Jordan's Furniture
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| Type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Furniture retailers |
| Founded | 1918 |
| Headquarters | Taunton, Massachusetts |
| Key people | Eliot Tatelman, Barry Tatelman, Samuel Tatelman |
| Products | Furniture, Bedding, Mattresses |
| Owner(s) | Berkshire Hathaway |
| Parent | Berkshire Hathaway |
| Website | www.jordans.com |
Jordan's Furniture is a furniture retailer in eastern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire, with locations in Reading, Avon, and Natick, Massachusetts, Nashua, New Hampshire and Warwick Mall in Warwick, Rhode Island.
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[edit] History
The company was started by Samuel Tatelman in 1918 in Waltham, Massachusetts.[citation needed] Samuel sold furniture out of the back of a truck until 1926. In the late 1930s, his son Edward joined the business.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed] In 1983, Barry and Eliot built the Nashua, New Hampshire location.
In 1987, they opened the Avon, Massachusetts location, creating the largest traffic jam ever recorded on Route 24.[citation needed] Barry and Eliot had to go on the radio to beg people not to come.[citation needed] Customers stood in line for hours waiting for their turn to go into the showroom.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed] 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[citation needed] 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.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed] In 2005, the warehouse underneath the Avon store was converted into the Colossal Clearance Center, containing over 60,000 square feet (5,600 m2)[citation needed]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 radio and television broadcasts. For the past four baseball seasons, Tatelman's has been enticing shoppers by offering 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.[citation needed]
[edit] Promotions
[edit] 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. The store took out an insurance policy for approximately twenty million US dollars. Since the Red Sox did win the World Series, Jordan's Furniture gave an estimated 30,000 qualified orders away for free [3].
[edit] Monster sweep
As a promotion 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.
[edit] Monster hit
In the spring of 2011, Tatelman was back again, this time with the "Monster Hit" promotion ("Hit or no hit... You Win!"). Clad in Red Sox garb, Tatelman was again a ubiquitous, white-ponytailed figure in relentless print, television, and Internet banner ads. The shill 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.
[edit] 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 win 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.
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/news/oct1199.html
- ^ "Barry Tatelman leaves Jordan's Furniture". Boston Globe. 2006-12-21. http://www.boston.com/business/ticker/2006/12/barry_tatelman_1.html. Retrieved 2007-01-16.
- ^ "Buffett-Owned Store Giving Away Furniture With Red Sox Win". Bloomberg. 2007-10-26. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601079&sid=aD2tVHoQ1Kmc&refer=home. Retrieved 2007-10-29.
