I got a text from my wife yesterday shortly after asking if she needed me to grab anything from the store, as I was going there. She responded back “soda”.
This is my review of Alesmith Speedway Grand Prix Maple Bar Edition:
For context, my wife gets caffeine from Mountain Dew. No, she is not Mormon, she just doesn’t like coffee. We typically don’t ask each other to purchase our vices for one another, in part because she nearly always buys me IPA. Her next text read, “store brand is ok.”
Which is ludicrous, I thought. Why buy a generic brand of high fructose corn syrup when it is so cheap? Silly me…
What the hell kind of cracker jack universe do we live in where this is anything but fucking obscene? Okay, there needs to be a reasonable explanation here. So I check the generic Big K version and it happens to be under $4 for a 12 pack. Pretty normal to me. I check the “Coke” side of the aisle and find a pack of Coke isn’t $4-5 but it isn’t double digits either. So there has to be something afoot here.
First thing I checked was tariffs, obviously this must have something to do with the Orange Man, right? Not really, their CEO recently said their businesses were more or less insulated from the new tariffs, although they might have take a hit with aluminum from Canada. I then checked the local news to see if some retarded local politician implemented an excise tax. Still nothing, besides for either to be an explanation everything else on the shelf would go up proportionally. This is standing out on its own.
So I looked further, and discovered…they raised their prices during COVID since everyone else had to, but after that just sort of raised their price on everything. Which was great from a sales standpoint, because they started selling in larger quantities.
Anyways, they’re getting sued by the FTC in the SDNY (link safe there’s no PREEEEEEEEEET) for price discrimination, and I should’ve been buying this stuff from Wal-Mart the entire time. Bonehead decision on my part for going to Kroger.
I know I said I finished the last of this series a few weeks back. I was wrong and thought I reviewed this one. Anyways… 🚨🚨White Girl 🚨 Beer Alert 🚨 🚨 Maple syrup as you are likely aware, is sweet. Its nothing more than the sap tapped from maple trees, boiled down to a syrup and left in a warehouse in Quebec for several years so the Canadian government can control commodity prices on maple syrup. Which between this and their terrible excuse for bacon justifies most of the tariffs Canada now faces. They probably deserve it. This beer though is not from Canada, but I will not be recommending it not because it makes me think of dangerous drivers from Quebec that infest my hometown every winter. No, its sweet as hell. I probably wouldn’t even give it to a white girl. Alesmith Speedway Grand Prix Maple Bar Edition: 2.8/5 12% ABV
“The Federal Trade Commission said Friday that it is suing PepsiCo for illegal price discrimination, alleging the food and beverage giant gave an unnamed retailer more favorable prices than its competition.
Walmart is the unnamed retailer, people familiar with the matter told CNBC.”
No idea why that should be illegal, as Walmart buys in much larger quantities.
“No idea why that should be illegal, as Walmart buys in much larger quantities.”
Around here all the beer stores and drive-thrus have sign proclaiming “State Minimum Prices” and yet they have different prices, I asked the owner of my regular drive-thru why and he said that different store get different rates based on quantity and the State Minimum is only on the mark up. So, yeah seems like common business practice
Yep. Minimum mark up at each step of the chain is 25%, so the distributors can sell for 125% of what the breweries sell it to them at, and the retailers can sell it at 125% of what the distributors sold it to them at. The breweries who self distribute and/or sell packaged beer at the brewery can set whatever price they would like.
The railroad rebates for Standard Oil really got people’s dander up.
Not all white girls are into the dark stuff
I once had a display go black, but then it came back.
I hear that almost never happens.
Boo! Boo this man!
That has not been my experience, at all.
Speaking of prices, I recently noticed that macrobrews like Budweiser are around $9 a six pack.
Beer prices have gotten ridiculous.
I remember when a $10/six pack was an expensive one…
~ a buck a can, for that crap? Yeesh.
Does this mean DOGE is going to take away Trump’s Diet Coke button?
The government can use its “negotiating” power.
“I probation wouldn’t even give it to a white girl.”
Probation?
White girls will get you in trouble. It is known.
Probation?
Yes.
Sounds like a juicy story.
My attorney insists that I not tell it. You’ll have to take it up with Swiss.
Mtn Dew != Mountain Dew
That’s more per can than Pub Beer at Winco. No idea what Winco charges for Mtn Dew. I don’t drink fizzy hummingbird food.
Whether you like him or not, you have to give Rand Paul his props for standing his ground against tariffs and the onslaught from MAGA. In a somewhat perfect world, that dude would be President and Massie the Speaker of the House.
And Canadian bacon is gross.
It has its uses. Just think of it as pork loin. It’s obviously not “bacon”.
Real Canadian bacon or Hawaiian pizza Canadian bacon?
Massie would have to compromise and be compromised to be Speaker.
