress that you’ve never seen, shopping in-store at a Sears location could be your best bet. 

We also recommend taking a look at Sears.com and calling your local Sears store to assess what brands, sizes, and models are available. Hopefully, this review of the best mattresses from Sears is a first step as you get started in your search and in your journey to a better night’s sleep.