Recent comments in /f/providence

Narples82 t1_jdeds8r wrote

Work on Dyer and they are just now starting to clean up all the shattered dirtbike plastics that have been laying around all winter. These expendable idiots eat shit all the time at low speed and just ride away, no one cares.

One day someone “important” will get injured and that’s when change will begin.

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beerisgreatPA OP t1_jdedec5 wrote

I dont even know where to start with this.

  1. Lets lead with the distributors and retailers not being defended. Liquor lobby is only overmatched by the teamsters. They are constantly blocking stuff left and right. Centrex basically IS the distributors. Those three Distributors M&M Horizon and RID are somewhere in the range of 75% of all distributed alc in the state, and when you look at just beer its in the 90s, all of which is delivered by the teamsters through centrex. A couple thousand cases a year in craft beer is a literal drop in the ocean.
  2. As far as retailers and distributors not making money. There are for sure some liquor stores not making much, those stores though are A. not selling much craft beer and B. usually being suffocated by another larger conglomerate of stores. The other stores are making TONS of money especially in the last 3 years. SPEAKING of loop holes and licenses, How is it that the haxtons, Guptas, heritage and several other retailers, can skirt the rules and get several licenses through family buying? The distributors are also making LOADS of money and two of the three big ones have distributors in multiple states, all of which (except RI) have self distribution and it doesn't seem to be making a dent in thier bottom lines
  3. leveling the playing field. That is exactly what self distribution does. It allows breweries to sell 15 barrels of beer a quarter and get healthy margins for them. Meanwhile the distributors and retailers are still selling 2 or 3 times that of corona, bud, miller etc a day.
  4. Retailers grew far far far more 2019-2023 than any other segment of the industry.
  5. Lastly, the retailers really don't care about this at all, it allows them to sell more local product. Which is one reason why they are not mentioned here. They are however VERY afraid of the teamsters since they were protesting in front of their stores when they took deliveries last year from MS walker. they are more concerned with stop and shop and nip legislation.
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Flashbulb_RI t1_jde99ns wrote

I've had Verizon Fios for about 2+ years and LOVE IT. I pay $40/mo (I use all my own equipment) for the 200/200 tier but they provision it at 300/300. It's rock solid day in / day out. Before Fios, I had Cox and paid around $70/mo for much lower speeds particularly on uploads.

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Proof-Variation7005 t1_jde42nc wrote

I've been using them for like....4 or 5 years now and have had 2 outages.

Both times, the garbage truck's mechanical arm had taken out the wire to the house and it got fixed within a day.

Between outages I couldn't control and times I had to power cycle the modem, I don't think I went more than 2 weeks without having a Cox problem in the previous 6 years.

They've got me hooked enough where, if I had to move, I don't think I'd go somewhere that didn't have FIOS. It's a dealbreaker

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Wonderful_Ad_7235 t1_jddzgs3 wrote

Ok so it's 4k a year vs $1500, everything else I said is accurate. Everyone with a liquor license needs to re-up every year, that's not special. But retailer's pay far more right out of the gate (again: upwards of 100k) with zero opportunity for growth. Retailers cannot purchase any other license. They are trapped in their current, not-very-lucrative circumstances, and they never have anyone to defend them. Most distributors are not raking it in either. RI has some very small distributors, and many more who have failed. They have to pay their suppliers within 30 days, and if they don't get paid in 30 days, then their lives get a bit difficult. And yet no one ever defends them either. If what we're after (aside from tasty beverages) is a healthy environment to create and sustain thriving small businesses connected to and with a stake in their communities, then we need to listen to all of them, not just the ones we happen to like. Rhode Island has managed to protect its independent retailers from going the way of Total Wine carcasses (even though it has a looooong way to go) almost more than any other state. But it's holding on by a thread. Picking and choosing who gets to succeed here isn't really the way to go about fostering that healthy environment. If we're really interested in leveling the playing field, then let's do it for everyone. How? Beats me. But like I said, allowing retailers to sell by the glass, as well as, I don't know, be importers?? Would that be acceptable? How do we maintain our current pretty awesome selection of booze across the board, from beer to byrhh, without throwing some segments under the bus? Are we going to continue to only change the rules for some and never for others? I'm just having a hard time seeing how that is fair.

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Ristray t1_jddyxg6 wrote

We have Verizon and Cox, that seems to be the only two choices. Having had both, Verizon is superior by far. By the end, Cox was getting so bad the router had to be restarted at least once a day. What a pain in the ass. Yeah, Verizon probably sucks in other ways but in how the internet connects and works, it's the best.

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Locksmith-Pitiful t1_jddxsof wrote

> There's not a lot of great solutions here but the city and state police have been working on this for a while.

If this was any other incident, whether it be a riot, multiple cars, whatever, you bet your ass police would absolutely use force and other methods if need be to stop them. We also have their routes and exact times they plan this, at the very least, there's preventative measures.

>Anytime the opportunity has come up, you go out of your way to take a shot at him over this hyper fixation

Holy shit, the guy has been mayor for several months and the only thing his office has released is a proposal to strip a bike lane and multiple photos of him posing with police. There's literally only two things to "fixate" on lmao

Your adamant defense of him is making me question your sanity. How long should we wait until he does something productive or even releases a positive statement on fucking anything?

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beerisgreatPA OP t1_jddtknh wrote

It doesn’t work that way unfortunately. Small breweries get buried in large distribution companies. They cannot compete with the huge incentive programs large companies use to motivate sales forces. If there are 10 Draft lines or 30 openings in a cooler door and you have 75-100 brands. The little guys is lost in the shuffle.

Edit: spelling

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