Ocean State Foods

04/07/2023

03/31/2023

We added a new highlight/album called H&M 03/2023; besides this post, any new information is contained there. On one of the first frames, we reference that several of our questions were never addressed after 3 months; they are as follows:

What is my reputation from your POV?
Does Hope & Main have media relations?
Does Hope & Main suggest/recommend members & businesses to cover to media outlets?
If so, what is the criteria for recommending these businesses?
Is there a list of guidelines that could be verified retroactively?
Or, is it cherry picking the businesses you want to see make it?

Furthermore, we never referenced the NON highlight via a post; the information in that highlight is highly relevant to this post & the aforementioned highlight. Essentially, the organization chose which organizations it wanted to receive public funds; and in an effort to make things ‘fair’, they actually made them unfair. There is/was no system in place to “fairly” distribute the funds; so they prioritized certain businesses for whatever the reason may be (although we think some potential reasons may be implied)

Let us also take a nod at our market & media highlights/posts; in conjunction with the theme of favoritism/collusion disguised as social causes and sensationalism

If you’re not born a certain way, and can’t be controlled for frivolous reason, you’re not going to eat. We won’t promote you in the media, we won’t give you a spot to sell or let you sell your most popular products, and we won’t buy your products because of something we heard about you but never asked you about; the expectation is to remain silent, and not stir the pot

Maybe you should come make an example out of me, before someone gets any ideas

03/21/2023

This post references the “administration” highlight on IG; or the album of the same name on Facebook. We’re taking a further look at the systems we rely on as a society; and the industries we collectively decided that we “can’t do without”. This is what happens when you create an inelastic demand and a lack of responsibility; for example I wouldn’t need an accountant at our current scale if it wasn’t for taxes. If I could represent myself effectively (and didn’t have to dance around a judge’s ego), I wouldn’t need these BS artists

Losing tons of money and time is bad enough; the real crime is that my faith in both of these professions has been eroded to a point where they’re operating at a negative (they’ve brought a LOSS in value to me; every step of the way)

Even better, is how they fit together. In an “imaginary” world: the accountant spends my money on a lawyer to threaten me to shut-up about how they basically stole my money; and then my lawyer doesn’t care because I don’t have the money to p**s away in court. I mean, the only people that would win are the lawyers right?

Tell me this; what is the incentive to do the right thing, when justice is only available to those who can pay for it? Why should I wait for the court, when I know I could sell the guy’s car and the gold in his teeth by the end of the week? Well, I guess the only thing is that we know the criminal justice system is much more efficient than the civil courts; but I think that too would be overloaded once enough people realize it’s up to them

I can’t even dream that one day, maybe my kids can become one of you; because I can’t even get paid for what I do, or get what I paid for (that kid wouldn’t be able to eat right now, never mind college). The social contract is in breach; and there’s like one loose screw holding the handle on

If we don’t fix the problems, they’re going to keep happening. The owner that never got held responsible, he’s going to steal your grandma’s dessert in the nursing home; and his kids that were able to live a good life on dad’s fraud money will literally take the food out of your children’s mouth

03/20/2023

We’ve been adding content via our stories/highlights; we have a couple posts coming this week to further tie things together. Unfortunately, certain things have an implied negative tone; so we wanted to update you on where we stand, our future plans, and how it all fits together

We have path forward; we’re going to turn Ocean State Foods into a local food hub, amongst other things. We’ve been updating the information on our site, bit by bit; and it’s kind of a “rough draft” for the direction we’re going in. Imagine it like this: anything you can dream us doing, we can potentially do for you. We tried to give you some ideas by laying out our experience/skills/education; but we’re free to do whatever needs to be done if you really want to make a change

In short, we are “doubling down” on our mission; and simply pursuing it from a number of different angles. We’ve done a lot of thinking, and all of our successes personally, professionally, and as a business stem from our ability to both develop & execute realistic systems; so we can pursue our goals by helping you with your’s

