Gallery Furniture

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Gallery Furniture is a local Houston furniture store that was founded in April 1981 by Jim McIngvale. The company’s owner, Jim McIngvale, commonly known as “Mattress Mack”, began with only $5000 and was soon selling furniture by use of model homes and tents on the side of the North Freeway; he has since grown his business into a huge one-stop furniture store for Houstonians.^[1] At more than 125,000 sq. ft. of showroom space, the store features a grand showroom floor divided into various regions, displaying huge amounts of on-hand inventory. Likewise, an on-site warehouse eases the logistics process by having furniture ready for immediate delivery to customer homes – a feat unheard of in the industry.

The company’s growth has reflected the vast growth of the city of Houston. Gallery Furniture easily surpasses one hundred million dollars in sales per year and continues to be willing and able to offer same day delivery within a 100 mile radius of the store’s location. The company has been consistently ranked in Furniture Today’s Top 100 Furniture Retailers for some time and currently ranks as the Sales per Square Foot Leader for independent retailers in the United States.^[2]

Company Mission Statement: “Gallery Furniture is committed to offering our customers high quality furniture at the lowest prices while providing the best customer service available. We strive to provide outstanding same-day delivery service and to always put our customers first.”^[3]

1 Company Philosophy
2 Community Involvement
3 Marketing and Merchandising
4 Ownership and Management
5 References

[edit] Company Philosophy

Gallery Furniture has built its foundation on fulfilling the needs of each and every customer. With this foundation of values, Jim McIngvale and every Gallery Furniture employee is dedicated to using their talents to provide Houston and its surrounding areas with high quality furniture at affordable prices, as well as ensuring top notch customer service.

Gallery Furniture strives to be set apart from the promises of its competition with one simple mantra: “TODAY.” The “TODAY” philosophy is evident on all company materials produced by Gallery Furniture – all billboards, newspaper ads in the Houston Chronicle, radio, television, and internet ads. The concept is simple: Gallery Furniture can have any in-stock merchandise available for same day delivery.

This service is made available by the massive on-site stock warehouse that allows the company to hold vast amounts of inventory ready for immediate delivery. Gallery Furniture emphasizes their promise of today on both the company web site and the company blog at MattressMack.com. Gallery Furniture has gone as far as promising (and delivering on the promise) to be able to deliver a house full of furniture the same day the customer makes a purchase. Various customer testimonials on MattressMack.com point to entire housefuls of furniture have been purchased, delivered, and placed within a few hours.^[4]

[edit] Community Involvement

Gallery Furniture has consistently emphasized involvement in the community. The store’s owner, Jim McIngvale, clearly values the ability to affect the community in a positive way and has dedicated large amounts of time and resources to doing so. His emphasis on involvement has carried over into the company.

On a global scale, Gallery Furniture has begun an aggressive campaign to refurnish, redesign, and revitalize the over 130 USO Centers around the world. Gallery Furniture started with the USO Center at Houston's Hobby Airpot, and as a result Mr. McIngvale decided "let's redo them all." This unique partnership with the USO will contribute the bulk of the charitable and donation efforts of Gallery Furniture through 2010, with the exception of their yearly Christmas Giveaway program. As a result of this endeavor, Gallery Furniture of Houston has become a WorldWide Strategic Partner with the USO.^[5]

Annually, Gallery Furniture offers a Christmas Furniture Giveaway where the friends and family of those in need are encouraged to write letters to Gallery Furniture explaining the specific needs of a particular loved one or member of their community. As the letters are received, a committee of Gallery Furniture employees reads and reviews each to select a number of the most deserving families. These families are then contacted by Gallery Furniture and given a donation of furniture.^[6]

Gallery Furniture also participates in many other community service programs by way of donations and hands-on service. For example, Gallery Furniture participates in the NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) walk campaign in Houston and Jim McIngvale served as honorary chair for the Houston NAMI Walk 2008. Gallery Furniture joined with fellow Houstonians to raise funds in efforts to combat mental illness as a community.^[7]

[edit] Marketing and Merchandising

Gallery Furniture has grown over the years from simple print ads to television and radio to the full embrace of today’s social networking sites including Facebook and MySpace. By use of past and modern forms of advertisement, Gallery Furniture is better able to reach a large, more diverse group, thus heightening viewer awareness of the store, products, and services. The marketing efforts have also included sports franchise promotional materials and work within merchandising parameters with vendors such as Sony and Tempur-Pedic.

Gallery Furniture also houses a wide variety of Elvis memorabilia, collectables, and sports memorabilia acquired by Jim McIngvale and displayed for the enjoyment of customers and employees alike. The store also features a Woodforest Banking Center and a dining facility available for use by customers (free meal with purchase) and employees. With respect to its furniture line, Gallery Furniture offers a wide range of furniture styles, from traditional to transitional to contemporary. The vast array of furniture includes many styles to suit many price ranges – a fact made possible by the wide range of furniture; included in the selection are items such as the eco-friendly Mango Wood furniture and the high end furniture styles of Kreiss, as well as items in the Gallery Furniture outlet center.

In keeping with the corporate traditions of the owner Jim McIngvale, Gallery Furniture also showcases three sleep systems: Hästens, Tempur-Pedic, and the Peaceful Sleep System (a system whose design and creation process was aided by Gallery Furniture’s own personnel). In addition to the wide variety of furniture and sleep systems, Gallery Furniture holds a large selection of electronics, including customizable home theater solutions, further laying credence to their claim as a one-stop furniture store for Houstonians. From a marketing perspective, they may not always have customized furniture the same day, but their literature states that most custom leather orders fall into a “seven days or it is free” category.

[edit] Ownership and Management

The company, founded in April of 1981, is still in the hands of the original owner, Jim McIngvale, who has become a well known businessman and philanthropist in Houston. Gallery Furniture is separated into several divisions dedicated to serving the customer quickly, efficiently, and completely (all held to the TODAY standard). These divisions include Sales, Cashiers, Warehouse, Delivery, Customer Service, Inventory Control and Tagging, Data Processing, Yard Staff & Furniture Movers, as well as the Marketing & E-Commerce Division. Each unique division works with every other towards the goals of their TODAY standard.