TV model numbers are, I've heard, intentionally screwy.
I have a model number that ends in "-1" which I bought from a warehouse store, and this model was only ever sold to a particular chain of warehouse stores. The original model (which you'll find if you look up reviews on the web, or on Amazon) has the same number but ending in "-0", and the only difference is that they traded its second component input for another HDMI input -- something which 99% of people, myself included, will never care about.
The reason, they say, is so the big chains can advertise "Guaranteed lowest price!". Nobody else can stock exactly the same model number, so it's technically true, even though it's not uncommon for the almost-identical model to be cheaper elsewhere.
Just like mattresses. Each store will have its own mattress model number.
In Canada it's even worse, because we'll get C or CA as suffixes for products, and sometimes even BL for bilingual - making it near impossible to find reviews online.
The mattress retailers have the best scam going. Nobody carries the same models [edit: or more precisely, each retailer gives each mattress a unique model name], and even the manufacturers websites don't list most of the model names or make them easily identifiable (and the manufacturer's websites certainly don't display prices). This, and the limited number of independently-owned retailers, makes the markups pretty surreal.[1] Let's just say if you're not negotiating 50% off, you're probably getting soaked.
It's similar to the way car buying was 20 or 30 years ago, when nobody really knew what invoice prices were. I see a huge potential to disrupt this market.
[1]I recently went mattress shopping again. During the "Memorial Day Sales Event", sticker prices (even after the "$XXX dollars off!!") were at least 10% over the MSRP displayed in the store's computer. I had no trouble negotiating 50% off the sticker price, plus tons of extras.
FWIW, from a comparison shopping perspective, it actually is possible to compare mattresses. Each brand has families that are equivalent in the various stores. The store can admit to the equivalency (which the stores I worked with did) or they can risk losing a sale.
Yep, I had the salesperson do this. But, it required me taking a picture of Store A's display so that the Store B salesperson could compare the specs and figure out which one of their models it matched. Ridiculous.
It would be difficult (but definitely not impossible) to aggregate the specs of each mattress so you could compare models/prices online. Then you might actually get some competitors entering the market. (Here in southern CA, there are essentially two places to try/buy a variety of mattresses: Sears, and several mattress-specific stores, which are all owned by the same owner. You essentially have two choices, though choice B has a few different names.)
I suspect that Sleepy's / 1-800-Mattress are in violation of various consumer protection acts. In Massachusetts, for instance, it's illegal to claim that an item is discounted from an original price unless the store regularly sells the item for that original price. Looking at their ads week after week, it appears that certain mattresses are always on sale, under rotating schemes that bring it to roughly the same discount price each week.
I have a model number that ends in "-1" which I bought from a warehouse store, and this model was only ever sold to a particular chain of warehouse stores. The original model (which you'll find if you look up reviews on the web, or on Amazon) has the same number but ending in "-0", and the only difference is that they traded its second component input for another HDMI input -- something which 99% of people, myself included, will never care about.
The reason, they say, is so the big chains can advertise "Guaranteed lowest price!". Nobody else can stock exactly the same model number, so it's technically true, even though it's not uncommon for the almost-identical model to be cheaper elsewhere.