Tornado Sale

Richard did.

Richard was living an absolute nightmare … over 15 years he had carefully built up a small chain of hifi audio equipment stores across Minnesota that he called the Sound of Music … he’d mortgaged his house to start the chain and invested his life saving … but now here he was staring at a pile of rubble … with little warning a tornado had hit Roseville and destroyed Richard’s best and biggest store … the roof was gone and interior demolished .. thankfully no one was seriously hurt … but things looked bad financially for Richard … if there was a silver lining it was that the storeroom where they kept much of the inventory was untouched ... now Richard had to figure out what to do.

Well they cleaned up as best they could and put on a “tornado” sale … they took the little money they had left and heavily advertised the sale promoting the best prices buyers could find anywhere.

The sale was a massive hit .. Richard sold more in 4 days then he did in a month … and he realized … maybe he should change his business model … buying more product and advertising heavily … and that’s what he did … oh and he changed the name too.

Today, Richard’s chain that he started 50 years ago and originally called The Sound of Music has over 1,000 locations worldwide, over 125,000 employees and $40 billion in sales … and its named after what Richard advertised a customer could find at that tornado disaster sale … a Best Buy.

Best Buy is a great idea … because when disaster strikes never give up … you never know … things might just turn out for the best.