Orleans Weekly Journal
Published: Friday, May 9, 2008 Les Emmerson's warning lost on St. Joseph care On my drive in to work earlier this week along St. Joseph Boulevard, I counted no less than 12 sandwich sign boards polluting the landscape. And this is just one small section of our alleged main street. Similar examples of visual pollution plague Innes Road, Tenth Line and almost every major Orléans intersection which is home to a shopping centre or cluster of local businesses. It reminded me of the 1970s hit Signs by Five Man Electrical Band … “sign sign everywhere a sign, blocking out the scenery breaking my mind, do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the sign?” As a staunch free-marketer, I am a big fan of watching our local businesses flourish and try to buy everything our family needs right here in our own community. However, the proliferation of these signs throughout the retail areas of our community makes our streets look worse than the never-ending succession of souvenir shops and indoor flea markets that have over-run International Boulevard in Orlando, Florida. While these signs are cost effective and deployed to advertise everything from tires to times of worship to hairstyle discounts to two for one spicy wings specials, surely our local retailers can and should be more creative than this. What about targeted web advertising and joint buys on promo flyers for example? And where are the BIA and local Chamber on this front? If we are trying to market Orléans as a progressive place to do business, the landscape of our main retail streets does entirely the opposite. And then there is the safety issue of sign after sign and reduced visibility for drivers, cyclists and pedestrians alike. It would be interesting to ask customers in various stores if the tacky road sign outside drew them in? My suspicion is that the actual ROI on these signs is probably quite low in this regard. There has to be a better and more visually aesthetic way to advertise and bring customers through the door. I would be interested to know what suggestions readers may have … and what merchants think. As an update to last week’s column, I had the opportunity to speak with Ontario Health Minister George Smitherman last Friday at a Liberal breakfast (yes I attend about one a year) on the issue of our Urgent Care Clinic. The Minister assured me that progress is being made on this file to get the doctors some form of payment plan that better reflects the actual work that our local doctors at the clinic perform. It sounded as though an announcement was weeks or at most a few months away … we will see. In the meantime, please continue to e-mail him, the Premier, our MPP Phil McNeely and the opposition leaders to keep the pressure on. = = = = =
Comments can be sent to Walter Robinson at orleansouttakes@transcontinental.ca. |