New England B.S. Thread

GLWS, awesome sight for anyone in the market

 

Damn, that's a nice setup! I have the knock off version and like it for my use. If you're a member on Northeast Shooters, you might have better luck listing it over there.

 

I mean. I HAVE that set up(2 dot).... excellent setup.
PM sent

 

What use might that be?

 

Oh. Pest control.

 

All lawful purposes

 

Good answer

 

Warning, old man rant ahead. Go ahead and swerve around it unless you're the type that hits roadkill on purpose just to see how it smells. TL;DR back in my day gas was a nickel and the boy at the pump smiled uphill both ways while he washed your windshield with good old-fashioned American Family Values™.

So, I was doing my daily 5 minute ration of looking at the news this AM and stumbled on this story about Wendy's moving to a 'surge pricing' program. They have of course backpedaled like mad while spinning like a DJ after widespread outrage was the immediate response.

Now, backpedal or not, I think the entire idea is emblematic of the way a lot (maybe most) business is being run these days. It's no longer worth it or enough to compete on price, quality, or service when you can just find a way to gouge people. In this case, yeah, cool, we figure if we can jack the prices up 17% during busy times, enough people will buy it anyway by the time they've made it to the menu board in the drivethrough because they've already spent 20 minutes in line and don't have time or the inclination to drive somewhere else and "waste" the wait.

Make no mistake when you see stuff like this, whether it gets dropped, explained away, or not - someone high up enough to be in charge did the math (correctly not not) and figured it was more profitable to just rip people off, plain and simple.

I've been so increasingly irritated at the constant gouging, nickle-and-diming, bait and switch, gotchas, straight up lawlessness, and other assorted shitty business behavior that I find myself buying less and less, making do without, or making/doing it myself even when it might not actually be cheaper, faster, or easier to do so, basically out of spite.

I'm also tired of hearing that "people will vote with their wallets" to keep predatory business practices in check. It's clearly not working - the number of companies that ultimately own everything is shockingly small, and collusion (in its classical economic definition as well as the common, broader sense) means that entire industries pretty quickly jump onto the same bullshit. How do you vote with your wallet when all the candidates are doing the same shitty things?

Here's an example of what I'm talking about on a very 'local' scale, not even talking about Procter & Gamble or any of the other titans - I used to live in a city where almost all of the franchise fast food joints were owned by the same family. McDonalds, Popeyes, Subway, literally almost all of them, with different holding companies for the guy, his wife, and two of his kids to handle exclusivity/non-compete clauses in various franchise agreements. Every single one of them sucked, was always understaffed, constantly fighting wage theft allegations and employment violations, frequently ran out of basic supplies, and you know what? It didn't matter! What are you going to do, drive across the street and give your money to the same scumbag, and still not get what you actually wanted?

And "voting with your wallet" only works when people have the time, energy, and capacity to even care. I saw some old leftist propaganda years ago that really stuck with me. It's got this handful of stick people going, "Global Warming? I'm just trying to pay the water bill!" and "Price fixing? My kids are sick and I can't afford a babysitter!" and "Wall Street? I can't even walk on Main Street!"

So what's my solution? Give me another year or two to finish the place I'm building and the solution is never having to look at or hear about it ever again.

 

We’re getting screwed on everything. Almost everything you buy is now smaller but costs more. Food prices are insane. The service industry is a disaster. It won’t stop until we’re all broke.

 

I saw this on the news last night, my family had to tell me to shut up as I went off and off and off.

because we are busy you need to pay more for the burger, but don’t worry the employees are still making minimum wage all the time.

 

I can't even remember the last time I want to a large chain fast food place, but every time I get a survey for the burrito place near work (I think they have 5 locations) I slam them for charging $1.50 extra for sour cream. It's so transparently just a cash grab on what's already a $13 burrito. I doubt they're paying much more than a dollar per pound for sour cream in bulk.

We're just two people and spend ~$700/month on groceries. We're small people, too - I'm about 150 lbs, she's under 100 - so it isn't like we have huge caloric needs.

I was hearing about large insurance rate increases on NPR this morning too. My home and auto policies both renew in May, so I have a while before I get to see where they come in at.

 

OH, OH DON'T get me on this one. I went to Buffalo Wild Wings this weekend for a friends birthday. I haven't been in years, I know they're a fine option, nothing spectacular, is what it is, whatever. Ordered 2x5 boneless, waiter asks "Ranch or blue cheese?" - I thought for a second, remembered what I ordered, said "Ranch". 2 things of ranch came.

Until I got the bill, I didn't know it was 1.50 EACH for those. The utter shenanigans of the way they ask "Ranch or blue cheese?" like it's included and implied that it's included. Shenanigans. Absolute shenanigans.

 

This is getting good!

 

I don't think I've ever had that happen. I don't use either with wings, because I'd rather just taste the flavor of the wing but sometimes I'll just say ranch because it's easier than saying neither and having the "really? are you sure?" confirmation conversation. I've never been to a Buffalo Wild Wings. We have a several "Wings Over" / "Hangar" restaurants around here - the original was the Hangar near UMass. I'd go there with friends probably once a month back when it was in the small building. Western Mass people will remember this place:

 

I think Guacamole is worth more per once than gold at these restaurants.

 

Oh, oh, oh, I got this one. Guacamole is mad expensive in places that don't turn it over fast enough cause it goes brown (customers don't like that) so fast - most guac is thrown away in restaurants that don't have a lot of it on the menu. It's also something that for some reason a lot of Americans don't seem to realize is super easy and inexpensive to make at home, so you're also paying the luxury tax when la cuenta comes around.

 

YUP. Well, not that specific one, but that place is good. Jared and Drew brought us over there after Ma bell....last year? two years ago?

It was up in Portland, there isn't much going on around the Portland Mall other than Buffalo Wild Wings, and Olive Garden. That will make 6 people happy.

 

National grid bill came in today, half of the fucking thing is a delivery charge...all of this is really resonating today.

 

hahaha I feel like such an old man complaining about my electric bill but god damn it drives me nuts. Just a perfect “bend over and pay the man” scenario where you’re screwed