Get Your Free Furniture

In contracts law, there is a line of cases about strange and interesting sales promotions that help to illustrate the principle of offer and acceptance.  Keith Rowley’s article, You Asked For It, You Got It . . . Toy Yoda:  Practical Jokes, Prizes, and Contract Law, 3 Nev. L. J. 526 (2005), contains many such bizarre and humorous examples.  Today’s news headlines, provide another example for the file.  From CNN.com:

Randy Gonigam, a Kendall Countyfurniture 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.

Plano is about 45 miles southwest of  Chicago. 

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.

[Hat tip: Gerald Caplan (Pacific-McGeorge)]