Jordan's Furniture
 | |
| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Furniture retailers |
| Founded | 1918 |
| Headquarters | Taunton, Massachusetts |
Key people | Eliot Tatelman, Barry Tatelman, Samuel Tatelman |
| Products | Furniture, Bedding, Mattresses |
| Owner | Berkshire Hathaway |
| Parent | Berkshire Hathaway |
| Website | www.jordans.com |
Jordan's Furniture is a furniture retailer in New England. There are currently seven locations - in Reading, Avon, Taunton, Natick, Massachusetts, Nashua, New Hampshire, Warwick Mall in Warwick, Rhode Island and New Haven, Connecticut.
History
The company was started by Samuel Tatelman in 1918 in Waltham, Massachusetts. Samuel sold furniture out of the back of a truck until 1926. In the late 1930s, his son Edward joined the business. In 1973, Barry and Eliot Tatelman took over the business from their father, Edward. They stopped advertising on the back page of the Waltham paper and started on radio. In 1983, Barry and Eliot built and opened the Nashua, New Hampshire location.
In 1987, they opened the Avon, Massachusetts location, creating the largest traffic jam ever recorded on Route 24. Barry and Eliot had to go on the radio to beg people not to come. Customers stood in line for hours waiting for their turn to go into the showroom.
On Mother's Day 1992, the Motion Odyssey Movie (MOM) opened in the Avon store, after five years of planning and a $2.5 million investment. Over 1 million people have experienced MOM, raising more than $300,000 for non-profit organizations.
On April 17, 1998, Barry and Eliot opened the biggest Jordan's Furniture to date with 120,000 sq ft (11,000 m2). of showroom space and a Mardi Gras/Bourbon Street theme, the Natick, Massachusetts location introduced Jordan's to the MetroWest area.
In October 1999, the Tatelman brothers sold the company to insurance conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway.[1] The sale was intended to increase the financial backing of Jordan's Furniture for future growth. To celebrate, each employee received a financial gift of 50 cents for every hour ever worked at Jordan's. Operationally, nothing changed. Barry and Eliot remained at the helm, still starring in all radio/TV commercials and as integral parts of the company.
On Thursday, August 22, 2002, the IMAX 3D Theater at Jordan's Furniture in Natick opened its doors to the public. This new venue offered a new level of "shoppertainment" in Jordan's Furniture history. The Waltham store closed in 2004, the day the new Reading, Massachusetts store opened, which was the largest of Jordan's locations. It includes a complete showroom, warehouse, and 3D IMAX movie theater. In addition, Jordan's opened a 750,000 sq ft (70,000 m2) Warehouse/Office complex in Taunton, Massachusetts. In 2005, the warehouse underneath the Avon store was converted into the Colossal Clearance Center, containing over 60,000 square feet (5,600 m2) of clearance merchandise.
Barry Tatelman left Jordan's Furniture in December 2006,[2]
| “ | ...to pursue other interests such as helping to produce a Broadway show Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, starring actor John Lithgow. . . . Besides Broadway, Barry Tatelman will dabble in Hollywood. He is a principal of a new film company called "Filmshop" and is working on a TV series, according to a Jordan's press release. | ” |
After Barry left for Hollywood, Eliot Tatelman remained the public face of the company. Recently, Tatelman has aligned himself as a sponsor of the Boston Red Sox and Boston Bruins radio and television broadcasts. For the past four baseball seasons, Tatelman's spiel has been to offer shoppers free furniture if the Red Sox perform improbable feats, such as sweeping the World Series in four games, or if a Sox batter hits a ball that strikes a dinner plate-sized baseball next to the Jordan's logo in straightaway dead center field.
The origin of the company's name is uncertain; the brothers once speculated that their grandfather chose the name out of a hat.
Promotions
Springtime in Boston finds Jordan's Furniture leveraging the annual start of the Red Sox baseball season to sell furniture.
Monster deal
As a promotion in 2007, Jordan's offered full rebates on certain pieces of furniture bought between March 7 and April 16 - provided the Boston Red Sox won the World Series. To cover the potential liability, the store took out an insurance policy for approximately twenty million US dollars. On October 28, 2007, the Red Sox beat the Colorado Rockies to win the World Series, Jordan's Furniture wrote checks to an estimated 24,000 qualified customers.
Joseph Frate of Medford, MA sued Jordan's Furniture claiming that the promotion was an illegal lottery. The case was thrown out by the Middlesex Superior Court and, upon appeal by Frate, by the state Appeals Court in July 2009.[3][4]
2008 Monster sweep
In another promotion linked to the Red Sox, in 2008 Jordan's offered full rebates on certain pieces of furniture. Instead of just winning the World Series, the Red Sox would have to sweep the Series, winning four games in a row. There were no winners.
