A funny thing happened on the way to Ross Dress For Less

I have decided to write snippets of my business - funny things that happened. This story is about a very large sign that we fabricated for Ross Dress For Less. I guess I should clarify a bit - my business since 1984 has been the fabrication of fiber optic signs.  I recently realized that it's 30 years of my life - over 1/3 of my entire life I have devoted to poking pointy fiber strands into rigid substrates and magically coming out with a product that delights the viewers.  

Ross Dress For Less was one of our clients in the 90s.  They would open up a new store and frequently it would be at the top of an escalator ride or behind a corner. They would have us manufacture a huge fiber optic sign that would say, "Ross Dress For Less" and have arrows pointing to where the actual store was.  

This particular sign was for a store in Philadelphia.  We received the order and we fabricated the sign.  We shipped the sign to the store location.  About a month after we shipped the sign (and had been paid for the sign) we received a call from Philadelphia saying they couldn't locate the sign.  Fortunately we are scrupulous in keeping records and had the name of the person who had signed for the sign.  

This was not a small sign.  This was something about 12 feet long and six feet tall.  Not something that could easily be lost.  

Philadelphia responded - we still cannot find your sign.  

We said, well - it's there - somewhere.  

Guess what happened - you'll never guess.  Honest you won't.

The sign arrived at a location that hadn't yet completed it's final construction plans.  It was placed near where it would eventually be hung on the wall. Apparently when the sheet rock crew arrived to sheet rock the rooms - they saw the huge carton and decided to just sheet rock over it.  That's right - the sign was buried under sheet rock.  

I can just picture the scene now - construction guys - three at least - 
George, Harry, and Ted.  

Ted - "Hey, George - what do we do with that big carton sitting there?"
George - "It's too big for us to move."
Harry - "I vote we just sheet rock it it.  No one will know."

Yeah - right!

Somehow, someone retraced the steps and the sheet rock which was now totally painted and ready to be a store wall was knocked down and voila - the sign was found.  

Amusing.  

I have more - honest - stay tuned.