photo by Marcus Frazier

Rhino Graphics owner Lawrence Chauvin prints a school logo onto a uniform shirt. With the start of area schools approaching Rhino Graphics is getting busier and busier printing logos. Rhino is one of several local businesses that prints logos for the Concordia Parish, Natchez Adams, and majority of the private schools in the Miss-Lou.

Uniform stores feel back-to-school crunch

By Marcus Frazier (Contact) | The Natchez Democrat

Published Tuesday, July 24, 2007

NATCHEZ —With the start of the school year just around the bend and school uniforms mandatory throughout the Miss-Lou, Rhino Graphic’s is once again going logo loco.

“The rush actually started about two weeks ago and will continue steadily until a few weeks after all the schools get started,” owner Lawrence Chauvin said. “Two out of four of the daily calls we now receive are uniform related, people searching for pants, shirts, skirts or even a specific style or color of shirt.”

Printing everything from Cathedral and Natchez-Adams School District logos to Concordia Parish, Rhino is now trying to have most of their shirts pre-printed allowing customers to come in and just pick out what they need.

“In previous years we’d call around to verify that emblems haven’t change since the previous school year,” Chauvin said. A few years ago we preprinted our logos and Monterey changed theirs and that really mixed things up so what we try to do now is be exact.”

Rhino has changed its turn around time of two to three days in the previous years to one day.

“If they drop it off on Monday they can pick it up around noon the next day” he said.

Rhino screen-prints their logos rather than heat pressing them to add a bit of longevity.

“It takes just a bit longer but I feel a longer lasting print is worth the wait,” Chauvin said. “We want to build a lasting relationship with our customers for reasons other than them returning because a logo faded after a few washes.”

To balance the influx of traffic Rhino will be extending their hours to 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays starting July 28.

“We’ll probably do this until a few weeks into the school year, though a second rush will begin after the weather begins to cool,” Chauvin added.

In house printed shirts prices start at 9.99 and customers can also drop off shirts they’ve purchased and have them printed for a small cost.