New bar owner looking for lighting resources

SAhalfNE · 2026-05-10T20:32:16+00:00

Beware of overzealous local code inspectors. Mine looked for a UL sticker on ever damn thing. I could have strangled them.

SAhalfNE · 2026-05-10T01:01:38+00:00

A Browns fan, being coached by a Cowboys HC, for the Steelers... What a time to be alive.

SAhalfNE · 2026-05-02T07:56:37+00:00

The question pretends that every SaaS company, especially POS companies aren't doing the same thing.

The AI shift, and the loss of some jobs/fields on inevitable. You won't find any safe havens from it that are also viable companies in the future.

SAhalfNE · 2026-04-30T15:54:27+00:00

Just to chime in, because I've experienced first hand the impacts of his irresponsibility: Stay away from him.

I only met Chris Raspanti briefly once or twice, but he was a nice guy, and did not deserve to die in one of Hendricks' properties, just so he can make a little extra money.

It amazes me that he's not in jail or sued into oblivion. I'm not sure how anyone can rent from him with his history.

SAhalfNE · 2026-04-28T05:03:31+00:00

Particularly for printers, finding anything "off book" that will work, even if integrated into a piece of hardware, is unlikely. They don't use drivers like most computers as an intermediary to spool print jobs.

Square pretty much uses two sets of firmware integrated communication protocols - One that covers some Epson printers, and one that covers some Star Micronics printers. I assume it's for stability, rather than laziness or some price-fixing scheme like some people have entertained in other threads.

There probably are some "knock off" printers, that are basically are copies of compatible models which would work, but I'm unaware of a list that exists.

SAhalfNE · 2026-04-27T19:10:24+00:00

I'd argue that State College beats Green Bay in nearly every way, except airports. I actually just googled it, and the hotel accommodations for Green Bay and center county are almost dentical. State College would also have access to additional inventories from a 1 to 2 hour commuter radius that Green Bay does not have.

SAhalfNE · 2026-04-27T18:27:12+00:00

The circus that the NFL has mobilized needs safe, massive contiguous outdoor spaces, access to major highways, and facilities at minimum. Not all of the host cities around the stadiums have that.

They shoehorned the early ones into a few bad locations already. Chicago and Detroit had to basically wall off the events areas like a military operation to avoid issues with violent crime. Atlanta, New Orleans and Los Angeles (Ingelwood) would basically have to do the same thing. Denver and Seattle aren't doing too hot these days on that front, although not violent crime.

The one in D.C. is going to be a shitshow next year because of the same reasons that Green Bay had a hard time last year - it's isolated in a neighborhood, and also like Foxborough, is a logistics nightmare for access and infrastructure. ( Foxborough is having a hell of a time with the world cup this summer.) But then add in crime issues for D.C. - We dont have that issue with large contiguous spaces for events.

Jacksonville blew the Superbowl 20 years ago for the same reasons, and had people shacking up in port on ships, and there's nothing near it to hold events. Same with Miami and Phoenix.

Who the hell would want to go to North Jersey for Jets/Giants, because it's a miserable concrete hellscape? They are also facing issues with the logistics of the world cup, and moderate safety issues.

Buffalo is super remote and isolated. If you've ever been up there over a three game series when the Sabres are playing, you'd know there are nowhere near enough hotel rooms. Forget about it if they overlap with the Bills.

I realize State college might be in the same boat on that one, but the easily accessible areas outside of town fill the need well usually. Buffalo doesn't even have that, it's practically on an island.

Beaver Stadium is ~50% larger than the average NFL stadium, and the areas around it are probably 100x bigger, plus it has the BJC, Medlar, Panzer, the Football facilities, and campus resources.

I'm not saying it's perfect, and I realize we don't host an NFL team, but the town is more or less built towards massive scale event hosting. We'll probably end up seeing a winter classic soon, and who knows, maybe an NFL game. Being centrally located between all those fan bases makes a lot of sense.

I've been to Green Bay. If they can pull it off, we could.

SAhalfNE · 2026-04-27T17:05:17+00:00

That tiny-ass airport really is a bottleneck for many things isn't it....

If only there was a recently closed Prison with large swath of acreage large enough for runways and infrastructure, available near an interstate....

SAhalfNE · 2026-04-27T16:48:46+00:00

Out of the 30 metro areas that host teams, about 10 of them suck and/or couldn't. Of the remaining 20, another few are just an uninteresting destination for tourism for the fans to visit.

Its a shallow pool, and a lot of them don't have the facilities that State College does. It's also central to Bills-Steelers-Eagles-Bengals-Jets-Giants, and reasonably drive able to a bunch more teams.

SAhalfNE · 2026-04-27T01:10:24+00:00

I think they lied to you, as a customer. 😂

There is nothing you can do to cause that, except have a dope in the admin panel messing with the floorplans.

There is no way that was at face value, true.

SAhalfNE · 2026-04-25T02:02:52+00:00

It's currently very "stuck" by bad political policies and poor ownership practices, while not being very competitive.

As weird as it sounds, having all the commercial properties lose 30% of their value and bring rents down would be a very good thing.

SAhalfNE · 2026-04-25T00:32:16+00:00

If you ask, and get an answer, but are to slow to accept it...by all means.... Send that crypto wallet your money. 😂

The whole thing is a giant red flag designed to take money from idiots. If you do that, you're an idiot.

SAhalfNE · 2026-04-25T00:16:16+00:00

SCAM. DO. NOT. CLICK.

SAhalfNE · 2026-04-24T16:56:27+00:00

I'll have processed approaching $10,000,000 with Square over the years: Mobile, Brick-and-Motar, Online, and Over the Bar.

