I can’t remember when we first started using A-frames. These are the signs that restaurants and other put out on the sidewalk to attract customer attention.
I think I’d seen other trucks doing it. And when we tried they were crazy successful for us. I think the A-frames in those early days drove 10% increase in sales. And lots of fun conversations. We would write them from scratch each day. I spent a lot of time teaching Lucia how important I thought these were and then she spent years teaching others how to write A-frames. We had guidelines, training materials. At one point we even had a Twitter handle (@cloverboards if you’re interested) just for our A-frames. So that we could do QC within the company.
They’ve been really powerful but also a very difficult thing to manage. Many many people have bad handwriting. And many many people write angling up, or angling down. I can tell you this from experience. I’ve seen it all. And a beautifully composed A-frame that was written today with relevant concise content is amazing. But an A-frame that looks terrible or has dull content is a turn off.
I saw these plastic frames at Alewife station about a year ago and thought they were amazing. They had a metal disbond insert. Lucia and I have been testing this idea and we decided to put them company-wide this past month. They’re amazing. Thank you MBTA!! They stand up to bad weather. They look really sharp. I’m so happy. Right now we’re talking about soup with the posters. Eat more soup everybody! Downside? We can’t change them daily. What do you think?