Super Bowl promotions are huge at retail stores. It is an opportunity to get customers to come in and spend money on things they would not normally buy. Usually, the contests involve picking winners and then a raffle, or having to at least pick a point spread.
Houston area furniture store Gallery Furniture decided to run with a promotion for customers who could pick the teams that would be playing in the Super Bowl. All they had to do was come down, visit the store, spend $5,000, get their furniture delivered before the conference championship games and pick the winning teams. If they picked the teams right, they would be refunded all their money.
According to Gallery Furniture owner, Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale, about 80 percent of participants got the right answer! Of course with only four possible outcomes, the odds weren’t really in the furniture store’s favor. McIngvale and his team dreamed up the promotion, but never dreamed the results would hit the stores bank account so hard.
“I was not only surprised, I was shocked.”
More than one hundred customers came in and spent the $5,000 while picking the winning teams. The promotional miscalculation by Gallery Furniture will cost the store more than $600,000. Some customers are walking away with as much as $12,000 worth of furniture, like Troy Moreland. He couldn’t believe the opportunity when he saw the commercial and says he went crazy after Seattle defeated San Francisco in the second game.
Apparently, the furniture store still hasn’t figured out this math thing, either. “Mattress Mack” says they are considering running the promotion again for the Super Bowl. If they do, make sure you get on down to Gallery Furniture in Houston. You could be in for some luck.
Who do you have winning the Super Bowl? The Denver Broncos or the Seattle Seahawks?
