Park Furnishers Blog

Once again it was fantastic seeing so many people at our 45th Anniversary Party and Sale Preview Celebration.  This year we decided to go corporate and decorated the store in blue, gold and white. Monday to Wednesday was spent decorating the store and ensuring that there was enough champagne, Bucks Fizz, Pimms and Orange Juice to last the two day celebration.  Draw tickets to win £45 gift vouchers and balloon rides were printed, the grass was laid, the gazebo assembled, pagoda painted and 250 balloons were blown up with much wheezing and cursing.  Then the cakes arrived.  Five massive sponge cakes 90 X 80 X 6cm ready to be cut into 2500 pieces.  Our friends at Park Garden Centres gave us on loan some plants to add the finishing touches and by the time the store closed on Wednesday evening the stage was set and ready for the party to begin.

It doesn’t matter how the good the preparations are, a party isn’t a party without people.  And so we were over the moon when by 11am Thursday morning the car park was full and the first wave of party-goers had arrived.

When Park Furnishers is full and lot’s of people are wandering around with a drink in their hands the ambiance changes to that of a large family party.  Soon customers were meeting up with old friends and the place began to resemble more of a social club that Bristol’s largest  furniture store.

One thing that proved very popular was the free draw to win a £45 gift voucher every 45 minutes.  With eleven draws each day it kept the party buzzing along.  As soon as one draw was over the anticipation started to build for the next one.

Once again the weather was kind to us.  Although it wasn’t as hot and sunny as the garden party last year, at least the rain held off and the hog roast was able to go ahead in the car park as planned.  This is probably a good time to thank our friends at Bowberry Fair for doing the hog roast.  It is no mean feat to serve over 500 pork rolls each evening in just under 3 hours.

For those interested in such things, as well as polishing off 1100 servings of hog roast, we also gave away two and a half thousand slices of cake, 56 bottles of Pimms and 186 bottles of champagne.  I think it’s fair to say that a good time was had by all.

www.parkfurnishers.co.uk

Parson Street Primary School beat off stiff competition from Knowle DGE to win £400 in the first ever Park Furnishers Snowman Competition.  Customers at the Park Furnishers Christmas Party were asked to vote for their favourite and the Parson street entry polled a massive 181 votes.

The winning snowman, shown above on the left, was created by eight gifted and talented children and took narrowly beat a snowman featuring a chest of drawers as a hat from Knowle DGE.

The winning snowman came complete with a poem.

I keep my snowman in the freezer, just behind the pies

He likes it there, he told me so, I can see it in his eyes.

I made him on a cold, cold morning when snow was fresh and deep

Now he sits in the freezer by the fish we got so cheap.

I keep my snowman in the freezer, I look at him each day.

If I left him in the garden he would simply melt away.

But now he’s like my grandma, living somewhere safe and nice.

He’s in a frosty snowy place on a throne of coldest ice.

I keep my snowman in the freezer near a lump of frozen beef.

And I’ve got a treat for him in August: I’m taking him to Tenerife!

Having invited over 100 primary schools in the Bristol area to take part, it was slightly disappointing when only two decided to take up the challenge.  However, the snowmen were so appreciated by customers that we decided to award Knowle DGE £400 as well as Parson Street as an appreciation of their creativity and fantastic efforts.

Park Furnishers’ Marketing Manager Paul Marshall presenting a cheque for £400 to children of Parson Street Primary School in Bedminster.

The Park Furnishers Customer Christmas Party was a great success.  Approximately 1500 people attended over the 2 day event and it was thoroughly enjoyed by customers and staff alike.

Customers were greeted at the entrance by giant snowmen.

And then treated to free turkey rolls, champagne, bucks fizz, mince pies and mulled wine.

Between six o’clock and eight we were entertained by the award winning Great Western Chorus…

And even Elvis put in an appearance.

The front of the store was decorated as a snow scene and to add to the magic, the lift entrance was turned into a fireplace so that customers could ride up and down the chimney.

Even local schools took part with Parson Street Primary and Knowle DGE entering snowmen into the Park Furnishers Snowman Competition.

With free prize draws throughout the day and an extra 5% off sale prices, the Park Furnishers Customer Christmas Party was a fantastic way to start the Christmas celebrations.

www.parkfurnishers.co.uk

This year we thought it would be fun to hold a Garden Party to preview the Summer Sale.

We turned the front of the store into a garden, organised some drinks, strawberries and a hog roast and invited some customers to come and join in the fun.

We thought a few would come.

However, we were completely overwhelmed by the number of customers that turned up and made the event such a major success.

We estimate, by the amount of strawberries and cream that disappeared (And a thousand servings of hog roast), that between three and four thousand people came to the Garden Party over the two days.  The sheer volume of people turned Bristol’s largest furniture store  into what appeared to be Bristol’s largest social club.  We’re still not quite sure why the Garden Party captured the imagination of our customers to the extent it did, but it was a pleasure to give a little back to all those customers that continue to support us through difficult times.

The feedback we had back from customers was so positive that we are now considering making it an annual event.

And then. to cap it all…

Our balloon did a fly past.

A really big thank you to everyone who turned up and made the event so special.  And another big thank you to the friends of Park Furnishers who were press-ganged at the last minute to help serve food and drinks to the unprecedented number of people. And finally, an apology to anyone who had to wait a long time for food and drink or couldn’t find anywhere to park.  Next time we’ll be better prepared.

www.parkfurnishers.co.uk

A film crew from RDF Television were in store recently filming for the new Channel 4 TV show, The Renovation Game.

The show is hosted by Jonnie Irwin who is best known for his role on Place in the Sun.

The Renovation Game is the show where a crack team of builders and a designer put their own fees on the line if they fail to raise a property’s value.  They have just £3,000 and 3 days to work their magic and increase the value of the property by a whopping £15,000.  Succeed and they are paid handsomely for their work – fail and they leave with nothing (except their tool box!).

Before the team get to work three local estate agents value the property, returning after the work is complete to put the new value on it. Will the team have managed to hit that £15,000 target with their big ideas or will they be out of pocket?  Either way the homeowners are guaranteed winners!

The film crew came to Park Furnishers to choose a mirror from over 100 on display in the mirror gallery.

The five 60 minute shows are sheduled to be aired sometime this month (July 2011).

www.parkfurnishers.co.uk