Meet The Poster Guys

Matt is the original PosterGuy and founder of the Information Distribution Network, (the other name for the PosterGuys which sounds more impressive). He began putting up posters promoting his band The DADS in 1980 and then expanded to clubs, bars, restaurants, theaters, University events and eventually national customers. Matt’s job is to organize the different routes for the other Poster Guys. Matt has posted almost every campus in North Carolina and also  NYC,Washington DC, Princeton NJ, San Francisco, Montreal, Boston, and Florida from top to bottom. His favorite task is taking a bulletin board that is disorganized and cluttered with out-of-date flyers and making it neat and up-to-date. Some people think he is a fanatic but he just believes in an orderly universe. Matt is in charge of billing and design and is usually the guy you talk to on the phone. Matt is also the creator of Matt Barrett's Greece Travel Guides which was recently sold for 256 million euros so he does not really need to put up posters but he does anyway because it relaxes him. Mostly retired now he still does the billing and a route in Carrboro just because it is the only exercise he gets. He also does Pittsboro most of the year but not in the summer.

Lee is the Chapel Hill Poster Guy and walks more than anybody in town except maybe your mailman. It is his responsibility to pick up the posters from the box at 102 Old Pittsboro Rd in Carrboro on Saturday night and organize them for the downtown Chapel Hill kiosks which are usually empty when he arrives and almost full when he leaves. On the way home he stops at Weaver Street Market, Century Center, Carrboro Farmer's Market and a few other places in Chapel Hill and Carrboro. Then on Monday through Friday he does the UNC campus and the record stores, coffee shops and restaurants and cafes with bulletin boards on Franklin and Rosemary streets and all our Carrboro locations. Then because some people miss our Saturday deadline he goes back to the kiosks and posts the new flyers and makes sure the ones he put up on Sunday have not been covered. Lee also does Durham. Lee left the corporate world to become a Poster Guy five years ago and says he will never go back.

Groves has been with the company for about 25 years though is on temporary leave of absense while he fulfills his dreams of working in the music industry. Groves has done every campus and town at one time or another and has traveled all over the state doing posters and as far as Atlanta.  Groves is one of the most popular musicians in the Triangle and plays drums and bass with several well-known bands. He also tends bar at the Cave on Sunday afternoons so feel free to come in and he will entertain you with tales of his previous life as a Posterguy and the problems of assimilating back into the real world again. He still does a few stops in Hillsborough once a week just to keep up his postering chops. His son Otto is being groomed to take over The Posterguys when Matt and Lee (who are pushing 70) retire.

John is the Posterguy hand-picked by Groves many years ago and trained to provide the outstanding service the company has a reputation for and….blah, blah, blah, etc. John left the Posterguys to pursue a career in education but found that he missed the sound of the staplegun and the exciting feeling of foraging for thumbtacks in buildings that don't allow staples. It was John who famously coined the saying that "A Posterguy should be able to live off the land." True to his word, unlike the other Posterguys who carry a supply of thumbtacks or pushpins or whatever you call them, John prefers to find them on his route and take them as he needs them. John is currently on leave of absense fulfilling a childhood dream of working for a general contractor. But he is expected back anytime and when he does return The Posterguys will be able to start doing Raleigh again

Denise is the newest Posterguy and actually is not a guy at all. Denise joined The Posterguys in 2022 when Groves and John left and does the UNC Medical Center and Science buildings. She also was doing the Chapel Hill Library board but became so flustered by people covering her posters and what a mess it was that she basically stopped doing it, just a few weeks after Matt had stopped doing it for the exact same reason. This is why we no longer list it on the places we go. Denise also has a career in the restaurant business and can be seen waiting tables and tending bar at some of your favorite hangouts.

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