By Sara Olkon Tribune staff reporter Published September 11, 2006, 11:17 PM CDT
Cradled by cornfields and long, quiet streets, Randy Gonigam's furniture store on U.S. Highway 34 in Kendall County is not a place folks usually go to gamble.
But 206 families who placed bets at World Furniture Mall over Labor Day weekend won payoffs after the Bears pounded the Green Bay Packers 26-0 in their season opener Sunday.
Gonigam had promised to refund the money spent in his Plano store that weekend—up to $10,000 a customer—if the Bears shut out Green Bay.
"It just doesn't happen," said Anthony Glover, a 45-year-old farm equipment operator from Aurora who was one of the winning customers. "The Packers have been beating us bad for 10 years." In fact, the Bears have been turning things around in the last couple of seasons and on Sunday they became the first team to hand Packers quarterback Brett Favre a shutout in his storied 16-year NFL career.
Although Gonigam noted in a pre-sale flier that he "could get sacked for a substantial loss," he protected himself in the pocket. Participating customers had to sign a contract stating the furniture could not be returned.
Gonigam also took out an insurance policy with Odds On Promotions, a prize indemnification company in Reno, Nev.. He would not say what he paid, but he was covered for up to $300,000 worth of furniture.
Mark Gilmartin, president of Odds On Promotions, said Gonigam paid "tens of thousands of dollars" to secure his odds, something the company tabulated by examining the two rivals' records and by counting the number of NFL shutouts in recent years. They said they did not take into account the game's odds, Bears by 3½.
Glover, a superstitious sports fan, would watch Sunday's game only in tiny spurts. He feared total attention would jinx his luck. With three minutes left in the fourth quarter, he was sick to his stomach and hung up on his brother-in-law, who'd called to prematurely congratulate him on his free $899 wood and tile kitchen table.
Once the game was over, Glover teased his wife for not buying an entire living room set as he'd encouraged.
"My wife could not make up her mind what color she wanted," he said with raised brow.
On Monday, Gonigam was giddy as he walked around his 50,000-square-foot showroom. His promotion was getting plenty of attention for the 5-year-old store, he said, with calls from CNN, MSNBC and local radio and television news stations in Illinois and Wisconsin.
"This is beyond our wildest dreams," said Gonigam, a "huge Bears fan" who wears a goatee and a toothy smile.
With the store closed for the night on Sunday, Gonigam and his warehouse and service manager watched the final quarter on a wide-screen television, reclining on a mocha microfiber sofa inside the showroom.
"Even though it was insured, it was a real odd feeling—$300,000 of furniture," he said.
After the game, he reprogrammed the store's answering machine to address questions from the winners.
A year ago, Gonigam lured customers to the store with a $20,000 Hyundai SUV giveaway. He got the idea for the newest promotion after reading an interview in which Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher bragged about the team's strong defense.
"As a Chicago sports fan, you get frustrated," he said. "I thought, 'Prove it.'"
Kathleen Spayer, 40, of Sugar Grove came into the store Monday to check on her winnings.
The psychotherapist and her husband won a $5,000 master bedroom set made of weathered wood.
"It's the luckiest year of my life," said Spayer, who is expecting her first child in February.
Richard Tolleson, 44, of North Aurora spent $1,500 for cherry wood book shelving and a pair of vertical files. The owner of a lawn company said he had no faith the Bears would prevent the Packers from scoring. After all, the Bears had not shut out an opposing team since they beat Detroit 24-0 on Dec. 30, 2001.
"I thought there was a better chance the Cubs would win the World Series," he said.
The win was perhaps most emotional for Ginny Weir.
A 57-year-old loan processor from Montgomery, Weir follows the Bears to feel close to her late husband. She said she had saved for a while so she could spend $500 on solid oak coffee and end tables.
On Sunday, she watched the game at home with her miniature poodle and her Yorkshire-bichon frise mix.
"When it got down to the last 2 minutes, I couldn't even sit," she said.
When the final whistle blew and the Bears had their shutout, she jumped up and down. Her little dogs quickly joined in, barking and running in circles.
"I think I cried," she said.
Click above image to see Randy on CNN
With Bears shutout, they get free stuff from Plano store
BY JILL JEDLOWSKI Daily Herald Staff Writer Posted Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Click Here! One pigskin has cleared the way for plenty of free cowhide in suburban living rooms.
Roughly 150 shoppers will be reimbursed for leather sofas, china cabinets, kitchen tables and beds bought during a wacky Labor Day promotion that unexpectedly paid off at World Furniture Mall in Plano.
