If Cubs win World Series, he’ll give away furniture sold March 30-April 29
Metro Chicago retailer, and diehard fan, joins parade of promos tied to sports teams
Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, March 11, 2007
LIBERTYVILLE, Ill. — Another furniture store is tying a sports win to free furniture for customers.
Park Avenue Home Furnishings here, whose owner Gary O’Reilly is a diehard Chicago Cubs fan, will give away everything purchased from March 30 through April 29 if his favorite baseball team wins this year’s World Series.
“This sale was 100 years in the making,” quipped O’Reilly. His “Cubbies” haven’t won a World Series since 1908, and haven’t been to a World Series since 1945, although they came close in 2003.
Park Avenue is an 80,000-square-foot, midpriced store in this northern Chicago suburb. The sale is insured by Lloyds of London, which would cover all sales should the Cubs win, O’Reilly said. Customers even would get taxes and delivery charges refunded, he said.
He wouldn’t say how much he’s paying for insurance, but said initial quotes ranged from 25% of sales to 8% of sales. “I got a better deal than that,” O’Reilly.
Similar promotions have been run by metro Boston’s Jordan’s Furniture and World Furniture Mall in Plano, Ill. The latter gave away $300,000 worth of furniture after the Chicago Bears football team shut out the Green Bay Packers in a game last year.
O’Reilly said he’ll announce his promotion in newspapers March 30, and through 7,000 to 8,000 mailers a few days before that. He projected his store will do about $1 million in sales during the event.
“There are a lot of diehard fans that are idiots like me and think the Cubs really can win,” O’Reilly said. He expects some customers will furnish entire homes.
O’Reilly said he’s been working on the promotion since the fall High Point market. He noted the Boston Red Sox, the team involved in Jordon’s promotion, hadn’t won a World Series since 1916 — until they won in 2004.
“They had their turn. It’s our turn now,” he said.
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