Monster hit, 2010 - 2012
In 2010, the promotion launched on March 31, with anyone buying furniture between April 1 and May 2 getting that furniture for free if a Red Sox player hit a dinner plate-sized baseball on the Jordan's Furniture sign on the outfield wall at Fenway Park between July 15 and the end of the season on October 3. Jordan's offered 20% off coupons to customers if the image was not hit during the promotional period. No player hit the little baseball, and no free furniture was awarded.[5]
In the spring of 2011, Tatelman was back again, this time with a new "Monster Hit" promotion ("Hit or no hit... You Win!"). Clad in Red Sox garb, Tatelman was again a ubiquitous, white-ponytailed figure in print, television, and Internet banner ads. The gimmick was the same as that described above: if a Red Sox player hit a ball that struck a dinner plate-sized baseball next to the Jordan's logo in straightaway dead center field, the customer's Jordan's Furniture purchase price would be refunded. If no player struck the logo, all buyers would receive a 20% credit toward a future Jordan's purchase instead. The promotional purchase period ran throughout the spring, but the "timer" for the actual hitting of the sign did not begin until July 22, 2011, and continued until the end of the season. The Red Sox season concluded on September 28, 2011, and for the second consecutive year, there were no winners.[6]
The Monster Hit returned for 2012, with the same deal as described above, but with additional advertising. The 2012 "timer" for the hitting of the dinner plate-sized baseball next to the Jordan's logo in straightaway dead center field began on July 16, and continued until the end of the season. The Red Sox home season concluded on September 26, 2012, and for the third consecutive year, no batter hit the little baseball, and again, The Monster Hit promotion produced no winners.
The Big Check
On September 30, 2011, two days after the Monster Hit promotion ended, Tatelman resurfaced with The Big Check promotion in conjunction with the Boston Bruins' 2011-2012 NHL season. Tatelman hit the television airwaves and Internet rollover/banner/pop-up ad circuit again, this time attired in full Bruins regalia (including ponytail and hat), promising to refund Jordan's customers the purchase price of their furniture if the Bruins won the Stanley Cup for a second consecutive season. The Big Check promotion is identical to the Monster deal, above, in which shoppers were offered the same deal if the Boston Red Sox won the 2007 World Series. The Bruins were eliminated from Stanley Cup contention in the first round of the playoffs, losing to the Washington Capitals in seven games, and once again Tatelman was not obligated to refund any money to Jordan's customers.
The Perfect Game
On April 3, 2013, Tatelman reappeared with a new promotion - The Perfect Game - this time accompanied by new Red Sox "consultant" Pedro Martinez, a former star pitcher with the team. The gimmick this time was similar to The Monster Hit, except to win free furniture, a member of the Red Sox pitching staff has to pitch a perfect game during the last 72 games of the 2013 season.[7]
According to BaseballReference.com, since 1865, there have been 23 Perfect Games pitched in 202,520 Major League Baseball games played.[8] Therefore, one Perfect Game is pitched in every 8805 contests. Assuming a 72-game Jordan's contest period each season, Jordan's will award free furniture to customers an average of one time in the next 122.7 years.
The Perfect Game promotion covered purchases made between April 3, 2013 and May 5, 2013. The 72 games eligible for a Perfect Game were those played between July 19, 2013 and September 29, 2013.[7] The 2013 Red Sox season ended without a perfect game being pitched, and once again, customers received no free furniture.
Trapeze school
The outlet in Reading once featured a trapeze school, which included a 30-foot tall, net-enclosed swing that anyone could sign up to use, along with seating for observers. This closed in late 2014 and was replaced with a ropes course.[9]
See also
References
- ↑ "JORDAN'S FURNITURE SELLS TO BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC." (Press release). Berkshirehathaway.com. 1999-10-11. Retrieved 2013-02-12.
- ↑ "Barry Tatelman leaves Jordan's Furniture". Boston Globe. 2006-12-21. Retrieved 2007-01-16.
- ↑ Buteau, Michael (2007-10-26). "Buffett-Owned Store Giving Away Furniture With Red Sox Win". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2007-10-29.
- ↑ Turner, Greg (2009-07-23). "Court tosses lawsuit against Jordan's Furniture Red Sox promo". Boston Herald. Retrieved 2013-02-11.
- ↑ Diaz, Johnny (2010-03-31). "A long shot? Jordan's launches new Sox promotion". Boston.com (The Boston Globe). Retrieved 2013-02-11.
- ↑ Globe Staff (2011-03-316). "Jordan's Furniture brings back Monster Hit promo". Boston.com (The Boston Globe). Retrieved 2013-02-11. Check date values in:
|date=(help) - 1 2 http://www.jordans.com/Current-Promotions/Perfect-Game.aspx
- ↑ http://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/
- ↑ Bahr, Jeff (2009). Amazing and Unusual America. Chicago, Illinois, USA: Publications International. p. 21. ISBN 978-1-4127-1683-3.
