If you tell them, they will come: Visit to Panera ‘office hours’ in York yields hyperlocal business column

Meet Jeanne Walton, a cool lacrosse mom and eighth grade science teacher who stopped by Panera to visit me Tuesday.

OK.

So it’s not a mall teeming with cockroaches or a trip to check out kinky gadgets in the adult store.

But I did end up with a column every sports mom or dad can relate to today when Jeanne Walton stopped by to see me at Panera in West Manchester Township.

The story goes a little something like this:

Kid plays sport.

Kid does really well at sport and qualifies for national tournament.

Parents rejoice — until they see the price tag.

I put my business reporter ears on as she told me about her son’s team, Black Dog Lacrosse, and the bajillion fundraisers they had planned to pay for a trip to a big tournament in Tampa.

Hell, I had issues selling a few chicken barbecue tickets in high school.

So I wrote this blog post on York Common Cents and parlayed it into a column for the print business page Wednesday.

Walton told me she saw my invitation for story ideas on the York Daily Record/Sunday News Facebook page, where I had posted this:

I’ve been a little conservative lately about how I’ve marketed my location.

I mostly use the Facebook now the day-of.

Reason? I’ve got to balance an actual workload with meeting and greeting.

I was inundated (sometimes with not-so-useful information) the few times I put my meeting spot in the print newspaper.

Now, I use this promotion technique sparingly only when I’m prepared to talk to people — and do nothing but talk to people.

If you tell them, they will come.

Dead tree version.