Buy local?

[Deaton Design]

One of my friends I do work for, told me yesterday about one of our prominent local politicians buying all his signs from an out of town source. Reason he knew this, is that the signs were shipped in on Avery freight, they were 4x8s, and a pretty good size pallet of them. We all have been fighting the battle for years against local merchants etc. that go out of town to get signwork, but this one gripes my butt. I dont really like doing political signs, but in this economy, Ill take anything to keep the money coming in. Here is a guy, who is well known, respected, but rather than spend his money with one of the signshops here in the county, he orders them from somewhere else. I mean, he is asking the people to elect him to a county position, a very well paid position, but yet he doesnt care enough about those same people to spend his money here. He isnt the only one either. Several of them are doing it, and I guess hoping no one calls them on it. Im thinking of going to one of those meet the candidates things they have and pose the question to them why they didnt buy their stuff local. Not getting his or anyone else who is running work wont kill me, but its the principal, or at least I think it is. Everyone is always preaching Buy Local, Keep the money at home, that is, until it comes to them...

 

[ChicagoGraphics]

I don't know how it is in KY but here in Chicago most politicians can or say they can only use a union sign shop, I have done lots of political work in the pass with and without the union bug and were not a union shop. Plus half the time you don't even get paid so why bother.

 

[SignosaurusRex]

I'm with you on this one John. Raising a little stink, just enough to get some attention on the crap might help in it getting cleaned up.

 

[Marlene]

a couple of years ago, I was called to go look at a set at one of our local TV stations as the background was baggy and they wanted to know if we could do anything to fix it. the whole thing was basically a digitally printed design on a frame that could have been made here by many of the local shops. they bought it from some company out of state. they run a public service type ad everyday about buying local yet didn't when they had the chance. it happens more often than most people think from the very people who preach about buying local.

 

[SignosaurusRex]

I don't know how it is in KY but here in Chicago most politicians can or say they can only use a union sign shop, I have done lots of political work in the pass with and without the union bug and were not a union shop. Plus half the time you don't even get paid so why bother.

Maybe thats why they bought them from outside the community.....don't intend to pay.

 

[rjssigns]

I think John should hold his feet to the coals. Make him squirm just a bit.
Do a meet and greet and politely tell him that since you do not support local businesses you won't support him either.

That being said, I believe as fuel prices rise you will see a shift to using local businesses. Trucks are horribly inefficient for moving freight and I am already getting fuel surcharges on certain items. Just a matter of time before the price of diesel eats up any competitive advantage for the folks that have to ship everything.

 

[skyhigh]

Yeah!!!
John, they are saving you for the jobs they actually intend to PAY for. Geez, they are doing you a "solid" and you don't see it?
:ROFLMAO:

hahaha... let us know how the meeting goes.

 

[OlsonSigns601]

The people that run for office get flyers in the mail the next day the sign that paper that they are running for public office.

The end up with about 10 flyers in the mail. They go through them and find the cheapest price and run with them. Unless you are in a big city, no one cares about union made.

Especially if they bought a yard sign from you for their garage sale and paid 10+ bucks for it. They are going to think you sell them all at that price and think its an even better deal.

If you really want to complete for Political Yard Signs, you're going to have to have yourself a massive silkscreen department and a fast flatbed printer.

I also don't do jobs like that unless I get 1/2 down.

 

[Deaton Design]

I don't know how it is in KY but here in Chicago most politicians can or say they can only use a union sign shop, I have done lots of political work in the pass with and without the union bug and were not a union shop. Plus half the time you don't even get paid so why bother.

All political work I do is paid in full up front, or I dont do it. Most of them are happy to do so. Just tired of this holier than thou crap from these birds, getting paid from our taxes and doing all their shopping out of town.

 

[Circleville Signs]

There are two issues at play in these situations.

1. Cost. Political campaigns are 100% cost driven buyers. I do very, VERY few political signs because they can, quite literally, get the same signs for 6-8x cheaper online, or 2-3x cheaper from my local competition.

2. Like most politicians, they simply do not give a sh!t about the people or businesses around them. They care about 2 things. Getting elected, and making as much money and creating as much influence/power as possible while in office.

The situations that REALLY burn me are when a local, TAX DOLLAR funded agency, goes out of the county/state to get their products/services.

