Beautiful bedroom furniture at reasonable prices.
You looked all over Houston...
If you grew up in Houston from the 1980s
until now, you're going to know who Gallery Furniture is.
Gallery furniture will save you money!
You're gonna know that's Mattress Mack.
If your mattress is older than 10 years old...
If you live in Houston, you 100% know who Mattress Mack is.
At Gallery Furniture, we maintain a huge fleet
of unmarked furniture delivery vehicles.
Ask anybody who Mattress Mack is.
I've known it since I was a little kid.
Look, Ma, no hands! Come out to Gallery Furniture.
Try out our tremendous selection of power recliners.
Gallery saves you money!
He saves you money.
[ Both laugh ]
He has this motto. It's called Living is Giving.
-We want Mack! -We want Mack!
We want Mack!
Gallery Furniture will save you money!
♪♪
Thank you.
My name is Jim McIngvale.
I'm here at Gallery Furniture in Houston, Texas.
Been here for 39 years and nothing has changed.
-It's good to see you. -Nice to see you. Thank you.
Furniture buying's got to be fun,
not -- not like going to the dentist.
There's my movie poster. You see it?
I met Chuck Norris years ago.
We helped sponsor his Kick Drugs Out of America program.
It was a great experience with Chuck,
but the movie business was too tough for me.
This is a piece of solid wood furniture
that's actually an old bubinga tree.
This is the only thing in the store older than me.
All the different rings show different years
and different happenings around the world.
The business started in 1981 when my wife, Linda, and I
came in with $5,000. That was our total seed capital.
We had very little inventory, so we slept here
the first two or three months. We couldn't afford
to have anybody steal the inventory.
And then the small business got a little bigger,
then got a little bigger, then got to this.
Former President Bush and Mrs. Bush,
I was very close to them. They're great people.
My wife and I used to sponsor tennis tournaments all the time
and they always came to those.
Furniture is an item that everybody needs,
so it's a good product.
I've always liked furniture.
♪♪
I grew up in Dallas, and there was a guy
there named Art Grindle.
I'm Artie Grindle.
Tropic Traveler Vans is my business.
And he would jump up and down on top of his used car
saying, "I want to sell you a car."
I want to sell you a van.
He was very successful.
I think it's great to have a shtick,
and that's my shtick -- Mattress Mack.
Hi, folks. This is Mattress Mack.
I'd like to talk to you about one quarter of your life,
six hours a night you spend in bed.
I took the last $10,000 I had
and bet it all on television advertising
and stuttering so much, I hadn't made the commercials.
"So, guys, you got one more take."
I did my 25-second furniture commercial,
and at the end of the commercial,
I said, "And Gallery Furniture will save you money!"
And that's my -- been my slogan ever since.
They're all on sale right now. Gallery saves you money!
Gallery Furniture will save you money!
♪♪
When my wife and I got to Houston from Dallas,
nobody asked us how much money we had.
Nobody asked us what our background was
or where I went to college, all over Houston,
all over Texas, said to me was,
"Kid, here's a chance for you -- a chance to succeed,
a chance to fail. It's totally up to you.
How bad do you want to do it?"
Remember, free delivery saves you money!
Saves you money.
Here's NBA star Clyde Drexler and Mack
from Gallery Furniture.
I'm the fastest man alive.
-No, I'm the fastest. -Okay, guys,
for the last time, no more running in here.
At Gallery Furniture, we believe in family,
we believe in America, and we believe in home.
♪♪
I think it's important to understand
that life is not about take, take, take,
it's about give, too.
The line stretched
around the building to get a warm meal inside.
Part of my obligation is to set an example
for those younger business people out there
that this is part of our obligation
is to help out those less fortunate than us.
My father was a giver, even when he didn't have money to give,
so he taught me that the essence of living is giving,
and that's part of what I do.
Folks, if know of a family
with a special situation that could use
a new house full of furniture,
please write to me, Mack, at Gallery Furnitures.
One of these days I'mma leave this world
and when I go up there and see the creator,
whoever he or she may be,
they're not going to ask me "How much money did you make?"
They will ask me, "How much of a difference did you make?"
So to me that's an obligation.
One of the things that Mattress Mack is best known for
is his reaction to Hurricane Harvey.
Jim McIngvale, he opened his doors,
the doors of his store to victims of Hurricane Harvey.
Hurricane Harvey hit,
and we all got through it together.
Sorry about what you guys went through.
We're going to help you with the house full of furniture here
and hope things get better for you.
One thing you'll hear Mattress Mack say frequently
is that he's part capitalist, part social worker.
In our warehouse, we've got a range of people
of all different backgrounds
who I grew up working with from the time I was 13.
What's up, fellas? How are y'all?
All the employees who work in the warehouse
are welcome to free breakfast, free lunch, free dinner.
And here we have our gym where everyone can come
and work out completely for free while they're on the clock.
We now also have a preschool that's 100% free,
a high school that's completely free
and then also a trade school for adults.
We currently have 146 high school students
and 55 adults that join us in the evening for trade classes.
We have pre-K 3 and pre-K 4.
We're meeting some of our zero- to four-year-olds who are here.
We need to keep in mind this is still a furniture store.
It has now evolved into a one-stop-shop community center
that happens to sell furniture.
So it really is a furniture store.
Welcome to Gallery Furniture. [ Chuckles ]
♪♪
Another thing you'll notice as you go over
on the North Freeway Gallery Furniture
are the quotes all over the walls,
and so we call them Mattress Mack-isms.
I think it's great to be involved in the community,
whatever you do. And I've been here
for these real people for 40 years now,
so I know what -- what the issues are.
Any 14- to 26-year-olds that are interested
in receiving their high school diploma
can come to Premier High School
to not just work on the academic front,
but also their trade and get a job all in one fell swoop.
A lot of these people that come in here, unfortunately,
are third- and fourth-generation welfare.
We've got to break the cycle and get them to work.
And once they get that job, they say, "Man, I can do this,
I can do this, I can do this," and they just blossom.
♪♪
Thank you, guys. Have a good day.
Nice to see you. I stand here all day and talk to customers.
That's my whole life.
I talk to the salespeople, see how they're doing.
People walk in and they see me, they -- they feel safe
because they recognize a familiar face.
Anybody can walk in the front door,
you'll see him standing at the front desk 10-plus hours a day,
seven days a week.
He gives out his cellphone number
on every Facebook live we do.
It's on the back of his business cards.
He will tell the ladies who help to pick up the phone,
there are cashiers or work in the service department,
"I take every phone call, don't screen my calls."
Work his life's greatest therapy.
That's my philosophy in life.
And I'm gonna die right up there at the front desk.