World Cup widows are using this time away from their distracted husbands and boyfriends to do some home interior decorating.
While the drama unfolding on the soccer field in Johannesburg, South Africa, has captivated a largely male audience, many so-called World Cup widows are in anything but mourning with the temporary loss of their husbands and boyfriends to nonstop televised soccer matches.
Instead, World Cup widows all over the world have been using their new-found free time to spruce up everything from their homes to their beauty routines…and many businesses are reaping the benefits.
Interior Decorating Gets a Boost from the World Cup
Since the 2010 World Cup began, home décor sales have spiked. At Terry’s Fabrics in Stoke-on-Trent, England, requests for custom curtains have increased by 12% and interior design service requests have risen 15%.
Popular Rooms for Home Interior Decorating Are…
The rooms most popular for makeovers include bedrooms, dining rooms and kitchens. Not surprisingly, TV rooms, not so much.
“This World Cup has really impacted our sales enquiries in a positive way,” says Paul McGuinness, director of Terrys Fabrics. “I am not sure whether it is husbands agreeing to their wives spending as a way of getting around them in order to be able to watch the matches of their choice, or whether it is simply that the wives are taking advantage of the fact their husbands are distracted by the football and making the most of the opportunity to spend some money.”
(What he is certain about, though, is that his female customers are not interested in ordering anything that even remotely resembles the red and white color scheme of the flag of England.)
World Cup Drives Homeowners to Interior Design Businesses
Many companies have picked up on the lack of interest in soccer by a huge chunk of the population and are using it as an opportunity to generate business. Salons around the globe are offering promotional massages and facials in an atmosphere that includes wine, snacks and zero tolerance for soccer talk.
An online DVD company has compiled a list of chick flicks for those who now have the opportunity to indulge in a sappy romantic comedy without the groans and eye rolls of their significant other. Historically, World Cup widows have been well catered to. In 2006, Switzerland advertised golf-sessions and glacier adventures that catered expressly to them.
Even the soccer widows themselves are cashing in on the economic action. In Beijing, one woman created an online chat room for fellow “widows,” and has compiled The Survival Guide for Soccer Widows, which has become a hit nationwide.
In the end, it just may be that the businesses catering to the uninterested are the real winners of this year’s World Cup. (We’ll watch for the economic outcome by mid July.) And perhaps the pain of those avid soccer fans whose teams have lost will be eased a bit by a lovely new set of drapes in the bedroom.