They owe nothing, and they owe it all to the Chicago Bears, the Green Bay Packers and Randy Gonigam.
"We've been pretty busy. Lots of very happy customers have been calling us," said Gonigam, owner of World Furniture at 5606 W. Route 34.
The holiday ad promised that if the Bears kept the Packers scoreless Sunday, Gonigam would refund the cost of purchases made during Labor Day weekend.
Much to his awe and against steep odds, the Bears trampled the Packers, 26-0. It was the first time the legendary Brett Favre was shut out in his professional career.
Gonigam said he hatched the idea after reading some trash talk from the Bears' Brian Urlacher.
"I thought, 'I'm going to put my money where his mouth is,' " Gonigam said.
When the long shot actually came to fruition, he said the realization was surreal.
"It was the craziest feeling, knowing that all this money had to be returned," said Gonigam, who insured the promotion.
Phil Yates, the store's warehouse manager and a die-hard Packers fan, said the bonus for customers made the loss a little easier to swallow.
"I wasn't cheering for the Bears," he made clear. "But I'm loving the fact that the customers win on this one."
For shopper Kris Lodwig of Sugar Grove, the win was a godsend. She and her husband, who are in the process of adopting a child, had been watching sales ads for a good deal on a bunk bed and some drawers. They thought the recent prices - $1,100 in all - at World Furniture were the best they'd get.
Turns out 100 percent off beats all other discounts.
"She's already our lucky star," Lodwig said of their future daughter.
And if possible, she loves the Bears just a little more.
"I was born into a family of Chicago Bears fans, but starting now, we are even bigger fans," Lodwig said.
The promotion covers purchases made and paid for in full Sept. 1-4. The money will be returned the way it was received, by either financing, credit card or cash/check. Household refunds were capped at $10,000.
In all, about $275,000 is expected to be paid out. Notifications will be made in seven to 10 days.
When Wayne Casper of Yorkville kicks back to watch games on Sundays from now on, he'll do so from the comfort of his new, complimentary leather family room set, which was delivered during Sunday's fateful game .
In all, his family netted $5,000 in free furniture.
"My wife kept reminding me about the game," Casper said. "We didn't really think it would happen. We were pretty excited."
Football gamble pays off FREE FURNITURE OFFER
MICHAEL R. SCHMIDT/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Larry and Pat Feher of Plainfield display on Monday the copy of the promotion that gave them the free dining room table shown behind them from World Furniture Mart in Plano when the Bears shut out the Packers on Sunday.
By Janet Lundquist staff writer
When the Bears shut out the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, they earned more than a check in their win column.
They also earned some local residents a sweet return on their furniture investments.
Larry Feher of Plainfield thought the chances of getting his dining room table and chairs for free from World Furniture Mart on U.S. 34 in Plano were slim to none.
The store was running a promotion Labor Day weekend that offered customers refunds if the Bears handed the Packers a shutout in their season opener.
"I thought we would never win that. To shut out the Packers, I thought that was impossible," Feher said.
But he and his family watched Sunday as the store's promotion came to fruition.
Sure enough, the Bears posted a staggering 26-0 victory, handing Packer quarterback Brett Favre his first career shutout and ending the Packers' 233-game streak without a goose egg.
"As (the game) progressed, I was thinking I wish the Packers would have scored in the first quarter so I wouldn't be so nervous about it," Feher said. "It was the last quarter and time was running down and the Packers were on a drive, then the Bears shut them out. We all jumped up and down and shouted."
The couple got their $700 dining room set for free, paying only for shipping.
"My wife said, 'If I had known I was going to win the table, I would have bought the chest of drawers, too,'" Feher said.
After comparison shopping in the area, Mike and Karlyn Busdicker of Morris bought a $600 recliner at the store Labor Day weekend.
They didn't buy it with the hope of a refund. Even while watching the game Sunday, Mike said, the shutout didn't seem possible.
"I wasn't anticipating. I wasn't expecting it," he said.
$275,000 promotion
Store owner Randy Gonigam sat agog Sunday evening as the Bears pulled off the unthinkable — a feat worth about $275,000 to his Labor Day weekend customers.
Fortunately, Gonigam had purchased insurance with Odds-On Promotions, a company that specializes in prize reimbursement for such events as hole-in-one contests at golf outings or half-court shots at basketball games.
Gonigam came up with the idea for the promotion after hearing Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher boast that the team would have the No. 1 defense in the league this year.
