I heard he took a beating after Hurricane Harvey and the Astros won the World Series. Pretty much everybody that flooded needed a new mattress anyway so why not buy and if the Astros win, then holy shite it was free.

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Posted by TheCaterpillar

Member since Jan 2004

76774 posts

Posted on 10/2/19 at 1:16 pm to LSUFanHouston

quote:
When we bought our house in Katy after Katrina, it came with a $2,000 gift certificate to Gallery Furniture.

We went to go spend it. We needed a whole house of furniture. So we were hoping the $2,000 would cover a portion of it, and we would just pay the rest out of our contents insurance check. Start talking to the sales rep, nice guy, he chats us up, finds out our story. We pick out a living room set and a master bedroom set, and are starting to look at dining sets, sales rep says I'm gonna go use the bathroom if y'all don't mind, I'll be back in a few min, y'all keep looking.

Comes back a few min with this goofy looking white dude, it's Mack. Mack asks us where we are from, how we heard about the store, etc. A nice 20 min conversation. Dude was very warm and nice with us. He wishes us the best of luck, welcomes us to Houston, and goes on his way.

We pick out the dining set, pick out the guest room furniture, pick out mattresses, and after about 3 or so hours, we are done. We added it up and it was over $6,000 before tax.

Salesman takes us to the area where you pay. They add it all up and with tax it's like $3468, and we owe $1468 after the gift certificate. Wife and I look at each other, and I tell the clerk, did y'all get everything?

She says, "Mack says, God Bless You." They sold us everything at half off.

Awesome story.

Dude might get a statue in Houston when he eventually passes away.

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Posted by Dire Wolf

bawcomville

Member since Sep 2008

40794 posts

Posted on 10/2/19 at 1:22 pm to ShaneTheLegLechler

quote:
He’s an extremely personable guy. Hangs out at the store all the time and talks with customers. He’s a great salesperson and philanthropist

After I got my mattress delivered last year he personally called us the next day and asked how we slept. It was on a Sunday.

It made me feel like a shite salesman because he was so much better

This post was edited on 10/2/19 at 1:23 pm

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Posted by Tarps99

Lafourche Parish

Member since Apr 2017

13396 posts

Posted on 10/2/19 at 1:22 pm to TechDawg2007

Funny no one mentioned yet that he could have made this bet in Louisiana instead of Mississippi if we legalized sports betting.

That could have been some nice taxes for the Bayou State.

But long term he probably would have still placed the bet there.

Mississippi has a flat 3 percent Jackpot tax. (I don't know if sports winnings are taxed as the same as slots). The Jackpot tax is like income tax on winnings, but if you are an out of state resident, you can't file Mississippi income taxes to try to get the 3 percent tax back. You can claim it on your state's income taxes as tax paid to other states. Louisiana taxes in comparision are 6 % for anything above 50k.

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Posted by mule74

Watersound Beach

Member since Nov 2004

12985 posts

Posted on 10/2/19 at 1:24 pm to LSUFanHouston

quote:
I know he used to get insurance from Lloyd's for these promotions, maybe they won't do it anymore and that's why he has to bet now.

My firm actually did the placement two years ago for him trough London.

The issue is that it is too expensive now. The Astros were not a favorite to wind the title back in 2017 so the premium wasn't that bad.

One thing that I think people forget in all this, is that all he has to lay off is his COGS. If he is on the hook for "$15,000,000" that's not taking into account the 200% mark up on furniture.

So really he needs to layoff $5mm or $7.5mm.

ETA: Also, he is a very nice man. I have always thought of people with overwhelming personalities like his that are involved in sales as douchey. He is an incredibly generous and genuine man. He also is nothing like you would expect when you meet him. Very quiet, humble and inconspicuous. If not for the fact that he has a very distinct look, you would not recognize him.

This post was edited on 10/2/19 at 1:27 pm

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Posted by OweO

Plaquemine, La

Member since Sep 2009

122527 posts

Posted on 10/2/19 at 1:27 pm to List Eater

Is he the guy who opened his place when Houston was flooding while Joel Olsteen didn't open up his arena & told people it was flooding, but pictures showed it wasn't?

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Posted by bigberg2000

houston, from chalmette

Member since Sep 2005

70813 posts

Posted on 10/2/19 at 1:29 pm to OweO

Yes

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Posted by LSUFanHouston

NOLA

Member since Jul 2009

41660 posts

Posted on 10/2/19 at 1:32 pm to mule74

quote:
One thing that I think people forget in all this, is that all he has to lay off is his COGS. If he is on the hook for "$15,000,000" that's not taking into account the 200% mark up on furniture.

So really he needs to layoff $5mm or $7.5mm

I thought I read he was refunding either 1) sales price in cash or 2) 150% of sales price as store credit.

If everyone took the store credit, then yes, his only real cost is the cost of furniture, so figure 1/3 22.5 million - 7.5 million.

But, if people take the cash... he's out 15 million. That's what he has to cut checks, that amount.

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