The first piece is our consulting; it’s how we intend to pay our bills and dig ourselves out of the holes we had to dig getting here. We’re purposefully not for everyone; consider us so honest that if you bring us into the wrong environment, we’ll end up destroying it so it can be built back better (I said it). We’re for the genuine only; and for those who share our vision & values, not work against inclusivity

There is considerable risk; that speaking out will alienate other business owners (especially those on the ”ins”) and it’ll just be another sad story of doing the work and getting nothing back. But this time we’re smarter; and we have a nice list of things to address when we’re slow that further our interests. We’ll have more to say on the consulting; but for now, please don’t hesitate to reach out

First things first though, we need to finish leveling the playing field a bit. The mission to develop our local food systems is a noble one; but unfortunately good things shine bright enough to attract the monsters

03/01/2023

We’re posting our personal experience working in the industry; it’s to be used as a resource so you can come to your own decisions. This post heavily references the highlight “Experience” found on our Instagram; or the same album on Facebook. The entire bulk of the post IS the highlights; because there’s a character limit on IG. The highlights mostly go in reverse chronological order

Why does no-one want to work? Maybe this will help clear it up. Kitchens are like the American dream. Sure, washing dishes or getting screamed at on a Saturday night instead of going out with your buddies isn’t most peoples’ idea of a good time. But, if you put in the work & due diligence, you can rise the ranks; dishwashers to cook, cook to chef, chef to owner, etc. The problem is, when you take away the dream (being able to afford the basics and have a happy healthy family), the job isn’t worth it anymore. The value to the employee is not $/hr; it’s $/hr plus a way to you dreams

The same applies to our business. We tolerated slow money in hopes for the future; but now that we see clearly, we’ve lost it (in terms of cooking professionally). The industry in its CURRENT STATE will never be able to provide the environment needed for me (Bryan) to achieve the things I want out of life

For context, I haven’t even been able to go out on a date, never mind maintain a stable relationship or family, since opening the business. I worked with a lot of sad people in the past; their wife is mad they’re always working, and they don’t know their kids. I don’t want to be like that; I wouldn’t be anywhere close to where I am today without my family, and I intend to pass that on at a bare minimum. That’s why I wanted to build a business first; so an overgrown child can’t hold your life hostage instead of doing THEIR piece

A lot of people have tried to tell us to be quiet. I’m not sure what makes them think we’re interested in smoke & mirrors; and letting predatory organizations pull the wool over our eyes. They NEED you to dump all your time, money, and energy into their false hope; it’s how THEY get paid. If we can stop someone from getting into this mess, at least we’ve done something good

02/03/2023

02/03/2023

Reformatted to include resignations and another experience. 1 more coming for this album

01/27/2023

Hey everyone; I just wanted to give you all an update on our progress

We’ve been focusing on rebuilding & re-centering ourselves; starting personally. When the business relies on you, you tend to prioritize it; and the constant push just to maintain took its toll over time. We’ve been cooking at home, experimenting with some new ideas we’re excited to implement once we’re back; something we’ve only been able to do a handful of times since starting the business. We believe in our grain bowls for a reason

There’s still more to catch up on; and we intend to finish up with the past as soon as possible, so we can focus 100% on the present & future. Our experience is a tool. At this point, we think fully documenting our experiences & challenges can be a useful resource; both to our future activities (as a point of reference), and to others in similar circumstances

We’ve been working on our future too; and we’re taking the opportunity to re-build as “from scratch” as possible. We took our old website down; and replaced it with a new one. Our new website (v4.0) is going to be great; each progressive version has been a significant improvement, and we expect no less of our new site. Everything we could tell you about what we’re going to do can be found there; link in profile/bio. At the time we’re writing this post, our site is essentially written in html; which means it’s extremely basic in format, but the information is relevant. We look forward to looking back on this post, and seeing how far we will take the site; as we continue to learn and improve it functionally & aesthetically

Anyways, that’s all for now. We appreciate everyone that has supported us, and stayed; we lost some people, but have increased our followers since we started (we broke 700 this week, woohoo!). Hopefully you guys aren’t just here for the circus; we really are trying to help here