Welcome back, Mack
Reopening draws thousands to store
By Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, July 13, 2009
HOUSTON — Throngs of consumers showed up July 4 for the grand reopening of Gallery Furniture's main store, less than 45 days after a fire destroyed the adjacent 70,000-square-foot warehouse and damaged the showroom.
The Houston-based Top 100 company served free hamburgers and drinks to consumers, who in turn opened their wallets for furniture purchases. Owner Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale estimated the store did about $1 million in sales on July 4.
“I've been to a lot of hog callings and quite a few country fairs, but I ain't ever been to nothing like this,” McIngvale said of the opening-day crowd. He estimated 4,000 to 5,000 people came through.
“It really exceeded our expectations,” he said. “For all those who say people won't buy furniture during this recession, depression or whatever you want to call it, I say you give them a reason and they'll come and buy.”
Gallery had a pre-opening appreciation party on July 3 for firefighters that drew some 3,000 people.
Outside near the store's entrance, visitors could see part of what was left of Gallery's destroyed warehouse, a sculpture that artist Bob Mosier created from the deformed steel found in the wreckage. It's painted red, and like Gallery's new logo, features the number 31 in a salute to the 31 fire stations that responded to the May 21 blaze.
McIngvale said that if it weren't for the firefighters, the retailer would be out of business. “They're not supposed to really risk their lives to save property, but they did,” he said.
On July 4, traffic was backing up on the freeway service road in front of the store hours before the official opening, so Gallery decided to open the doors early.
About 40,000 square feet of the 100,000-square-foot store has been reopened. The final two phases of the interior should be completed by Labor Day, and a new warehouse — in the same spot as the destroyed building — is scheduled to be up and running by Thanksgiving.
McIngvale has estimated that the rebuilding cost would run $20 million to $30 million.
The exterior of the store was redone in stucco and a new walkway from the parking lot was landscaped with palm trees.
Inside, consumers saw a remodeled store with new features, including a premium Tempur-Pedic bedding gallery and a decompression or “tide pool” area that the retailer is calling the Mango Grove. Consumers can sit there, gather their thoughts and “talk about whatever they want to talk about,” said Hamilton Masters, a Gallery spokesman.
The area includes mango wood tables, two water fountains and a live mango tree that Masters is hoping will thrive under the skylight.
It also features a larger variety of uncaged tropical birds that Gallery previously kept in another part of the store — macaws, cockatoos and a toucan.
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