Furniture store set to lose $4.2 million after Astros avoid 100-loss season with 63rd win
2014 has been a cruel year for furniture stores and their sports-related promotions.
And now that the Houston Astros will avoid a fourth consecutive 100-loss season after capturing their 63rd victory Sunday, another furniture store is set to lose millions.
Gallery Furniture was so confident the Astros would finish the season with triple digit losses that they released this promotion in February:
Get in the game with our Baseball Promo #1 - limited to the first 500 customers who purchase $6,300 or more from Gallery Furniture and have it delivered within one week. If the Houston Astros baseball team wins 63 or more games in the regular season, 100 percent of the furniture purchase price will be refunded to ALL 500 participating customers!
While the loss is significant, it doesn't appear to have deterred owner Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale from similar promotions in the future.
When asked how much the promotion would cost the store, McIngvale told SportsRadio 610, “About $4.2 million. It's exciting. We're in the customer business. Nothing makes customers happier than winning a promotion like this. It's good to give back money to customers and they become customers for life.”
It's not even the first time McIngvale's Houston-based store has been burned by a sports-related promotion. This past February, the store lost $7 million after a Super Bowl promotion backfired when the store supported the Denver Broncos and offered to dish out full refunds if the Seattle Seahawks won. It wasn't even close as the Seahawks won their first Super Bowl.
Other costly promotions include Ashley Furniture's August deal, when they paid $1 million to their customers after offering refunds if the Texas A&M Aggies recorded a win by 10 or more points against South Carolina (they beat them 52-28), and a Baltimore store that was forced to pay roughly $600,000 after offering refunds if the 2013 Super Bowl game or second half began with a kick-off return for a touchdown (Jacoby Jones completed the feat to begin the second half).
[H/T CBS]