Official Blog of Gallery Furniture's Mattress Mack of Houston, TX

A Warm Tribute to the Gallery Furniture Staff from Valued Customers

Gallery Furniture is proud to call the Houston area home.  More than that, we're happy about being able to serve the world's greatest customers whether in the store, at the warehouse, over the phone, online, or after the sale!

Customers like Larry and Mary H. of Dickinson, TX below make Gallery Furniture's day brighter when they send in warm letters like the one we received at Gallery Furniture's inbox:

Hi Mack,

Larry and Mary H. here: We're loyal, satisfied, long time customers who would like to take this opportunity to single out and compliment some of your hard working staff who went above and beyond to treat us as special customers. This experience occurred during an exchange of furniture and involved your warehouse and delivery staff.

Jeremy Hunt
Aaron Garrett
Henry Rodriquez
and Zak....

...either during deliveries or our warehouse visit to exchange an item, all went out of their way to make us feel like valued customers. They certainly amplify what you and the rest of your staff work so hard to achieve...providing good products at good prices and special customer service that result in loyalty and satisfaction from your patrons.  
These guys are an asset to you and Gallery Furniture and deserve the recognition.
 
Good luck with your new facilities. You all will survive the set back because of your passion to provide a good product, excellent customer service, the spirit and determination exhibited by you and your team and certainly with support from 
your loyal customers and friends...like us.
 
Larry and Mary H.
PS...I have attached two photos...one of my Dad a few months ago [Editor's Note:shown below] and the other with the warehouse staff today [shown above]

A big thanks to Larry and Mary H. of Dickinson for their family's support of Gallery Furniture and for their kind words and well wishes as we move forward and prepare for the Gallery Furniture grand opening party at 6006 I-45 North between Tidwell and Parker on 07.04.09!

Mark This Date: 7-4-2009

Plans are moving for the grand re-opening of the 6006 I-45 North Gallery Furniture.  The showroom will open on July 4, 2009.  It will be a partial re-opening because repairs won't be complete on the rest of the building, but Gallery Furniture will again be delighting customers where it all began.

Every day brings meetings with architects, designers, and contractors who are cleaning up the front part of the store and getting it ready to re-open.  It won't be the same Gallery Furniture.  It will be an improved version of the world's greatest furniture store.

More on that later.

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A big thank you to Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee who stopped by the Post Oak store Monday morning.  She came in to express her sympathies after the May 21 fire and offer her support and assistance in getting things back to normal.

She read some of the many letters and cards that have come from customers since the fire.  She left with one of the Gallery Furniture basketballs customers get, calling it a good luck charm.

Again, thank you Congresswoman.

Main Store Re-Opening July 4

There was a big turnout at the 6006 North Freeway store this morning (Thursday, June 4) for a news conference to announce that Gallery Furniture's main store will re-open July 4.  It will be a partial re-opening, as the damage from the May 21 warehouse fire is repaired.

Every one at Gallery Furniture is excited about the future and moving forward with construction and clean up.  Out of an evil act -- the arson fire at the warehouse -- much good will come as the world's greatest furniture store is remodelled and re-invented.

A team of experts is helping us with this project, including customer experience expert Jim Gilmore, author of The Experience Economy, one of the top business books of the last decade.   Along with Gilmore, world famous designer Bill Stubbs will be working  on the renovated interior of the store.  Stubbs talked about one of the innovations coming to Gallery, a place for customers to choose a frame and fabric for a new sofa and then watch as it is built in the store, ready for delivery in about two hours.

The fire has not stopped Gallery from selling furniture and it is not stopping the store's efforts to give back to the community either.  Two new initiatives were announced at the news conference.  First, the USO centers at the Dover Air Force base in Delaware will be remodelled in the coming week as part of the Gallery commitment to the USO.  Second, in recognition of the debt of gratitude owed to the Houston Fire Department, Gallery Furniture will take part in the Adopt A Fire Station program by giving a $10,000 gift certificate to each of the 31 fire stations that were involved in fighting the fire May 21.

Another highlight of the news conference was the presentation of a three million dollar check from Liberty Mutual Insurance, the first of what will be a number of insurance checks to come.  A big thanks to Liberty Mutual, Safeco, an W. M. Jones for their work in the wake of the fire.

This revitalization of the world's greatest furniture store is going to be a triumph of the human spirit and a triumph, at the end of the day, of good over evil. We hope that out of this evil act that was performed out here, much good will come.

If you would like to make a suggestion for how the original Gallery Furniture store can be made better, please let us know.  See our Suggestion Box at www.GalleryFurniture.com.

