I had alluded to the need to capture this picture in a previous post. Thanks to my sister-in-law, I know have a picture of this mistake (thanks Tina!).

Rabbit Trail: Why did Tina have the opportunity to get this picture for me? Unfortunately, she had to go to this grocery store to request a refund for a bag of coffee. Yes, it was this company’s coffee. Tina grinds her own coffee at home. Upon reaching the last bit of coffee beans at the bottom of the bag, she discovered a roasted bug mixed in with her beans. Gross! The question I had was, “I wonder if there was more than one bug” followed by, “Hey, where’s the bug’s head and legs…were they roasted off, or did they get mixed into the bag somewhere else?” At that point, I stopped asking questions. I was also relieved to recall that I had not consumed any coffee over at their house recently, haha. Needless to say, the coffee bean bug was a major turn off. Thankfully, the grocery store refunded her money without any difficulty.

So, back to the picture. Have you caught the mistake? Charity’s should be charities (the correct plural spelling). The apostrophe is a killer for many, many people. Unfortunately, this is a common mistake. Even more unfortunate is that this mistake made it out into the public arena (multiple supermarkets and their own website). Perhaps I should contact them and offer my services?

My daughter discovered this sign recently on a local bike path here in Coeur d’Alene. The ironic thing about this particular sign is that it is near the front of a school (Woodland Middle School, by the Comcast Building)! You would think/hope that one of the teachers would have called someone about the error on the sign.

Anyhow, just in case the mistake isn’t obvious to you, there should not be an apostrophe in the word “users.”

The odd thing is that there are many signs like this on the same trail. I haven’t checked all of them, but many of the other signs do not include the same mistake. Interesting…

I seem to be finding a lot of really bad signs these days. I actually found two in the same day. I didn’t think about taking a picture of the second one though. I always seem to forget about the camera on my phone. So, I have to go back to the grocery store and get a picture of the other sign.

But, for now, here’s the latest, greatest finding that I have to report:

Where’s the mistake? Well, it should say cannons instead of canons.

A canon is a law or rule. It is also a group of books, particularly religious books. It is also a term used to describe a church dignitary. Of course, it’s also the name of a large, electronics company.

A cannon is a weapon, or in this case a large water gun.

It’s a mistake that should have been caught by someone at the amusement park. But, even worse is the fact that the mistake obviously slipped past the printing company too. What a shame.

So, now I’m off to get a picture of the other sign. I wonder how many other “sign snafus” I will encounter!

With the last sign we featured, it was the wording that created the confusion. This time, the wording is crystal clear - no dogs allowed. But what kind of animal is depicted on the sign? What exactly is it? A duckbill platypus? Wow.

What do you think…did the owner/manager who purchased this sign really look at it closely? How about the sign manufacturer? Were they unable to create a silhouette that accurately portrayed a dog? This is just another example of how unobservant people can be…

**We took this picture in a campground not far from the Sawtooth National Recreation Area in Idaho.

Just because all of the information is out there for potential customers to read doesn’t mean the message is being communicated clearly to them. This picture is an excellent example. I saw this sign board in South Dakota and had to read it a couple of times to decipher and digest the information properly. Initially, it looked like a jumbled mess of words to me. While the owner or manager of the hotel may have known exactly what all of those words meant, their potential customers were having a hard time figuring it out.

Am I being picky here? I don’t think so. Honestly, the first line was the only line on the entire sign that was clear in its message. When I first read the remaining lines, these are the questions that immediately came to my mind:

1. Is that a price listed there? There isn’t a dollar sign or a decimal point.

2. “Pets Kids Stay Free” — So, if my dog had puppies or my cat had kittens, they were able to stay for free?

3. I’ve never seen or experienced an indoor pool spa.

4. “Meal Deals” — Does this mean I could play ‘deal or no deal’ with my waiter or waitress regarding the price of my meal?

Yes, I may be stretching it on a couple of these items. However, the larger issue here lies in poor communication. While this is a simple sign, it represents this hotel. Unfortunately, it was doing a very poor job for them.

As a business owner or manager, are you communicating with your customers properly? Do your marketing materials, letters, newsletters, email campaigns accurately reflect the professionalism you desire to project to your customers?