With everything else Jordan’s Furniture does right — from top-notch display to exemplary service to creative entertainment most people never would expect from a furniture store — it could be easy to overlook one more thing the retailer does better than most.
While it wasn’t as formal or as organized as it is today, Jordan’s support of Boston and other area charities is as old as the business started 86 years ago by Barry and Eliot Tatelman’s grandfather. The Tatelmans sold their four-store chain in 1999 to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, but they remain its leaders — spiritual and business — and have kept that spirit of giving alive.
“This wasn’t necessarily a business decision but a human decision,” said Heather Cope-las, Jordan’s director of public relations and the person responsible for organizing all of the retailer’s charitable efforts.
“Barry and Eliot were taught very early on that it was the right thing to do — that if you can, it’s the right thing to give to other people that don’t have as much.”
In those early days … “the sheer volume wasn’t anything close to what the retailer deals with daily today,” she said. But as Jordan’s has grown so has its outreach. “The more successful you are, the more you have the opportunity to give back to the community and area charities.”
Jordan’s won’t disclose how much it has raised for various charities over the years, but Furniture/Today estimates it’s in the millions of dollars.
And there have been countless beneficiaries — including The American Cancer Society, American Red Cross, March of Dimes, Big Brother/Big Sister programs, Boys & Girls Clubs and local adoption services. Copelas couldn’t say exactly how many organizations Jordan’s has supported but she knows it is in the hundreds.
The retailer’s outreach effort took a significant step forward on Mother’s Day in 1992, when it opened MOM — the Motion Odyssey Movie — at its flagship Avon store. Among other things, Jordan’s hoped the $2.5 million, 48-seat movie/thrill ride would give a boost to business, while providing a level of “shoppertainment” its customers had never seen before. It charged $3 a head and all proceeds after operating expenses went to charity, starting with the AIDS Action Committee.
While MOM is showing her age today — up against the competition of newer Jordan’s creations, including two giant IMAX theaters — it set in motion the concept of a permanent in-store community outreach.
“MOM was one of the first, formal programs in place that was a vehicle for (continual) fundraising, and it became almost a prototype for us for future stores,” Copelas said.
After installing MOM, the Tatelmans opened their fourth store in Natick, Mass. The Bourbon Street-themed showroom features a “Streetcar Named Dessert,” where all proceeds go to charities such as Project Bread, which feeds the area’s hungry; The United Way; and the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
And in the new 160,000-square-foot store that Jordan’s opened up last year in Reading, Mass., the retailer included a Duck Tour Race carnival game. At $1 a head, up to 12 players roll balls into holes on a board to advance their tour boats in hopes of winning the prize — a stuffed yellow duck. The game has been a big hit since the opening, raising money for the Boston Red Sox Foundation’s Jimmy Fund, which benefits kids with cancer.
Now Jordan’s has ongoing charitable activities in all but its Nashua, N.H., store, where space is limited.
Everyday, Copelas is inundated with requests from every type of charity imaginable — church and school organizations, New England charities, even national organizations. Jordan’s has set up some “filters” to narrow the focus to key issues of concern for the retailer, but even with that, “I say “no” more times than I want every single day,” she said.
For starters, Jordan’s tries to keep its outreach local by pegging 90% or more of its support to the communities in which it has stores and the surrounding areas. That way it’s helping the communities that have supported Jordan’s all these years.
The second major filter is Jordan’s emphasis on groups that help with financial hardship, health issues and children — the latter perhaps being closest to the Tatelmans’ hearts, partly because they love kids and partly because children in need are among the most vulnerable and can’t help themselves.
Indeed, the adoption events that Jordan’s regularly sponsors are among its most successful outreach programs and the ones for which the Tatelmans seem most proud.
Often held at Jordan’s stores, the adoption and foster care events bring social workers together with potential families in a fun atmosphere. They include workshops where interested prospective parents can learn more about what’s involved in adopting and foster care — taking a complicated process and making it more user-friendly, Copelas said.
In the years that Jordan’s and the Tatelmans have been sponsoring these events, more than 120 children have been placed into homes.
“That for us is a very, very big deal,” Copelas said. “To change the lives of those children and those 120 families, to be able to help in that way makes it all worthwhile.”
In addition to the permanent fundraising vehicles and special events such as the adoption parties, Jordan’s has come up with many other creative ways to give back, involving its employees in the process:
Jordan’s is not alone in its fervor for community service. Other companies, including furniture stores, have active outreach efforts — sometimes called cause-marketing programs. But Jordan’s doesn’t look at its efforts as cause marketing, Copelas said.
Indeed, the retailer rarely puts out a press release out about what it’s doing, she said. “I’d say 60% to 70% of the philanthropy we do, most people don’t know about.
“The main reason why we do give back to the community is we see that as something we should be doing as a primary business in the area, not because of the exposure it gives you.”
Not that there aren’t such benefits. Copelas said there is no doubt Jordan’s outreach work elevates its image locally. The store has received letters and feedback from consumers who say they’re thankful for Jordan’s charitable work and prefer to shop at a store that gives back.
The magnitude of that consumer sentiment is hard to measure.
“But there’s a silent majority,” she said. “You never really know what people are thinking.”