"This was very much a spur of the moment idea," Gonigam said. "You want to do something that's fun and something that people can get excited about, and there's a real legitimate chance that it could happen."
Gonigam said the gamble paid off as the store did 30 percent more business Labor Day weekend than during the holiday weekend the previous year.
"It still felt awfully strange sitting there in the fourth quarter," Gonigam said. "Just knowing we would be giving back all this money to all these people."
Customers will be notified in the next week or two and will be asked to come to the store to receive their refunds.
- Matthew DeFour of The Beacon News contributed to this story.
The odds were clearly in World Furniture Mall owner, Randy Gonigam's, favor when the Chicago Bears took the field on Sunday against their arch rivals, the Green Bay Packers. But as the game went on, he was torn between his love for the Bears, and the fact that he was staring down the barrel of a $300,000.00 loss if the Bears did what was, by all odds, highly unlikely -- shutout the Packers in the season opener.
When it was all over, with the score 26 - 0, Mr. Gonigam knew it was time to face the music and make arrangements to cough up the money, in the form of refunds, to his customers.
It all began when Gonigam, a lifelong Chicago Bears football fan, came up with the idea to promote his Plano furniture store. "I was looking for a way to create some excitement -- both for my business, and for the Bears game opener. Looks like I got a bit more excitement than I bargained for."
Gonigam sent a mailer out to his customers for a Labor Day weekend sale, in which he stated that if the Bears shut out the Packers in the season opener, everyone who made a purchase at his store that weekend would receive their furniture for free. "People were pretty excited about the prospect of free furniture and it was a hot topic with our customers all weekend", Gonigam said, "but I don't think anyone really thought that it'd ever really happen. It's kind of like playing the lottery", he continued, "you may play faithfully, but you never really expect anyone you know to hit the jackpot -- let alone you!"
Gonigam predicted that this week is going to be a "crazy" one, with all those customers who made purchases at World Furniture Mall during the Labor Day weekend promotion calling and making arrangements for their refunds. "It's going to be a lot of fun seeing the expressions of everyone's faces as I hand them their money back. I don't think they'll really believe it until they actually have the money in their hands. I know I wouldn't." "Obviously, personally, I'm over the shock at this point," Gonigam said. "But I have to admit my head was really spinning during those last few minutes of the game on Sunday when it became apparent it would actually happen."
When asked if he'd ever do anything this risky again, Gonigam replied "Well, I guess I'll have to think about that. Who are the Bears playing next week?" Perhaps we'll just have to stay tuned. World Furniture Mall is an independently owned full-line furniture store located in Plano, Illinois and features one of the largest showrooms in the Greater Chicagoland Area.
PLANO, Ill. — Chicago Bears fan and furniture store owner Randy Gonigam is giving away $300,000 in furniture as a result of his team’s first shutout in five years.
Gonigam, who owns the midpriced World Furniture Mall in this suburb west of Chicago, ran a direct-mail based Labor Day promotion offering to cover consumer purchases — up to $10,000 each — made during the weekend if pro football’s Bears managed to shut out the Green Bay Packers in their season opener Sunday.
Click here!
The mailer featured a flattened Packer and Gonigam saying, “I could get sacked for a substantial loss, while you score $10,000 in free furniture!”
The Bears won 26-0, blanking Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre for the first time in his 16-year professional career.
Some 206 customers of this 50,000-square-foot store will get refunds for about $300,000 in buys.
Gonigam said he got the idea after hearing one on the Bears players bragging about having one of the NFL’s best defenses.
“They made that same statement during the playoffs last year and got slaughtered by Carolina,” he said.
This time, Gonigam decided he’d put his money where the player’s mouth was. The result was a 38% increase in business over the same holiday weekend a year ago.
A portion of giveback was insured through Odds On Promotions, but Gonigam wouldn’t say how much. He estimated that the store — which is open Friday through Monday and closed the rest of the week — will break even for the long weekend.
But that doesn’t begin to tell the story of the successful promotion. The post-holiday publicity has been tremendous, he said. In the days following the game, Gonigam was interviewed all the top Chicago radio and television stations. His story was in the local papers and on CNN and MSNBC. The United Kingdom’s version of “Good Morning America” plans a story, he said.
“We’re not only national, we’ve gone international. You can’t buy that kind of publicity,” he said, adding that the store will “be reaping the benefits for years to come.”