We’re stuck with the politicians that Americans vote for.
I didn’t vote for them.
Other people’s money, other people’s votes.
Rand Paul 2028!
I respect him for sticking to his principles.
Now that aluminum prices will go up the pickers will be out on their bikes.
Recycling aluminum cans was how I was able to afford my first car.
It was how I was able to afford smokes during one rough college summer of couch surfing.
But yeah, in my state recycling just for the 5 cents has never let up. Except instead of college students now it’s teams of little old Asian women, if your town has them, otherwise the homeless.
Hmm, I do go through a lot of cans.
left in a warehouse in Quebec for several years so the Canadian government can control commodity prices on maple syrup.
A little trick they learned from deBeers?
Also- that Kona Big Wave was too sweet for me. Just thinking about maple syrup beer makes me retch.
The soda price increases during Covid, which then became the new baseline during the last round of double digit inflation, and which will probably shoot up again as this trade war with the universe spikes prices are the one solid argument supporting the lefty argument that inflation is price gouging. It’s freaking sugar water. The ingredients are domestic.
Corn syrup?
If we are importing corn syrup I want a word with Iowa.
Its been corn syrup for decades, even in Mexico. “Mexican cCke” in glass bottles, while still made in Mexico is exported to the US because there is a market for cane sugar based Coke.
1. I FLUV Mountain Dew, but I gain weight really easily if I drink my sugar, and I can’t STAND Diet Mountain Dew because it’s just gross. This is my solution: Caffeine without the calories. Now, I started this decades ago when I was hard-core low-carbing and I was also weightlifting, so I was also stacking (ECA), but you can’t get the E anymore (fuck you in the ass with a thousand barbed penises without lube, FDA) and I can’t take A because ulcers, so that left me with the C only, but it also sort of solved a problem I’ve had my whole life (falling asleep wherever I light regardless of time of day or need to pay attention).
2. @Ev, I don’t mind being corrected and heaven knows I’ve had to re-upload my books many times for typos, and here it is, 17 years later and I’m STILL finding typos. However, if it’s a period piece and the word’s been used more than once (which it was), it’s good editing practice to google.
3. Canadian bacon is absolutely non-negotiable for eggs Benedict, so fie upon thee, Ed.
Can’t you still get ephedrine from bronchodilators like Primatene or Bronchaid ?
Ephedrine sulfate or hydrochloride, yes, but I don’t think those salts are as effective as the straight ephedrine. I can’t find information to back that up, but IIRC, I did notice a change when the formula changed.
I am sensitive to drug formula changes if I’ve been on it a long time. I was on a drug for a while and my health insurance changed its formulary, and I could only get it from a different manufacturer (tiny changes to get around patent issues). I told the doc it didn’t work, and she poo-poohed me, but I insisted she write for the one I had been taking. Lo and behold, not too much longer later, the one I refused was taken off the market because the change was significant enough that it didn’t do what it was supposed to do.
I’m here to negotiate. Salmon eggs
Benedict with smoked salmon is delicious.
I’ll allow it.
“Kro-zhay” here in SW OH has the same price for a 12-pack of the name brands, but routinely runs specials – currently buy 2, get 1 free, but I recently caught a buy 2, get 2 free deal to restock the break room at work. I think there might even have been a buy 2, get 3 free for a few minutes. My greatest challenge at work the last few years has been keeping the cost of soft drinks and snacks to something reasonably close to the 50 cents per serving our employees are used to honorably throwing in the kitty.
I’ve also noted that they now carry 24-packs, currently $15.99, but $9.99 if you’re set up to get the electro-coupon.
For my personal consumption, I grew up disliking anything carbonated (in a family of hardcore Pepsi drinkers) and didn’t drink any soft drinks until I started doing Mello Yello in college to pull all-nighters. This has made it easy for me to largely limit my own indulgence to the occasional Dr. Pepper, Mello Yello/Dew, or, when available, ginger ale at fast food places where water isn’t really an option. (Still don’t like colas.)
Growing up in the western part of the county, it was RC Cola cause it was way cheaper than coke or pepsi.
Now that stuff is like hipster juice- more expensive.
Since OBE is in the Bluegrass, he needs to cultivate a taste for Ale 8.
Tres Cool:
What’s wrong with Ale 8?
We can get that here at B. A. Sweeties.
“RC Cola”
I can’t even read that without me and my RC running through my head.
Up until 2015 or so it was only distributed in central kentuck. El-8 (proper pronunciation) wasn’t distributed much outside of that area before then.
Kinda esoteric.
I have a project in Louisville coming up. Its so cute the way you NE Ohio people say “Louie-ville” instead of the proper “Luh-vuhl”.
Quite Rightly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQNBQI3UDag
I loooove fizzy drinks but it’s hard – and pricey – to find anything with real sugar and not too much of it. San Pellegrino has me covered there lately, at about the same price point of $1 a can.
