In 1953, to celebrate the opening of its Lynchburg store, Grand Piano & Furniture Co. served up free Coca-Colas to everyone who walked in its door. Almost half a century later, it's still passing out the free drinks.

"Forty-six years ago it didn't take much to move people's meter," laughs Steve Davis, Grand Home Furnishing's vice president for advertising.

"There were throngs of people trying to get in. They had to block off the street and get police to control it. It was quite a scene."

And so a tradition was born.

Today, Roanoke-based Grand is still handing out the free Cokes in 18 locations from eastern Tennessee to South Carolina and all over southwest and central Virginia. Last year, Davis says, Grand served up over a million Cokes, earning it several awards from the Atlanta-based bottling company.

"We get people ... who walk in and say they remember their parents bringing them to the store for a Coke, and now they're here buying furniture," says Davis. "We get all those warm, fuzzy stories."

Many customers remember the small 6-ounce Coca-Cola bottles that were a trademark of Coke long before the concept of the "Big Gulp" entered the national consciousness. Davis says that when Coke discontinued making the classic Coke bottles, the tradition was threatened. "It was hard to get those bottles about six years ago," he says. "Then they came out with the 10-ounce bottle."

Along with the larger Coke bottles, Davis says Grand is bowing to the modern market by now also offering Diet Coke, Caffeine-free Coke, Sprite and bottled water.

Besides the $275,000 annual price tag that comes with serving the drinks, spillage also is a potential cost. Davis says there's not much to report as far as damage to inventory, but the company's carpets sure take a beating. "You have to attend to the spots right away, and that's an ongoing challenge," he says.

The goodwill and the conversation-starting opportunities that the Cokes provide outweigh that setback, though, and customers usually stay in the store at least long enough to finish their drinks.

"It's a way of welcoming someone, just like you would in your home if they came to visit," says Davis. "It's an ice-breaker to talk to them when they first come in and then again when you go to relieve them of the bottle."

Davis says there are no thoughts of discontinuing the giveaway. And sorry, Pepsi, no thoughts of Grand switching brands. "It's so much a tradition here, you don't want to mess with it," says Davis.

— Mike Ashley