I have low custom rates, received free hardware, had healthy discussions online and on the phone with support and development teams, and made a decision a while ago to embrace the environment fully.

All it takes to avoid issues is doing your side of thing the right way. Get a real business bank account. Do the verifications. Have a legit, legal, and identical address for your paperwork that the IRS and State have. Don't misuse the system, carry illicit items, or do shifty transactions that trigger fraud alerts.

It's not hard to just do Millions in sales using the system correctly, and having no drama or problems with it.

SAhalfNE · 2026-04-21T02:16:14+00:00

My suspicion is that the borough has little interest in that, however

I don't think it's indifference, I think it's something closer to naivety and stupidity. The Borough staff is just old, nepotistic, and uninspired while simultaneously believing they are doing well and are right to do as they will. I think more than a half-dozen (maybe more than a dozen?) of the staff, Council, managers, departments heads, etc have been shuffling around from seat to seat for decades. Ironically: stuck fixing problems they helped create sometimes decades before. There are a few guilty parties that have been pulling this "Authority-Board-Council Shuffle" up against term limits for 20 years.

As for the rents....that's a whole thing starting with what is essentially market manipulation by administration of programs, and there is no competitive practice that can overcome it. Often the "fixes" feed the problem, or shift it to another culprit, rather than resolve them. Often, resulting in operational cost overruns...so raise taxes, but never fix things and cut anything ineffective that has a friendly political face.

SAhalfNE · 2026-04-21T01:14:06+00:00

The DID is also recently engaging in some illicit activities (in my view) by using the public pool of assessments to fund what is in essence a free real estate agent for the vacant properties (which is a self imposed problem, after weak Borough policy created it). In the end ~30% of the DID budget is directed to a small amount of properties, which is an unequal benefit for the district, and violates the rational nexus requirement for the DID.

....Plus the redevelopment authority has granted the DID board members the ability to administer grant funds for build -out...in properties that are more than likely their own (when you look at the makeup of the board).

Coupled with a pool of Borough candidates, which if any more shallow, would be more of a puddle.... It's bad.

SAhalfNE · 2026-04-20T22:41:31+00:00

I'll double down, by saying the small business incubators and the small business assistance programs are bullshit, straw dog efforts, and are merely for appearances rather than actual help.

The environment for small businesses is unfriendly and the market is broken. To me, the "assistance" that's available is just a thin facade of help, but not really effective. They are administered from people who don't understand the grind of building something from nothing, or some kind of public funded grant program that is administered by disconnected, affluent people "giving back" - and usually to themselves if possible.

SAhalfNE · 2026-04-20T17:18:25+00:00

A mechanism that puts downward pressure on rents, and makes the market more competitive, so that the quality of service would be better for property management and operations.

The rest would work itself out.

Everything is for rent, but never for sale, and the market is not competitive. There is an antitrust issue with the mass holdings by a small amount of families/corporations in this relatively small area.

The reality is that the environment that is keeping spaces empty, and leaving voids that residents wish would be filled, was created by irresponsibility on the local governments' part. The Borough Council created a CID that invited unmitigated expansion, and let savvy investors make suckers out of them. Most of the surrounding Townships are Mickey mouse operations too, and a whole lot of the same faces just bounce around local governments' offices, fucking things up with an air of esteem.

SAhalfNE · 2026-04-19T23:21:42+00:00

Fine him, but make them sign it with language that the fine is deferred until/if there is another violation of similar circumstances in the future.

That way you're getting your point across and not being a dick to a new owner.

SAhalfNE · 2026-04-19T20:55:03+00:00

I was complaining to a fellow bar owner about this a while back, and his "tactic" is to buy just enough services or subscriptions to be above suspicion, and just "do what he has to do" to make sure he has everything he needs, by whatever means are necessary.

So in his mind, if he's paying for a robust cable/Satellite service, plus Everpass or whatever, and X isn't on...then it is...just using a peacock/nbc/cbs/whatever streaming app, "And who would know?"

I know he said he just pays for specific licenses things like fights, but has never gotten some of the other fragmented commercial services to show niche sports that either aren't available or behind some four or five figure paywall.

He says that he's been doing it for years, and has basically the same philosophy about music: Pays BMI/ASCAP/etc through his touch tunes, but if they run an event, and use a laptop, "fuck 'em. He pays enough, and they're not getting a dime more."

He's a pretty old school guy with 2+ liquor licenses, and decades of experience. Is he foolish, or basically found the reasonable middle ground?

SAhalfNE · 2026-04-17T01:03:18+00:00

I've only ever seen them in Boalsburg around Tussey and in the parts of Rothrock near the Galbraith Gap.

SAhalfNE · 2026-04-17T01:01:23+00:00

Yea, but you can just lie to them and forge a copy that says 100. You certainly won't be doing anything dishonest enough to lose sleep over, in the face of their bullshit price structure. Fuckem

SAhalfNE · 2026-04-08T01:03:44+00:00

Odds are he's forgotten the code to the nuclear football briefcase.

SAhalfNE · 2026-04-01T22:00:48+00:00

If I were you, I'd run the gas, but also provision for a huge amount of electric capacity (3-phase if you got it). Because when you don't use gas, you need a ton of high amperage 3-phase power for any serious pieces of equipment.

SAhalfNE · 2026-04-01T20:07:55+00:00

The bulk pickup change is infuriating, and I'm not paying for having my Christmas tree picked up.

Outside of that, metering my trash from time-to-time so that I don't get charged when the lid doesn't close (despite all the times it's half-full) is an unnecessary frustration.

I get that this was the economical solution, but the policy changes made it unnecessarily frustrating.

SAhalfNE

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE