Guys with signs, waving

Is this a southern California phenomenon? On every single street corner, there is a guy or gal holding one of those giant cardboard signs. He or she is either waving or spinning it acrobatically. The signs are usually arrows and say things like “Now Leasing” or “Discounted Diamonds.”

Just wondering if it’s happening around the world, or if it’s just our local little plague.

Also I’ve heard that sign-spinners have to go through special sign-spinning school where you get points for learning new acrobatic moves with your sign. There are races to see who can run fastest while holding their sign over their head. That sort of thing. Links?

Bonus points for images.

I live in SoCal and I’ve noticed this, too. My theory is that it’s a local phenomenon because of laws that prohibit against posting signs. Kind of a loophole. Though they’re really just XTREME versions of those old sandwich board guys.

I’ve been kicking around the idea of going to apply for one of these jobs just to see what it’s about, then seeing what I have to do to get fired. Would it be sufficient to just prop the sign up, maybe so it’s pointing straight down at the ground, then kick back in a lawn chair? Only thing holding me back is, you know, my real job.

Yeah that’s my understanding. You can’t post a sign up, but you can employ a bored looking guy with headphones on, to waggle a sign for minimum wage, 8 hours a day. It must be a pretty sucky job - standing in the burning sun for hours, with your arms getting increasingly tired.

I think they should employ retired sychronised swimmers. They could do it all day with a big smile, and have dance moves!

When I was living in seattle I would see them all the time in redmond / bothell area.

There’s a local plumbing company that’s usually has a person in a Cleveland Browns hat with sandwhich board advertising the company while waving a large wooden pipe wrench and dancing to whatever music playing through their headphones.

You can usually find three of these people on each of the busier sections of this suburban Ohio town.

Also, anytime a local store is going out of business, there’s usually several people on the streetcorners with two signs on a stick advertising the blow-out prices that they wave around at traffic.

Plenty of them around Tottenham Court Rd. in London, usually advertising a golf sale that appears to have been running for about 20 yrs. Despite the arrow on the sign it is actually impossible to find this sale and I’m beginning to think it doesn’t really exist.

I’ve seen this in a few northwestern cities. The one that always seem to get me are the ones for local pizza stores or “Round Table”. As if working for a pizza joint wasn’t bad enough, some poor fucker has to be the dancing monkey.

Got 'em in Sacramento, CA and Las Vegas, NV also. Usually pointing out apartments for lease.

Yup. I doubt it has anything to do with Cali’s sign laws specifically, since Vegas has nothing like that.

The whatever, grociers union has been hiring the homeless to hold signs and picket those Wal-Mart food marts. So you’ve got this decrepit, bedraggled throng of folks and just around the corner is a line of assorted tattered backpacks and shopping carts. I find it fitting that Wal-Mart would have the worst picketers.

This happens in Delaware too, but because of the fact that people in Delaware are bored to tears, the dudes just stand there with the signs looking pathetic.

It’s the beauty of the free market you COMMUNIST.

Dallas TX too. Sometimes they are enthusiastic, but there is one guy down the street that kicks back in a beach chair, complete with headphones, magazines, umbrella and cooler. I would be pissed if I was paying that guy.

Plenty of them in Denver, usually promoting apartments, but also fast food restaurants & retailers in my neighborhood.

But I think assuming something you see is a local phenomenon may be limited to Southern California and New York City.

It happens here in AL as well, and in TN. Usually, the person is at a food place, like pizza or another mid-level fast-foodish place. It’s a humiliating job, to be sure.

Little Caesar’s here in SE Michigan often has their regular staff doing shifts outside the store waving their “Hot-N-Ready” $5 pepperoni pizza signs around.

The pizza at our local Little Caesar’s is neither hot, nor is it ready.

It’s not even particularly cheap, compared to some of the local mom-n-pop shops.

Ok, I can get that you don’t like it, but do you really mean to say that the pizza is not hot? And not ready? What does that mean? They give you raw pizza? In ice or something?

Take-n-bake. They give you raw pizza; you take it and bake it in the comfort and privacy of your own home.