Trillium Celebrating Dr. King Like it's 2018

It always makes you feel good when a company has its values properly aligned with its practice, right? That's why I was so delighted to see this post today from Trillium Brewing Company.

When you see a business with the footprint and net worth of Trillium utilizing the words of Dr. King, a noted anticapitalist, you can't help but feel like maybe there's real visionary leadership there. Sure, on Friday 1/12 they notified 14 of their 20 employees at their Fenway location that they were being shifted from part-time to "per diem" status, meaning they would no longer be put on the schedule. Maybe business is too slow for us to continue paying your $6/hour wage, but we are committed to the idea that all work is significant and all humans, regardless of full-time or part-time status, are inherently possessed of dignity. The cognitive dissonance here is ridiculous. The promises were made that calls would be made to workers who are being put on hiatus for shift coverage as needed, and they would bring workers back in April, but in the meantime, when the Boston service industry is at its absolute slowest, they told workers "Good luck! See you when things thaw out!"


Trillium. Let's add a new location every year and expand our offerings into a full spirit program, but the people who make the place run on a daily basis are devoid of value.

 

Just seems disingenuous for them to post that 72 hours after essentially laying off 70% of their staff at one location.

 

If I did, I don't now. It's just Trillium being Trillium and being devoid of integrity. Profit over everything.

Switching 70% of the staff to per diem status when most people will struggle to find replacement work within the industry is obviously problematic. But if you do that, most of them will quit, or if you don't call them back it's not like you actually fired them...it's just business. In the past year they've also switched the plastic cups at their beer gardens and Fenway to cups that are 2 oz. smaller while keeping pricing the same; if you've visited one of those, it's blatantly obvious. This is all while those beer garden bartenders were making $40+ hourly in tips, so the money was pouring in. The numbers there are astounding. The Common in particular was especially lucrative, but it also had MASSIVE security issues from the surrounding area, but Trillium could not be bothered to pay for a single security guard to mitigate those. People suffering from mental illness showing up with weapons and threatening staff? Just another day at the office.

Introducing "mixed drinks" (10ish% seltzer base, so straight sugar water), then charging $12 a pour - the profit margins on that are exponential. They've reduced dented can offerings for staff members, for no real reason. Those cannot be sold. On that subject, if you ever visit a Trillium location and see something like Vicinity (C) on the menu, that designates it's a can pour. Why a can pour? Because that beer is right on the verge of being 90 days old and coding out, assuming it's a Pale Ale, IPA, or DIPA. Can't let that happen, have to make sure they can turn liquid into cash. Decreased demand for product is why can pours became a thing at the Greenway and the Common; that's never been an issue before. The truth is, do yourself a favor and pass on any hoppy offering that is a can pour, it's probably going to be sweet. And with that being said, the beer gardens have historically been the place where old kegs go to die. Send it there, they'll pop in days, saving revenue. Zero upkeep/maintenance, pure profit off beer that would otherwise be dumped, that's why things like buying Spencer are possible. What else...let's see, how about running the numbers and realizing that keeping your businesses open an additional hour until midnight (Fenway), is easy revenue? Apparently the cost to run the establishment, including utilities and labor, is roughly $27. Sell three beers, you've made a profit. Sure, in the first 3 months of the extended hours they made roughly 5k in those specific hours, but hey, 5k is better than nothing, right? It does mean that your staff members get out of work at a time when they can barely catch the T home, and sure you're going to lose those staff members who walk, but that's the cost of doing business. Much better to plug in a new 23-year-old than retain staff who are knowledgeable about the product.

Anyway, Trillium doesn't care about its people. It's not news. It wasn't that long ago that they fired almost all of their FOH staff in Canton because conditions were so miserable there that people were drinking A LOT just to make the job somewhat tolerable. Anyway. Ask me anything.