Jordan's Furniture
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Jordan's Furniture | |
 |
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| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1918 |
| Headquarters | Avon, Massachusetts |
| Key people | Eliot and Barry Tatelman |
| Industry | Furniture retailers |
| Products | Furniture, Bedding, Mattresses |
| Revenue | Private |
| Website | www.jordans.com |
Jordan's Furniture is a prominent furniture retailer in eastern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire, with locations in Reading, Avon, and Natick, Massachusetts and Nashua, New Hampshire. It was started by Samuel Tatelman in 1918 in Waltham, Massachusetts, later taken over by his son Edward Tatelman and, in the 1970s, by his grandsons, Eliot and Barry Tatelman. In October 1999, the Tatelman brothers sold the company to investment firm Berkshire Hathaway. The Waltham store closed in 2004 the day the new Reading store opened. Their stores are noted for featuring major attractions, including the Motion Odyssey Movie (MOM) ride in Avon, free cookies and no sales tax in Nashua, NH and two of Massachusetts' four IMAX theatres in Reading and Natick, run in conjunction with Comcast. The Natick store also features a Mardi Gras theme and show as well as a Kelly's Roast Beef restaurant, a Bose high fidelity audio store, and a large tank aquarium in the restaurant. The Reading store features a Jelly Belly theme in an area called Beantown, containing a Fuddruckers Restaurant, a Liquid Fireworks show, a Trapeze School, a Jelly Belly store, and a branch of Richardson's Ice Cream.
In 2005, the warehouse underneath the Avon store was converted into the Colossal Clearance Center, containing over 60,000 square feet of clearance merchandise.
The Tatelman brothers still represent the public face of the company and have become pop culture icons in southern New England due to their commercials spoofing major national or international advertising campaigns. The origins of the name of the company are uncertain, and the brothers have speculated that their grandfather chose the name out of a hat.
Jordan Marsh, a prominent Boston furniture store, sued Jordan's Furniture for trademark infringement and as part of the settlement Jordan's Furniture were required to add the note in their commercials "Not to be confused with Jordan Marsh."
Barry Tatelman left Jordan's Furniture in December 2006, according to the Boston Globe,
to pursue other interests such as helping to produce a Broadway show "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels", starring actor John Lithgow. . . . Besides Broadway, Barry Tatelman will dabble in Hollywood; he is a principal of a new film company called "Filmshop" and he is working on a TV series, according to a Jordan's press release.
[edit] References
"Barry Tatelman leaves Jordan's Furniture", Boston Globe, 2006-12-21. Retrieved on 2007-01-16.
