Nearly 8,000 of these contacts were addressed to people at the city level. The total was weeded down to slightly less than 5,000, and so, in November, we mailed a survey to all of these shops, asking them about their involvement with signs. This response is too small to have any real statistical validity, but it provides an initial glance at this heretofore unknown quantity. The following tables will show that the average government signshops primarily are concerned with traffic signs, and, subsequently, they mostly deal with metal substrates and vinyl copy. It's important to remember that, if these signshops are not making signs in-house, they have to be buying them from someone.
Cities tend to have a more balanced split.
As was expected, these government signshops are overwhelmingly concerned with traffic signs. Three of the 58 returned surveys didn't respond to this question. Table 2 addresses this proclivity, and further breaks it down to how many government signshops handle this type of sign in-house and how many outsource it. Two shops fabricate in-house, and nine outsource them. Therefore, we know that none of these shops fabricate and outsource.