You need the furniture but lust for the fancy TV

Retailers learn that the way to a customer's couch is through their remote

It was just the other morning that my wife, Julie, while watching a television commercial, said (something like): "You can't buy a piece of furniture these days without the store shoving a TV at you, too."

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Although this conversation took place in the privacy of our bedroom, editors at the Boston Globe apparently overheard, because this morning they have a story about the phenomenon:

Buy a sofa, love seat, rug, and tables at Jordan's Furniture this week, and get a 65-inch Mitsubishi TV, and a 22-inch Sharp TV, not to mention a Callaway golf club - all for $2,299. It's Jordan's fourth such television-furniture offer in the past seven months.

Rival chains - including Bernie & Phyl's and Cardi's Furniture - have fired back with their own promotions using TVs to spark sales, and the competition is heating up as the Super Bowl draws near.

"It's ludicrous,'' responds Bob Kaufman, owner of Bob's Discount Furniture, one furniture retailer who is not playing along. He took his complaints to the airwaves, launching his own radio spot in mid-December: "If you want pizza, go to a pizza shop. If you want a TV, go to an electronics store. And lo and behold if you want furniture, you should go to a furniture store.''

Stow the counterpoints, Bob, because you're not going to win this fight using anything that doesn't plug into a wall.

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