Give The IU Delta Chis Their Lawn Chairs Or Give Them Death

Jared Borislow9 years ago

Yesterday, I brought you all the story of how Indiana University’s Delta Chi chapter purchased over $1 million worth of lawn chairs for $30 from Midwest home improvement superstore Menards. I’ve been eagerly awaiting an update ever since, and we finally have it.

First update: It turns out the fraternity actually purchased 4,200 chairs, not the initially reported 3,000. This brings their purchase price up from $30 to $54, and the retail price of their chairs they purchased up from $1,074,000 to $1,503,600 — over half a million dollars.

Second update: If Menards has its way, none of that will matter — they have rejected the IU Delta Chi’s order, claiming the item listed for $0.01, a Backyard Creations Hattington Chat Chair in Tamara Paisley, was merely “a figment of the computer’s imagination.” Menards then issued a full $54 refund on the $1.5 million value order.

What a terrible PR move from Menards. Not only was the notification of rejection email that was sent out to all lawn chair purchasers riddled with spelling errors and improper grammar, but Menards rejection of this purchase order is literally the same thing as them stealing from charity. IU Delta Chi Treasurer Fikki Sadykhov explained why to WISH-TV.

“We already had pre-orders set locally and were working on selling these chairs to hotels, nursing homes, and other residency companies at an incredible discount to them. In all, we were hoping to use the proceeds to contribute at least $100,000 to the Jimmy V Foundation, although we expected much more than that,” [fraternity treasurer Fikki Sadykhov] said.

Menards, if you aren’t going to stand by this order, the least you can do is cut out a fat check to the Jimmy V Foundation to make up for the money they won’t be getting due to this whole fiasco. If you do that, we will all forgive you..

[via WISH-TV]