Love them or hate them, you've got to admit the "Downer! Downer! Downer!" commercials are memorable, said Big Mike, a.k.a. Mike Namoff, the excitable owner of This Is It Furniture in Champaign.

You can expect to start seeing a lot more of the commercials featuring Namoff and his children this week as Namoff celebrates the opening of his new, larger store in Champaign.

This Is It Furniture store moved to the former Deals space at 245 S. Mattis Ave., in Country Fair Shopping Center last month. The store was located at 1615 W. Springfield Ave., C, for 21 years. Namoff's space has grown from 7,000 square feet to 20,000 square feet.

"We've got twice the sofas, twice the mattresses. We call it the megastore," Namoff said.

He's added items from Simmons and has lots more youth furniture. (The sales floor, for example, has 16 different bunk beds).

"What I'm going to do with the store is give genuine deals, and this economy calls for that," Namoff said.

The store is celebrating its grand opening this week. During the weeklong celebration, shoppers can enter their names to win a $1,000 shopping spree. And customers are still entitled to a free Vidalia onion because, as Namoff has said, "our prices don't make you cry."

In addition to the new Champaign store, Namoff has opened This Is It Furniture stores in Danville (103 E. Main St.), Bloomington and Washington, all in 2009.

More opening events

– Two Men and a Truck, which opened in Champaign last fall, will host a grand-opening celebration on Thursday, May 7.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony will be at 2 p.m., followed by an open house from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. The business is located at 828 Pioneer St. (a long block south of Home Depot, east of Prospect Avenue) in Champaign.

At the open house, staff will have information available on packing and moving (they can demonstrate proper packing techniques) and about moving with children. The company's founder, Mary Ellen Sheets, and the current company chair, Melanie Bergeron, will be at the event. Light refreshments will be on hand.

The local franchise is run by Rene and Dan Shunk, engineering graduates of the University of Illinois who relocated to Champaign-Urbana from the St. Louis area a few years ago.

"We moved with a Two Men and a Truck franchise and were so impressed," Rene Shunk said.

The business provides local and statewide moving services. Shunk said she hopes to add interstate moving services this summer.

The company has 200 franchises and almost 1,400 trucks on the road. The Champaign branch has five employees.

More information is available at 398-2636 or www.twomen.com.

– Central Illinois Credit Union, 2106 W. John St., C, will have a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 3 p.m. Thursday to celebrate renovations in the building.

From May 7 through May 13, the credit union will have Visa gift card giveaways, refreshments and door prizes.

The credit union serves anyone who lives or works in Champaign, Coles, Cumberland, DeWitt, Douglas, Ford, Moultrie and Piatt counties. More information is available at www.cicu.com or 356-9721.

Freebies

– Ten Thousand Villages, 105 N. Walnut St., C, is celebrating World Fair Trade Day on Saturday, May 9. The stores around the country are attempting to set the record for the World's Largest Coffee Break. That means free samples of "fair trade" coffee and tea for anyone who stops by that day.

They're aiming to beat a record set in Finland last year when 50,000 people participated. The store will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. that day.

– Also on Saturday, May 9, Amara Yoga & Arts, the new yoga studio and art gallery at Lincoln Square Mall, is hosting a free yoga day.

Starting at 9 a.m., the day's events will include several different yoga and related classes: Ashtanga yoga, Hatha yoga, Vinyasa yoga, Slow Flow yoga, kids' yoga and mat Pilates. You can also register throughout the day to win a 10-class pass, yoga mat and organic tea gift basket.

All events during the day are open to all levels. It's first-come, first-served.

The studio is located in Suite 156-B by Cardinal Fitness and The Great Impasta, on the east side of the mall. More information is available at 328-9642, via e-mail at info<@>amarayoga.com or www.amarayoga.com.

– The next person to buy a lot in the new Brickhouses subdivision in northeast Urbana will receive 5,000-watt solar panels for his or her house, for free, said developer Debbie Insana of Insana Development.

Insana, who is developing the subdivision and building her home there, is also a dealer for Unisolar, a photovoltaic products company based in Michigan. Insana Development has seven, 1-acre lots for sale. The properties are listed with Barb Gallivan at Keller Williams Realty. More information is available at www.insanadevelopment.com.

New location

Lanz Heating & Cooling has moved to a new, larger facility at 2718 Hundman Drive, C.

"It made sense for us to look for a different location that would better accommodate us to run our increasing day-to-day operations more efficiently, which in turn provides better service to our customers," Troy Lanz wrote.

The company has been around since 2002.

Christine des Garennes can be reached by phone at 351-5388 or 800-252-3346; by e-mail at cgarenne<@>news-gazette.com; or by regular mail at The News-Gazette, c/o It's Your Business column, P.O. Box 677, Champaign, IL 61824-0677.