Fun fact: During the single-A Dayton Dragons’ first season (maybe longer – I don’t recall) the cola available at the concession stands was RC.
At the local BBQ joint Oinkadoodlemoo – of which there is at most one left, and it may be circling the drain 😢 – you could get Cheerwine.
You rang?
If only Steely Dan had covered the song.
It’s fucking terrible. That’s what’s wrong with Ale 8.
+1 Electrical Banana
The craziest sale I saw was at a local Giant Eagle, that had Special K boxed cereal free as long as you took it in sets of 5 boxes. Another time they did buy 1 box, get 5 boxes free.
Fun for all! “Royal Crown Cola Bottling Co. is a company based in Evansville, Indiana, that bottles and distributes RC Cola.” It’s good, but never ‘got into’ it.
And I gotta say: Coke ZERO is phenomenal. They fucking *nailed* it. Dad drinks normal Coke and I can’t tell the difference. I *easily* drink a 6-pack a day. Likely eight. I also have a pitcher of UNSWEET tea makin’ the rounds. (Sweet tea is literally undrinkable. I’ll spit it out. Yuuuck.) Evansville may also be the North/South line on ordering iced tea – Unsweet in the North and bitterly sweet in the South. True demon brew. Cross the Ohio and sweet becomes standard.
I also re-apologize to Mo, as I’m quite Grumpy Mornin’ Ev thought it was in any way sensible to ‘offer’ his idiotic thoughts at ~4am.
Imma leave this here:
https://substack.com/home/post/p-158092922
*SWISH*
Never wanted kids and this only helps! (I hope my boys can *swim,* but I don’t want them inseminating anything. More of a cursory sniff, like when Peabody sniffs that dogs ass and then moves on along.)
Coke Zero was better before they reformulated it.
It’s good, but never ‘got into’ it.
No Moon Pies?
If we are importing corn syrup I want a word with Iowa.
Considering how much of the corn crop is diverted to fuel ethanol, it wouldn’t surprise me to find out we are importing corn syrup.
That would be a twofer, two losses with one law.
Fuck it, sell Iowa to Canada.
Iowegians won’t be Canadians, no bullheads to catch.
Fuck it, sell Iowa to Canada.
No
Given the state of the laws, I just assume we are simultaneously exporting and importing corn syrup, for $reasons.
BI-PARTISAN!!!
Given the state of the laws, I just assume we are simultaneously exporting and importing corn syrup, for $reasons.
Milo Minderbinder approves.
$9.29 at my supermarket for both Pepsi and Coke products.
Sundrop is the most popular soda pop in this region.
Behold a provincial:
This is what happens when you don’t travel and/or listen to how people speak.
Wherefore’rt
Yeah, I wouldn’t use it in prose but that is exactly how people talk.
Those people acrost the crick talk funny like that.
What Fourscore says….and it’s ‘CREEEEEK’.
*Googles*
What is this “running water” of which you speak?
“Those people acrost the crick talk funny like that.”
They do? And you probably have a trade imbalance with them too. Slap them with tariffs until they move to our side of the crick.
*R C Dean waits for the safety of the sietch before removing his stillsuit*
Flying off the lots
Ford and Stellantis brands such as Ram Trucks and Jeep have among the highest days’ supply of vehicle inventories in the automotive industry, according to Cox Automotive.
The two companies also were among the only major automakers this week to report notable drops in first-quarter vehicle sales. Stellantis was off roughly 12%, while Ford was down 1.3% from a year earlier.
Cox reports the national days’ supply vehicle average was 89 days, while those brands were between 110 days and 130 days. The auto industry has historically considered a healthy days’ supply to be between 60 days to 80 days.
In light of the tariffs and fears for potential price increases, demand for vehicles has been high. Consumers flocked to dealer showrooms at the end of last month as Trump confirmed the tariffs would be coming, leading to significant sales gains for many automakers.
It’s a buying frenzy.
Ram has had excess inventory for over a year now.
Wait till the EV Dodge Charger Daytona start piling up.
Boy, no shit. Nobody will buy that thing. I believe they are selling more “new” 2023 chargers than the new electric ones right now.
Dodge is going to get pounded on that car.
🙁
I am a reckless fool.
I just had to mod my GoTEK to change the display before I even verified anything about it.
So I swapped the display and updated the firmware to support it. I got one good message out of the screen, now it shows garbage.
But I was able to boot off it. Problem is, without a working screen on the GoTEK, I can’t have a multi disk collection, and it just turns a usb stick to a floppy disk. This computer can read USB sticks, I got GRUB to start from an ubuntu stick.
And now I’m confused.
I bought two 16GB thumb drives for $7 each. They are marked as 16GB on the outside, but both Windows and Linux sees 32GB of space.