Comedic combat: Sign war takes over Melville

MELVILLE -

The Home Hardware in Melville has a reputation among locals for its witty signs, but it has now set off a chain reaction among other businesses.

Jeff Appel, manager of the Home Hardware in Melville, said the sign wars started to snowball after the Independent Grocer joined in.

The punny signs soon started popping up all over the city, challenging other businesses to join in.

Appel said they originally started the sign war after seeing them in other communities and now there are about a dozen businesses taking part.

"It's a nice thing to have, a nice fun thing to do. There's been so many restrictions in the last year, just to bring a smile to someone's face is what we were hoping to do," said Appel.

The local Pharmasave was one of the other businesses that decided to jump on the bandwagon.

“It’s tons of fun, it makes everyone's day a little bit brighter so we thought we'd join in too," said Kim Cook, the owner of Pharmasave.

Cook said they will continue to change it as long as the comedic combat lasts.

Their first sign called out both Home Hardware and the Independent, while the second one targeted a local body shop.

Cook said they try and stick to upbeat signs that encourage people to go check out the other businesses.

Appel said Home Hardware will also continue to keep it up for as long as they can, and they are currently changing their sign a couple times a week.

"If someone puts up a sign then we'll comment back," he said.

Appel also wants to invite all the other businesses in the city to join in on the war of words, saying any type of sign, even a piece of paper in the window, will do.