You know Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale is a pro at self-promotion when he works a reference into his store, Gallery Furniture, into the very first answer of his interview with Mollie Chapman.
Really though, the entire discussion between McIngvale and Chapman centered around how the polarizing Mattress Mack uses sports betting to promote his furniture store, so it made sense that several plugs got into the conversation.
Houston Astros World Series promo still running
For example, Gallery Furniture is still in the midst of its World Series promotion featuring the team with the best record in the American League, the Houston Astros. Customers who spend over $3,000 on qualifying mattresses could get that mattress for free if the Astros manage to win the World Series.
“Well, it makes it more fun for the customers to come buy furniture knowing they have a chance to get their money back. We’ve got so much competition with Amazon, Wayfair, and brick and mortar retailers. We got to do something different. So I asked myself and our team members every day, would the customer miss us were we gonna go out of business tomorrow? Having the fun of sports betting involved in their purchase by making their money back. Free, Free Free makes us very relevant,” McIngvale stated.
McIngvale using Gallery Furniture as a community center of sorts
McIngvale went into greater detail about how his betting promotions work as well as why he chooses to insure his promotions with wagers instead of an insurance company. Later in the chat, he also explained a bit about how he and Gallery Furniture give back to the community.
“[Pope] John Paul II said the essence of living is giving, so we’ve always been very involved in community. Now at the store. We have a trade school that’s free for teaching construction, welding, electrical, plumbing, all sorts of skilled trades to people in that community for free. We have a high school for people 16 to 26 who never finished high school. That’s great. And we have a preschool for children aged six months or five years old that is free. So we’re we turned half the store into a community center so we can make a difference because we all have responsibility for the well being of the community.”
Check out the entire interview, and be sure to stay tuned to the end if you are an operator looking to book McIngvale’s action.