Jim Gilmore

Bill Stubbs

Susie Barlow, USO

Media Tour of the Warehouse Site

Lending a Helping Hand

A very nice phone call came in Wednesday morning, from a woman named Candice.  She wanted to make sure I knew that two Gallery Furniture employees had been very nice to her Tuesday night.

Candice said she was on her way home from work on the North Freeway when she had a flat tire.  She pulled into a gas station near 1960 to change the tire.  There were a number of men at the station and she asked for some assistance, but no one would help her.

She knows how to change a tire, but Candice says being six months pregnant, she would rather have someone else do the heavy lifting.

With no help being offered, she started to get the spare out of the trunk when a Gallery Furniture delivery truck pulled off the service road and two men got out.  They asked her what they could do to help.

The Gallery crew did more than help, Candice says.  They changed her tire for her, figured out a problem with the jack along the way, and put the bad tire and jack in her trunk.

"These two are the kind of people you want working for you," Candice said this morning.  "They are a credit to you guys and the people you hire."

She identified the pair as B.J. and Germaine.  They are indeed the kind of people who work for Gallery Furniture.  Thank you, Candice, for recognizing them and telling your story.

At Gallery Furniture it's all about the customer, even when the customer isn't a customer  yet.

From Tragedy to Triumph

There is a banner up at 6006 I-45 North Between Tidwell & Parker that says, simply, that Gallery Furniture will rebuild.  While the banner has been up, folks in the local community, Gallery Furniture employees, and others, have contributed to the banner with messages of love, well being, and kindness.  Any of the pictures, posted below, can be clicked on to show a larger image (will open in a separate window).

 

Gallery Furniture's Prize Steer Post Oak Relaxing in Liberty, TX

Gallery Furniture's prized champion Post Oak is doing well in Liberty, TX amidst a gorgeous 20-Acre lot and has moved in with over twenty heads of fellow bovine friends and even has a personal fly catcher!  For those who were interested in how Post Oak was doing, Post Oak made it out fine (as did all the other beautiful animals, parrots included!) and seems quite happy and content to be alive and well in beautiful Liberty, TX relaxing in the sun and enjoying the country life after a stint as an urban bovine.  

Laura, Gallery Furniture's Service Manager (who also helps with the livestock) said that Post Oak "was definitely living it up in the country" and was "definitely enjoying the outdoors and having a fly-catcher nearby and enjoying hanging out with other cows" - Post Oak then agreed to strike a pose in the field for Gallery Furniture, as shown in our photo here!

So just where is Post Oak?  Gallery Furniture's Service Manager Laura shed some light on that:  "We [Gallery Furniture] appealed to my friend Kathleen for a sanctuary for the Grand Champion.  Kathleen Burnam, and her husband J.C., have graciously allowed Post Oak to reside at their property during is time of displacement. Kathleen says "we enjoy having him and he is happy with herd."

Gallery Furniture is happy that all animals are safe, accounted for, and have new homes! (Please for click picture to left to enlarge).  Indeed, this is one Grand Champion living the grand life out in beautiful Liberty, TX.

Solid Wood Survives

That old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words is true.  There are two pictures you have to see from the ruins of the warehouse destroyed by fire May 21.

Here they are.

The first picture is a mango wood table that was in the warehouse at the time of the fire.  The blaze was hot enough to melt metal, but somehow this table survived.  It has a broken leg, its top has been scorched, but it's still there.  Even the price tag made it through the fire.

Picture number two is of a mango wood end table.  It is damaged, but still here.  The boards on the top are burned and there is some scorching on all sides, but the table survives.

Like these two pieces of solid wood furniture, Gallery Furniture has come through the fire a little damaged, but determined to continue, to serve the best customers on earth.  A little sanding will remove the scorch and reveal the solid wood beneath it.  

Gallery Furniture's 6006 North Freeway store will re-open.  The fire is a great tragedy, a blow, but the store will recover and be better than ever.  If fact, this is an opportunity to re-invent what was already the world's greatest furniture store.

Many customers have told us they consider the store their own.  "It's my store" is the way they put it.  So Gallery Furniture has a way for you to take part in the re-invention of the 6006 North Freeway store.  Make a suggestion.  It could be something you would add to the store, something you would change, or a completely different way to do things.  Just use the message board "Suggestion Box" to share your idea.

The tables in the pictures will not be repaired and sold.  Instead, they will be preserved as a reminder of what an arsonist's fire could not destroy; the tough, resilient heart of Gallery Furniture.