When Gonigam came up with the idea, he said he was looking for a Labor Day promotion that would be “the difference maker” for consumers. He figured a shutout was a long shot, but the kind of thing Chicago football fans could latch onto, especially since it was a season opener with a longtime rival.
“Bears fans are able to convince themselves of about anything before the season starts,” Gonigam said.
9:15am Kathy & Judy: Kathy talks with Randy Gonigam, owner of the World Furniture Mall in Plano, IL. They did a promotion over Labor Day weekend that, if the Bears shut out the Packers, they'd give a full refund to anyone who purchased over Labor Day weekend. The Bears won and so did the shoppers! The store will refund almost $300,000. Thank goodness Randy bought an insurance plan!
CHICAGO (AP) - It all started with a little trash-talking.
Randy Gonigam, a Kendall County furniture store owner and "huge Bears fan," got tired of players bragging about their defense, so he decided to put his money on it.
Over Labor Day weekend, Gonigam's World Furniture Mall in Plano offered customers free furniture - up to $10,000 - if the Chicago Bears shut out the Green Bay Packers in their season opener.
Four quarters, 206 customers and about $300,000 later, Gonigam is still a little shell-shocked.
"This is beyond our wildest dreams," he said.
The Bears blanked the Packers 26-0 Sunday, ending Green Bay's 233-game scoring streak and giving Brett Favre the first shutout of his 16-year NFL career.
The idea that it was a long shot didn't keep him from insuring the store for up to $300,000 worth of furniture with a company that specializes in insuring prize reimbursements.
Gonigam got the idea to offer full refunds over Labor Day weekend after hearing Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher brag that the team would have the best defense in the NFL this year.
"As a Chicago sports fan, you get frustrated," he said. "I thought, 'Prove it."'
Customer and expectant mother Kathleen Spayer, 40, went back into the store Monday to make sure her $5,000 master bedroom suite was really free.
"It's the luckiest year of my life," she said.
Plano is about 45 miles southwest of Chicago.
CHICAGO -- It all started with a little trash-talking.
Over Labor Day weekend, Gonigam's World Furniture Mall in Plano offered customers free furniture -- up to $10,000 -- if the Chicago Bears shut out the Green Bay Packers in their season opener.
POSTED: 11:39 am CDT September 12, 2006 UPDATED: 2:23 pm CDT September 12, 2006 Email This Story | Print This Story PLANO, Ill. -- The huge shutout victory by the Chicago Bears on Sunday turned into a huge windfall for some lucky fans.
At World Furniture Mall over Labor Day weekend, 206 customers took an unusual bet on the Bears.
The owner of the Plano store promised that any customers who bought furniture during the promotion would get it free if the Bears shutout the Packers.
The team came through, and so did the furniture store. Customers returned to the store for their refunds. About $300,000 worth of furniture was given away, free and clear.
"I was reading about the Bears in the paper, and they were talking about how great their defense was going to be, and I thought it would be fun to tie something to that," the store owner said.
The storeowner did play it smart. He had the promotion insured beforehand, just in case.
Bears shutout costs furniture store $200,000
By Matthew DeFour Sun-times news group
PLANO — If Brett Favre had bought a La-Z-Boy at World Furniture Mall here over Labor Day Weekend, it might help explain why the hall-of-fame-bound quarterback took such a beating Sunday against the Chicago Bears.
The furniture store on Route 34 west of Plano promised that if the Bears shut out the Green Bay Packers in the season opener at Lambeau Field, Labor Day weekend shoppers would get their furniture for free.
Sure enough, the Bears posted a staggering 26-0 victory, handing Favre his first career shutout and ending the Packers' 233-game streak without a goose egg.
Store owner Randy Gonigam sat agog Sunday evening as the Bears pulled off the unthinkable — a feat worth about $275,000 to his Labor Day Weekend customers.
Gonigam came up with the idea for the promotion after hearing Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher boast that the team would have the No. 1 defense in the league this year. "Yeah," he remembered thinking. "I've heard this before."
"This was very much a spur of the moment idea," Gonigam said. "You want to do something that's fun and something that people can get excited about and there's a real legitimate chance that it could happen."
Gonigam said the gamble paid off as the store did 30 percent more business over the recent holiday weekend than over last year's Labor Day weekend, possibly thanks to direct mailers advertising the sale and a 30-foot inflatable football outside the store.
Customers will be notified in the next week or two and will be asked to come to the store to receive their refund.
Yorkville resident Wayne Casper was watching the game Sunday when the furniture delivery crew coincidentally dropped off his new leather chair and sofa, kitchen table and china cabinet — a $5,000 purchase from the previous weekend.
