Businesses’ sign wars amuse a whole community

• Christiansburg, Virginia set an all-out war against one business to another, using a weapon of mass destruction: SIGNAGES!
• It all began with Bridge Kaldro Music teacher Jim Bohon.
• He put up a sign that says: “Hey Super Shoes! Wanna start a sign war?!” The rest, as they say, is history!

In these trying times, while all the world is at war with the coronavirus pandemic, Christiansburg, Virginia set an all-out war against one business to another, using their weapon of mass destruction: SIGNAGES!

It all began with Bridge Kaldro Music through Jim Bohon, who is a guitar and drum teacher. For many years, Jim had been putting up funny signs in front of the store as a way of entertaining and attracting customers.

One day, Jim decided to up his little game and stirred a friendly competition against the shoe store next door, just for one helluva fun. He put up a sign that says: “Hey Super Shoes! Wanna start a sign war?!”

Super Shoes then answered back, “Our shoe strings are stronger than your guitar strings.”

Jim, who was so amused of the turnout, said that “It was just kind of on a whim. I put it up one day, three or four days went by, and they didn’t respond. I kind of thought maybe their corporate wouldn’t allow them to do it, but they put it up one day. The next day it just went crazy.”

It turned out that other local businesses wanted to jump on the bandwagon, joining the fun, too!

Kabuki Japanese Steakhouse didn’t want to come in empty handed in this sign war, when it got a sign up saying, “DQ got the ice, ice baby. But we got flamin’ volcanoes and sake like it’s gettin’ hot in here.”

Jim made sure though that whenever a new business joins in, he acknowledges, thus making new friends in the process.

“What a ‘croc.’ IDK what stinks worse your shoes or Kabuki’s sign,” Jim said in a sign, throwing jab at the newest sign war enemy.

These signage banters have not only reunited the local businesses in the community, but also caused a boost in their businesses.

“It’s free advertisement for all of us. That’s probably the best part of everything,” said Kabuki owner Yoshi Koeda.

With the continuing, overwhelming support within the community, Anthony Woodyard took it up a higher notch, bringing the Sign War to social media. He put up a Facebook group called “Christiansburg, VA Sign War.”

To date, the page gathered over 13,000 members and 27,000 fans and still counting. According to Anthony, “the lively banter has really made people excited about what’s happening.” This, in turn, created a fun and safe community where everyone just laughs and feels more connected.

“That’s so much positivity you could come out with like a war, so to speak,” Jim said.

Well, if all wars are like this, what a better world it could be!

Source: Inspire More