collecting names

Hi. We’re opening another shop about 20 minutes from us in about a month. It’s in a small town (St. Helena, CA.) Wondering if anyone had any suggestions about how to start collecting names - other than walking the streets and introducing oursleves. Has anyone placed a “Coming Soon” ad in the newspaper? thanks.

Heck, if you’re that close, I’d run a coming soon ad going someting like this:

"Hi, I’m (your name) - I’ll be opening a (your store’s name) at (address) on or about (expected open date). We’re really looking forward to giving all you folks in St Helena the same great food and service that we’re currently doing at our store in (town your current store is in). We’ve been in business there for XX years, so you may already be familiar with us; if not, why don’t you stop in to see what we’re all about next time you’re in (name of town). Just let us know your from St Helena and we’ll give you and your guest Half off your order! We know that once you give us a try you’ll be back again & again!

You probably won’t get a whole lot of people stopping in, but the ones who do are going to be ones who are VERY interested in your new store. Just get their names & info on your POS.

Have you got a website for your current store? If so, you could collect a lot of names that way - have them sign up for a drawing to give away a nice prize at the new store’s grand opening (Maybe a weekend in Tahoe?) Put in your ad to either sign up online or mail in the form on the ad.

You’re also close enough with your other shop that you could easily do some product sampling, especially if there’s an event in town that would draw a lot of locals. You can collect a ton of names that way.

When we first opened we bought a USPS certified list from http://www.melissadata.com/listres.html. We even pre-populated our POS with this data.

-pieslave