It started with one sign.
Jim Bohon, a music instructor at Bridge Caldo Music in Christiansburg, VA, decided to have some fun with the store's sign, not thinking anything would come of it. He just wanted to give the residents of the small town something to have a laugh at.
"Hey Super Shoes! Wanna start a sign war?" it read on April 16, calling out the store across the street.
A couple of days passed and nothing happened, but three days after the sign went up, Super Shoes responded.
"Hey Bridge Kaldo! Our shoe strings are stronger than your guitar strings!" And that's when things took off.
The two began a back of forth of light-hearted trash talking via their storefront signs - and then other businesses around town with their own signs got in on the action.
The Kabuki Japanese Steak House joined in: "You got to B-sharp to make good Shoe-shi and we won't string you along," their sign read.
Somehow, word spread of the sign battle taking place in this town of 20,000, and word made its way to Canada.
Trevor Cork, owner of Speedy Glass in Listowel, Canada decided to take inspiration to start a sign battle in his small town.
"Hey DQ, wanna have a sign war," he targeted the nearby Dairy Queen on April 26. Less than 20 minutes later, DQ's sign was changed to read, "You bet we do."
Same thing happened in Listowel, with other businesses getting in on the fun. "You bet your glass we do," a nearby restaurant fired back. After three days, almost every business had taken a shot at someone else.
When the owner of the Kabuki Steak House back in Virginia heard about Listowel taking their idea, he changed his sign to take a shot at them: "Canadians trying 2 join the sign war ehh? Ya'll ride on elks for Uber right... bring it on Ontario!"
Speedy Glass in Canada found out and fired back across the border: "Kabuki, gloves are off no more rice guy."
Since then other small towns have started their own sign battles. A Facebook group with over 30,000 followers from more than 30 countries was made.
A few of the businesses say the extra attention during the waning days of the pandemic has helped boost business.
"It helped a lot. I didn't even know some of these businesses existed, but I'm learning about them now through the sign war," says the owner of the Kabuki Japanese Steak House.
Source: MSN News