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For Sale: The Only Bar in a 14-Person Montana Town

atlasobscura.com

81–90 of 92 posts

Re: For Sale: The Only Bar in a 14-Person Montana Town

#81
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having lived in Montana for 2 years myself, I don't consider Forsyth a town worth noting. Billings is the closest town that has a decent population, and it's 110 miles away by car. Brick or wood (fixed my original comment for ya), my point was it's a simple building in a tiny "town". It's not worth the money as a business purchase, but would be a pleasure buy. Not sure why my comment needed to be pedantically torn ap…

Because IF you are going to be sarcastically dismissive you ought to at least get the details right.

What was sarcastic about their remark? I had no issue with it and your reaction surprises me.

Re: For Sale: The Only Bar in a 14-Person Montana Town

#82
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't cross into regional slurs. "This place shouldn't exist" is a step into that, and we need users not to go there here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

I was born in Montana. I lived in Montana. That restaurant probably hasn't made a profit in 30 years and they are asking $250k for it.

I understand, and had a feeling that that was where you were coming from. Unfortunately, though, the internet doesn't distinguish between regional (or ethnic or other) slurs made by the people from that place (or group) vs. the garden-variety nasty sort—so the burden is on you to disambiguate. Otherwise we end up with the same kind of flamewar either way.

Re: For Sale: The Only Bar in a 14-Person Montana Town

#83
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like they do fine; only beer in 100 miles is a pretty good business proposition. They also go through 1200 pounds of pinto beans a year, so somebody's buying food there.

1200 lbs a year, assuming a half pound per serving, is only 2400 servings a year, or about six a day. I can't imagine six bowls of beans does much to pay the bills even in rural Montana.

A half pound of beans is an awful lot for a serving.

Re: For Sale: The Only Bar in a 14-Person Montana Town

#84

For real, buying this kind of business in Montana is extremely risky. I lived for many years in an area that's very popular with tourist/sportsmen including quite a few famous Hollywood types. There are many lakes with lodges around there. My family got to know many people who would by a place like that and it ruined many of their lives. Divorces, bankruptcies, the whole gamut. It's very hard.

These always look like fun, interesting deals to outsiders but unless you have someone with local knowledge, I wouldn’t trust any of them.

Re: For Sale: The Only Bar in a 14-Person Montana Town

#85
post #47

I've always wondered about the data missing in Google Maps. For instance, when you go to Ingomar, MT and look at street view, the car got to the entrance of the town and the data just stops. https://goo.gl/maps/WVTAChPsBUiRjnoX9 Did the camera die? Did the car get a flat? Did someone forget to turn something on?

Holy cow is that area desolate. Gotta take a special type of person to want to pony up and buy this place.

Re: For Sale: The Only Bar in a 14-Person Montana Town

#86
post #11
post #4

Asking price seems rather high. I'm sure you could find an abandoned building in Montana and turn it into a bar for far less than $225k.

Hmm. Well perhaps the price could have to do with the liquor license and the fact that that license could be used in another location? I don't know that is the case here but that thought comes to mind. Could be geographic restrictions (county) but maybe not. County is about 9500 people. http://www.mtrules.org/gateway/ruleno.asp?RN=42%2E12%2E209

Liquor licenses are definitely scarce. I remember hearing one for Missoula, MT being sold for $750K. It's also a huge issue for the brewery/winery/distillery market. Old entrenched interests don't like our breweries taking their customers even if they close before 8PM.

Re: For Sale: The Only Bar in a 14-Person Montana Town

#87
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does that actually recoup? Or are they buying those licenses to use in more populated areas? (curious if they are tied to the town or not)

As with Uber and medallions, the increasing popularity of craft breweries able to operate with an inexpensive license has led to some big legislative battles. The Montana Tavern Association (MTA, liquor license holders) try to crush the craft breweries every legislative session. They have limited the taphouses to some extent: they can only serve four pints per person per day and they have to close at 8 PM. Also simil…

Is that in the USA? Sounds very unbelievable to me, here (in eastern EU) we demonstrate if people try to limit opening hours few days a year!

Re: For Sale: The Only Bar in a 14-Person Montana Town

#88
post #4

Asking price seems rather high. I'm sure you could find an abandoned building in Montana and turn it into a bar for far less than $225k.

This sounds like the bar equivalent of the "I could build Twitter in my basement in a weekend" trope that HN is so fond of.

Re: For Sale: The Only Bar in a 14-Person Montana Town

#89
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was born in Montana. I lived in Montana. That restaurant probably hasn't made a profit in 30 years and they are asking $250k for it.

I understand, and had a feeling that that was where you were coming from. Unfortunately, though, the internet doesn't distinguish between regional (or ethnic or other) slurs made by the people from that place (or group) vs. the garden-variety nasty sort—so the burden is on you to disambiguate. Otherwise we end up with the same kind of flamewar either way.

1) I was referring to the restaurant. 2) I'm from Montana.

You should just apologize that you didn't understand my comment rather than try to over explain it.

Re: For Sale: The Only Bar in a 14-Person Montana Town

#90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1200 lbs a year, assuming a half pound per serving, is only 2400 servings a year, or about six a day. I can't imagine six bowls of beans does much to pay the bills even in rural Montana.

A half pound of beans is an awful lot for a serving.

Really? The recipes I found seemed to use 3 1lb cans of beans per 4 people. That's 3/4 lb of beans per person. Also, this is Montana, they don't shy from larger portions, a pound a person wouldn't surprise me.
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