With the Bears up 16-0 at halftime, one of the delivery men reminded him about the promotion. Though Casper thought he had a shot at the prize, "I pretty much held my breath until 30 seconds left in the fourth quarter."
"I didn't expect it to happen," Casper said. "I mean what are the chances?"
Sugar Grove resident Kris Lodwig couldn't believe she won a bunk bed for her 9-year-old daughter until she called the store Monday morning to verify that the deal was legit.
When she purchased the furniture over Labor Day Weekend, she was only looking for a good deal and wasn't fazed by the special football promotion.
"Of course we thought it was a long shot," Lodwig said.
Now she plans to reinvest the $1,100 at the store to finish furnishing her daughter's bedroom, which, if plans to adopt a child from China work out, will also be home for a new member of the family.
As for football, Lodwig said she hasn't followed the Bears since rooting for the 1985 Super Bowl champions as a college student.
"I think we'll be huge Bears fans now," Lodwig said.
POSTED: 10:17 a.m. EDT, September 12, 2006 Adjust font size: Decrease fontDecrease font Enlarge fontEnlarge font
CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- It all started with a little trash-talking.
Over Labor Day weekend, Gonigam's World Furniture Mall in Plano offered customers free furniture -- up to $10,000 -- if the Chicago Bears shut out the Green Bay Packers in their season opener. Plano is about 45 miles southwest of Chicago.
Four quarters, 206 customers and about $300,000 later, Gonigam is still a little shell-shocked. "This is beyond our wildest dreams," he said. (Watch how the business owner avoided getting sacked -- 1:35)
"As a Chicago sports fan, you get frustrated," he said. "I thought, 'Prove it.' "
"It's the luckiest year of my life," Spayer said.
Chicago Bears sack furniture dealer
PLANO, Ill., Sept. 12 (UPI) -- The Chicago Bears have cost an Illinois furniture dealer $300,000 by pulling off a shutout in their opening game against their NFL archrival Green Bay Packers.
Randy Gonigam told his World Furniture Mall customers if the remarkable happened -- a shutout in the season-opener -- all of their Labor Day purchases would be free and money paid refunded.
Yet the lifetime Bears fan was stunned when the Packers fell 26-0 to the Bears Sunday.
"I was looking for a way to create some excitement -- both for my business, and for the Bears game opener," Gonigam told Furniture World magazine. "Looks like I got a bit more excitement than I bargained for."
He said he would honor all refunds as long as customers showed up with receipts, and said he wouldn't rule out trying the stunt again, the magazine said.
"Well, I guess I'll have to think about that. Who are the Bears playing next week?" he said.
The Bears next play the Detroit Lions, who managed just six points in their NFL opener.
Posted September 12, 2006
Bears' win means free furniture for many
Monday 'wild and so much fun' after Illinois store's promotion
By Tony Walter Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers
GREEN BAY — A gimmick turned into a gusher Sunday when the Chicago Bears won both a football game and almost $300,000 in furniture for their fans at the same time.
The World Furniture Mall in Plano, Ill., used a Labor Day weekend sale to advertise that any furniture purchased that weekend would be free if the Bears shut out the Green Bay Packers on Sunday.
Guess what?
"We're kind of battered and bruised today, just like Green Bay," store owner Randy Gonigan said Monday, 24 hours after the Bears' 26-0 victory. "It was my idea, just a spontaneous thing. The Bears talked about how this could be their year so I thought it might be kind of fun to capitalize on it."
Gonigan protected himself with insurance, but was already pleased when the Labor Day business was up 40 percent over a year ago. The store is about 60 miles west of downtown Chicago.
"There's still a substantial out-of-pocket cost for us but the goodwill will far outweigh that," said Gonigan, who said Monday was "wild and so much fun."
Gonigan watched the game from home and saw the shutout unfolding.
"By the start of the fourth quarter I figured it would be a shutout even though we got away with a blatant pass interference" against Robert Ferguson, Gonigan said.
Gonigan said the Labor Day customers were flocking into the store all day to settle up, although it might take a week to get all the paperwork finished.
Greg Ernst, owner of Van Vreede Appliance and Furniture in Green Bay and Appleton, laughed when he heard the news.
"You've got to be kidding me," Ernst said. "That's incredible."
Ernst said Van Vreede had a successful sales program several years ago, promising to give away furniture to August customers if the Packers won their first five games. The winning streak never happened, but Ernst said the sales pitch generated a lot of business.
