If you're a store owner looking to capitalize on a football game, you should probably go with the time-tested shutout promotion.
This contest encourages customers to buy goods with the promise that, if a certain team does not score any points, customers will get their money back. It hardly ever happens (although it's not foolproof).
Not only did Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale, who owns Gallery Furniture in Houston, shun that contest, he and his staff gave customers a much, much easier option for the AFC and NFC championship games.
All customers had to do in order to get their money back was buy at least $5,000 worth of furniture and correctly select the winners of each contest. That's it.
Both favorites advanced to the Super Bowl and about 100 people got their money back. That totaled more than half a million dollars in refunds.
"We're getting ready to give back $600,000," McIngvale told KHOU 11, "and it will hurt the bank account but will make those customers' account happy."
