15 North, a bar that is popular with the student community of West Chester, located on N. Walnut Street, had begun a practice of handing out free stickers to patrons to allow them to re-enter the bar if they had already paid the night’s cover charge. These stickers, in turn, can now be found all over the Gay Street area on other businesses’ windows, signs, street lamps and parking meters. While the bar’s employees do not encourage patrons, the majority of whom are college students, to defile the surrounding area with the stickers, they can still be found almost anywhere within several blocks adjacent to 15 North.
Wachovia Bank, for instance, has been a victim of the sticker-carrying vandals. The bank’s sign on Gay Street, standing roughly 10 to 11 feet high, has been “stickered” despite its height. For the past two weeks the sign has had three 15 North stickers across its front.
Wachovia employees seemed generally unaware of the stickers, however. One bank employee said, “I didn’t know anything about the stickers at all.”
“It’s publicity for 15 North,” another employee commented. “I guess they are the competition.”
Another business near the bar that has been “stickered” is the Kreutz Winery Outlet located on Gay Street. There is a 15 North sticker on the store’s window as well as two others on the sign the store places on the sidewalk during business hours, indicating that the stickers are being stuck on signs during daylight hours as well.
Like the employees at Wachovia, a Kreutz employee was relatively unaware of the stickers. “I think it is disrespectful. It kind of ruins our sign,” she said. “So those are the stickers that are all over the street post outside.”
15 North employee and WCU student Patrick McMasters said, “We really don’t think of the stickers as anything special. Some nights they are used in place of a stamp to let people come back in to the bar. They are given out for free and aren’t really meant for anything else.”
“You can’t really expect much else when you hand out stickers to bar patrons,” one bar patron said.
Some WCU students seemed generally unaware of the stickers. The bar only had the stickers for a few weeks, according to McMasters, and is not currently distributing them out to patrons.
Saturday marked the bar’s 12th anniversary. The bar had a beach-themed celebration that included sand on the bar’s floor and on the outside sidewalk entrance as well. Handstamps were used for admittance on Saturday, rather than the “15” stickers.
Shane Madden is a fourth-year student majoring in history with a minor in journalism. He can be reached at SM590676@wcupa.edu