Sleep City is a Great Place to Buy a Mattress
Now, this review is only about fifteen years great, but it’s never too late to talk about a good shopping experience. Especially in the arena of mattress shopping, which is sort of notorious for the opposite. When I lived in the bay area in the 90s, I was just out of college, and shopping to furnish one of my first apartments. Jobless, and with nothing really to speak of in terms of possessions, I set out to outfit my new pad with some cool items… on a serious budget. Back then, Craigslist and the like didn’t exist. For that matter, the internet didn’t really exist. I tried checking out the newspaper classifieds, but was very quickly discouraged, very discouraged in fact. I went to see a couple of used mattresses from the paper and was so thoroughly disgusted that I determined there and then that I would need a new mattress, regardless of how much more I would have to spend.
My neighborhood (near Chinatown) was noisy, and I knew that if I was going to sleep in the city each night, with everything that goes along with that, I’d need to at least have a surface to sleep on that didn’t keep me up at night just wondering what might be festering beneath me. I must say that I got very lucky. The first store that I went to came about on a whim. I was on the way home from visiting some family friends in Napa when I decided to stop in at a local store called Sleep City. You probably guessed that I might discuss the store at some point, no?
Anyway, I was amazed at my experience. I had heard countless stories from every one of my friends recounting their awful times shopping for and purchasing a new mattress. “Used car salesman” was a term that was thrown out liberally. To say that I was anticipating the worst is a bit of an understatement. The Sleep City lights were oddly inviting. And that might sounds weird, but I was expecting blinding fluorescent lights designed to make me feel uncomfortable and anxious. The Sleep City furniture was another telltale that the store I was visiting might be a little different. There were nice chairs to sit down in and take notes, and other items that gave the place a relaxed feel.
Lastly, and this is certainly the most important aspect of the shopping experience, the salesperson was actually helpful. He didn’t constantly push me to look at higher priced models, and he allowed me some time to myself to examine each mattress and its specifications. I don’t know about you, but I would have felt very uncomfortable having a salesman watch me stretch out on numerous mattresses to test them out. This guy backed off a bit and let me explore the merchandise. Common sense when you think about it, but I’ve certainly had some bad experiences in more recent years.
I didn’t end up buying a mattress that day, as I felt like I had to do some more thinking on the matter. Whenever I’m not certain I should make a purchase, I take a night to sleep on it. But, as I was sleeping on my floor at the time, it’s possible that a hastier decision would have been acceptable in this case. In any event, I ended up going back the next day to make the purchase. I can’t even remember what kind of mattress I bought all those years ago, but frankly it was good enough. I had a 22-year old back, and probably could have slept on anything. What I do still remember is the Sleep City sleep experience I got that first night, fully satisfied with having had a great customer experience. Often times, I have found since, it is often these interactions you have pre-purchase that end up mattering far more than the product itself. I may be in the minority here, but I hold this in very high esteem.
And that’s not to discount the quality of the mattress in any way. I slept on that bed for a good ten years after buying it, and felt like I had gotten more than my money’s worth when I took it on it’s farewell voyage to the dump. Those first few nights were divine though, and that may have a lot to do with the the preceding few weeks I had spent sleeping on the floor. Frankly though, I was just happy that I was able to sleep soundly right along with the sleeping city. In short, I would still strongly recommend Sleep City as a store you should consider in the bay area before you buy your next mattress. Best of luck, and check back often for more helpful advice.
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