Community Posting Areas

Click on the Circles and Triangles on the map below to View the Posting Areas
	Laundromats: Spic 'n Span & Laundry Land The Laramie phone book lists two laundromats: Spic 'n Span and Laundry Land. Both provide coin operated machines and are six blocks from each other. Spic 'n Span is slightly closer to the University of Wyoming campus than Laundry Land, but Laundry Land has more parking available; therefore, neither can be easily identified as "the college" laundromat.
	Grocery Stores: Albertson's North, Alberton's East, Safeway (and Hasting's), and Smith's Laramie has five stores with large grocery departments: Wal-Mart, two Albertson's, Smith's, and Safeway. In addition, it has a small whole foods store. Neither Wal-Mart nor the whole food store were studied. The East Albertson's and the Smith's are the closest stores to the University Residence Halls and University Apartments. The North Albertson's and the Safeway are the closest to West Laramie.

Laramie's grocery stores and laundromats feature areas for the posting of community events and classified advertisements. All of four grocery stores in town, other than Wal-Mart, and both of the laundromats have specific areas designated for these types of postings. In addition, Hastings, the discount music and book store next to K-Mart, has a community board.

In total, eight different boards (Smith's has boards by both of its entrances) were photographed onFriday, December 1, 2000. Over 150 different paper items were found on these boards. From these 150+ items, 109 different postings or notices were identified. Some posters appeared more than once at a single site and thirty-two postings appeared at more than one posting area.

As these numbers demonstrate, the content of each board is primarily unique. Not only does the arrangement of the boards indicate its unique character, but the content of the collected postings at each site also show the influence of the different communities that use each particular board. The contents of the posting boards reveal that people expect to find different things at laundromats than at grocery stores. Patterns of postings in the grocery stores also indicate that each one appeals to a particular social or economic group.