Memory foam mattress users out there?

[David Beard]

OK, I know this is really off topic, but for back-pain sufferers it's quite important. We're looking to replace our 10-yr old inner spring mattress and have delved into the arcane world of researching memory foam mattresses.

First went to two local mattress stores, both pushing very expensive Tempurpedic mattresses. Wifey liked Cloud Supreme ($3,000) or Cloud Luxe (4,000, choke!). Tempurpedic mandates this pricing from retailers, no discounting or you can lose your Tempurpedic license. You can, however, go on Ebay and find rogue sellers that will discount about 25%, of course without official Tempurpedic 20-year warranty, they're just offering an in-house warranty, only good if they're still around.

So I researched further, looked at Amazon, and eventually landed at Costco and Sam's Club sites. Thy sell brands at about 10-20% of the cost of these Tempurpedics, and appear to generally have very very good reviews (90% satisfaction, roughly) from purchasers from those stores. Well, being the cheapskate that I am (I'm willing to pay for quality), it seems ludicrous to pay these Tempurpedic prices, and could be one of the great marketing scams of all time. (I'm sure I'll attract the ire of TP disciples.)

Would love to get some good unbiased feedback on memory foam mattresses from the trustworthy folks on here with experience. In particular, I'm interested if anyone can comment on these Costco and Sam's brands like Sleep Innovators and Night Therapy (I was about ready to pull the trigger on a Night Therapy.) Many people are very sold on the MF products in general for providing deep, ache-free, uninterrupted, refreshing sleep. But there appears to be a lot of marketing hype and price inflation in this strange world of mattress sales.

Thanks, -- David