The owner of a Winnipeg Dairy Queen is taking a novel approach after a man charged with impaired driving drove a vehicle into his store.

Bruce Buchel posted a large sign at the St. Anne's Road store that states: Closed temporarily due to drunk driver.

Surveillance video of the incident on Wednesday morning shows two men standing in the exact spot the vehicle hit, just minutes before the collision.

"Two minutes later there would have been two people killed by this person. And what penalties is he going to face? He's going to have his vehicle impounded; he'll lose his licence for a year and he'll get a fine. What is that?" said Buchel.

He said his livelihood was shattered along with the front of his store.

"I'm down, my employees are no longer employed right now. People are going to have to start realizing what the impact is," he said.

So far, the sign has been a big success, Buchel said.

"A lot of people are happy someone's actually doing something about it," he said, noting his sign is much more light-hearted than the usual indication of the consequences of a drunk driver.

"Usually when they see something from a drunk driver it's a cross on the side of the road. Someone died."

People are stopping by to take photographs and parents have brought children to teach them a lesson, according to Buchel.

The sign will stay up at least until the store reopens, which could be as soon as this weekend.

However, it will take another six weeks to fix the damage, Buchel said.