 

[Pat Whatley]

The situations that REALLY burn me are when a local, TAX DOLLAR funded agency, goes out of the county/state to get their products/services.

Like the city of Montgomery, AL having their BUY LOCAL signs printed out of town?

 

[gnemmas]

This is a tough one:

Do you want your politician spend money wisely or buy everything local, regardless of cost?

Why just limit to signs? Milk, clothing, gas, cars, TVs......

Do you sell to local customers ONLY? I don't. I'd be broke. Protectionism do not work.

 

[Gino]

This one burns my butt along with 4' flames.

Not only the politicians go on-line to buy cheap.... so do some of the local government departments.

A few years ago, we bid on all the city banner for up and down the two main streets. I was beat out by someone from Michigan by 50¢. However, the freight killed them and then they didn't fit quite right because someone made an error when ordering, so they had to send crews out to change all the brackets. About 90 of them.

I went to school with a guy whom ran for mayor some time back. He called me for sign prices. I gave him a really good price, but he said, he could get them about a dime each cheaper on-line. That was a walloping $50 he saved, but got eaten up with freight and then having to buy the stands he THOUGHT were included, like mine were.

 

[Al Checca]

When I was still working I looked for it also. I never wanted to do them, there all snakes and low down penny pinches but I too looked for them to do work at home first. It is a shot in the arm of income. Starts with hometown first!

 

[visual800]

Like the city of Montgomery, AL having their BUY LOCAL signs printed out of town?

or the city of montgomery going to tuscaloosa and getting all their wayfinding signs...$80k package gone out of town. I called and emailed the chief of plannign who told me "they won the bid"...I didnt even get to bid on it. they can suck it

 

[royster13]

During our last municipal election one of the candidates put right on his signs they were printed within the municipality....I will have to see if it did him any good....

 

[Mosh]

I do all our City's Street signs now that they have figured out freight is.
I get free delivery from Grimco two times a week so....

 

[GAC05]

John don't feel too bad.
We are 3hrs flight time away from the Philippines and are constantly asked to price match a 3rd world country with no minimum wage.
We just finished wrapping a truck for a guy running for the legislature here.
While going over the details he was very concerned with us being able to hit the colors he wanted. Our scaled down sample was dead on but he explained that his PI printers ran 3 full runs of his billboard signs and had told him that that they could not control the color as the size of the output got bigger......

wayne k
guam usa

 

[btropical.com]

Burn his *** on craigslist rant and rave s tell everyone what he is doing and if you can find a picture of the said politician with a kid sandwiched between him and a """""""" you are golden . And if there is a way to put 3 head on shrimp in the parade car he rides in ................... just saying

 

[FireSprint.com]

I do strongly advocate buying local, but I don't think it's always the customer's fault. Just because a sign shop is just around the corner, doesn't mean that it should automatically get all the local business.

What happens when you Google "Signs in [insert town name here]" do you come up to the top? If one of your out of state competitors do, then that's not the customer's fault if they pick someone else. How about Yahoo? The phone book? In their mailbox?

This is true with every business, but especially true with politicians. When they register to be on the ballot, they immediately go on a list. That list is picked up by dozens retail political sign printers, many out of state. They'll call, email and send catalogs to gain top of mind awareness right out of the gate. Then when the politician has raised his money, he already has someone in mind.

And yes, townships using local tax dollars to buy anything out of town that is manufactured locally frustrates me too, but the buyers are only human. They don't know every business in town, and they have strict budgets to work within.

I'm only saying this because I run my business this way. Instead of making a customer out to be evil because they don't buy from you, ask yourself why. Why did I lose that sale? Why did they order signs from 450 miles away. Why didn't they even call for a quote? I'll bet dollars to dimes that if you called that politician, or the city of Montgomery and asked them why, they would tell you they either didn't know you offered that kind of product, or that they did call, and someone out of state with a different set of strengths and efficiencies beat your price, and possibly service/speed by a margin that was important to them and those they answer to.

I don't want to pick a fight, but business is earned by those who go out and look for it.

P.S. I understand there are jerks out there that can't be worked with, and this guy might be one of those. If that's the case, why would it bother you at all that you didn't have to work with him. Good riddance I would say.