CRESTVIEW — Political campaign signs are coming down, voting machines are folded up and stored until November, and the flood of brochures has ceased inundating local mailboxes.
Primary elections are over and, along with candidates who received voters’ blessings, another constituency of winners emerged from Tuesday’s voting day: graphics service providers.
'BUSINESS DOES RAMP UP'
“The elections do have a lot to do with our business,” Hart Printing manager Viola Owen said.
While business was slower for this primary election, it usually picks up during the fall voting period, owner Ron Hart said. Then, large pressruns are transferred to his Medley Printing sister company in Fort Walton Beach.
“Business does ramp up at campaign season,” Speedee Printing manager Rose Goodwin said.
Signs Galore owner Mike Rutledge said the bulk of his campaign sign business comes from city elections when local candidates like to boast they use local businesses.
However, his shop saw a fair amount of work — between 500 and 700 signs — during the primary, Rutledge said.
“In the past we’ve done 2,000 for single candidates alone,” he said.
He also said he expects they’ll be much busier in the spring when municipal elections are held.
“In city elections we’ll be much more active.”
YARD SIGNS
Candidates often buy corrugated plastic yard signs from out-of-town sign shops that specialize in screen printing, Rutledge said.
“It’s a very competitive market,” he said. “It’s small margins. You have to do large volumes. We don’t try to capture that market, necessarily.”
But in the heat of an election, local graphics houses pick up last-minute needs.
“Most of the time we do quite a bit of the signs,” Okaloosa Signs owner Sandi Parker said. “The last election kept us extremely busy."
Email News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Graphics shops experience uptick at campaign time