Park Furnishers Blog

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