Store to pay $400K in rebates

Ashley Furniture HomeStore customers are getting nearly $400,000 in rebates after the University of Tennessee Lady Vols clinched their eighth NCAA basketball championship on Tuesday.

That's how much the stores in Turkey Creek in West Knoxville, Chattanooga and Johnson City are refunding to hundreds of shoppers who purchased furniture during the company's "UT Your Choice" promotion and chose the Lady Vols to win the national title.

"We had a good response, though we had hoped to have even more," said Erin Hester, advertising director for Ashley Furniture, who estimated the number of participants to be in the 300 to 400 range.

The promotion, which is covered by insurance taken out by the stores, offered free furniture to customers if either the UT men's or women's basketball team won the national title.

Shoppers, who went to one of the three East Tennessee stores during the weekend of the Southeastern Conference tournament on March 14-16, had to choose either the men's or women's team at the time of the purchase.

About 95 percent of the customers chose the women's basketball team over the men's.

"It was a much larger number who chose the women's team, which was smart," Hester said.

The promotion, which requires customers to fill out a rebate form and mail it along with a receipt to the corporate office, is similar to others that have been done around the country, including one last year in Boston that hinged on the Boston Red Sox winning the World Series, she said.

The owner of the Chattanooga store ran a similar promotion in December at stores in Memphis for the University of Memphis Tigers and later pitched the idea of a Vol promotion to stores in Knoxville and Johnson City, which are owned and operated by Baker Group International.

"Obviously they felt it was very probable that one if not both of the Tennessee teams had a very good shot at winning," said Troy Hartmann, senior account executive with the Vol Network. "It certainly got fans and customers through the door."

The furniture stores had to pay a fee to the Vol Network, which is owned by the media-rights holder for University of Tennessee athletics IMG, for promotional rights and usage.

Hartmann called the promotion "a unique proposition" but said they were fine to proceed as long as certain NCAA guidelines were followed.

An opinion issued by the state attorney general's office in March had ruled the Memphis promotion illegal, but Hester said that did not apply to the one in East Tennessee, noting that nothing ever came of the ruling.

A second promotion is in the works and could come out in the fall. It would be tied to Tennessee football.

"We just want to create an excitement in the community," Hester said. "We've been in Knoxville for the last year and a half and we continue to make ourselves known in the marketplace."

Business writer Carly Harrington may be reached at 865-342-6317.