Lewis & Clark Bets on White Christmas

Darrell Potts has come up with a unique idea.

If it snows two inches on Christmas day, everything his customers purchased at Lewis & Clark Outfitters from Nov. 17 to Dec. 18 will be free. All they have to do is come in with a sales receipt for a refund during January.

Potts, 33, who spent 10 years in the advertising business, said he came up with the idea as a fun way to generate interest in the store, which almost straddles the line between Springdale and Fayetteville. (The store is officially in Springdale. The parking lot is in Fayetteville.)

Potts said he had heard of jewelry stores that offered 50 percent refunds on wedding rings if it rained on the couple’s wedding day. But Lewis & Clark is offering a 100 percent refund if the National Weather Service measures two inches of snow that falls on Dec. 25 at the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport in Highfill.

“It won’t hurt us at all,” Potts said. “We’ve got it insured. I’d actually be happy if the customers got everything for free. That would be fun.”

When asked how much that might cost the insurance company, Potts said, “It wouldn’t be as much as a million bucks.”

Potts said it has snowed two inches in Northwest Arkansas on Christmas day twice in the last 25 years, so “it’s kind of hard to figure the odds.”

Lewis & Clark is a family business owned by Potts, his wife Teena and father, Jim Potts, who owned the Crossroads Video chain until he sold it three years ago.

Darrell Potts owned Adworks, an advertising agency in Little Rock, for five years before returning to run Lewis & Clark, which opened in September 2000.

Potts said the company predicted Lewis & Clark would bring in $2.5 million in sales for 2001, but sales are “way over that” at this point. Potts said sales since mid-November (when the Christmas snow promotion began) are up 40 percent over last year’s numbers. If things continue to go well through the winter, Potts said, the family may open a second store and eventually a chain of Lewis & Clark stores.

Lewis & Clark has a bicycle shop, climbing wall, camping section, shoe section, and men’s and women’s clothing departments.

But the “core product” of the 20,000-SF outdoor sporting goods store is socks, Potts said. He predicted the store would sell 500 pairs of high-tech socks during the first week of December. Lewis & Clark is one of the top three sellers nationwide of Smart Wool brand socks.