Gonigan sympathized with frustrated Packer fans.
"Hang in there, we've all been through it," he said.
CHICAGO — Screams of jubilation heard from Bears fans late Sunday afternoon might have been loudest in the far western suburbs.
That’s because 206 people realized that the Bears’ seasonopening 26-0 shutout of the Green Bay Packers meant that all the furniture they had bought at a Plano, Ill., store over the Labor Day weekend was free.
Their good fortune was part of a Labor Day promotion by Randy Gonigam, owner of World Furniture Mall, a spacious furniture store amid acres of cornfields in rural Kendall County.
A self-proclaimed "huge Bears fan," Gonigam offered to pick up the tab for any furniture purchased over the holiday weekend if the Bears shut out the Packers.
Needless to say, Gonigam paid extra-close attention Sunday, viewing the afternoon contest from a recliner in his store.
"I was watching the game very intently," he said today as he honored the receipts on sofas, ottomans and livingroom sets.
Among those cashing in were Catherine Spayre, 40, of Sugar Grove, who bought $5,000 worth of furniture, and Anthony Glover, a 45-year-old farm equipment operator, who said he would’ve bought more than just a $900 kitchen table if his wife wasn’t so frugal.
Gonigam, who gave away a $20,000 car during a promotion last year, said he got the idea for this latest promotion after reading an article quoting linebacker Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher on his confidence in the team’s defense.
A longtime Chicago sports fan, Gonigam said he thought to himself, "OK, prove it."
But don’t feel too bad for Gonigam, as he was insured for up to $300,000 in furniture sales over the three days. The policy also had a cap of $10,000 per person.
Late into the Labor Day weekend, as sales for the three days were creeping up to the $300,000 level, Gonigam was prepared to shut down the store.
Heavy rains bailed him out, since few shoppers showed up in the downpour.
The store, on U.S. Rt.34, has a 70,000-square-foot showroom and distribution center and is open only Friday through Monday. On its Web site it claims, "Open 4 So You Save More."
As for the Bears, who were only 3 1 /2-point favorites going into Sunday’s game against their archrivals, they did their part, handing future Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre the first shutout of his 16-year NFL career.
The shutout was an anomaly for both teams. It had been 233 games since the Packers were last held scoreless. The Bears had not shut out a team in 69 games. They beat the Detroit Lions 24-0 on Dec. 30, 2001.
The Bears’ opponent next week? The Lions.
So will Gonigam repeat the gimmick? The store owner, despite enjoying today’s publicity, wasn’t sure.
"It’s too soon to plan the next one," he said sheepishly.
CHICAGO - Screams of jubilation heard from Bears fans late Sunday afternoon might have been the loudest in the far western suburbs.
That's because 206 people realized that the Bears' season-opening 26-0 shutout of the Green Bay Packers meant that all the furniture they had bought at a Plano, Ill., store during the Labor Day weekend was free.
A self-proclaimed "huge Bears fan," Gonigam offered to pick up the tab for any furniture purchased during the holiday weekend if the Bears shut out the Packers.
Needless to say, Gonigam paid extra-close attention on Sunday, viewing the afternoon contest from a recliner in his store.
"I was watching the game very intently," he said today as he honored the receipts on sofas, ottomans and living-room sets bought by lucky shoppers.
Among those cashing in were Catherine Spayre, 40, of Sugar Grove, who bought $5,000 worth of furniture, and Anthony Glover, a 45-year-old farm equipment operator, who said he would have bought more than just a $900 kitchen table if his wife was not so frugal.
Gonigam, who gave away a $20,000 car during a promotion last year, said he got the idea of this latest promotion after reading an article quoting Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher on his confidence in the team's defense.
But don't feel too bad for Gonigam, as he was insured for up to $300,000 in furniture sales during the three days.
The policy also had a cap of $10,000 per person.
By late into the Labor Day weekend, as sales for the three days were creeping up to the $300,000 level, Gonigam was prepared to shut down the store. Heavy rains bailed him out as few shoppers showed up in the downpour.
As for the Bears, who were only 31/2-point favorites going into Sunday's game against their arch rivals, they did their part, handing future Hall-of-Fame quarterback Brett Favre the first shutout of his 16-year NFL career.
The shutout actually was an anomaly for both teams. It had been 233 games since the Packers were last held scoreless. The Bears had not shut out a team in 69 games, when they beat the Detroit Lions 24-0 on Dec. 30, 2001.
The Bears' opponent next week? The Lions.