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Introduction
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Operating out of a historic 1912 building, Tap into Wine and Big River Taproom are a popular destination for locals and tourists alike. Verizon LTE Business Internet gives their owners fast, reliable, wireless service for phones, point-of-sale systems, digital signage, security cameras and more—without a costly, complex install.
Tap into Wine and Big River Taproom
St. Helens, Oregon
Opened 2017
27 taps of craft beer, cider & Oregon wine
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"The last thing we ever have to worry about is our connectivity."
Marci Sanders, Owner, Tap into Wine and Big River Taproom
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A lively place in a quiet town
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St. Helens, Oregon is a quiet town about forty miles north of Portland, on the west bank of the Columbia River. It’s a popular destination for live music in the summer, and every October the town hosts a month-long celebration of spooky events and decorations.
Marci and Randy Sanders opened the Tap into Wine café in 2017, expanding with the Big River Taproom in 2021. Their local craft beers and wines—along with Chicago-style hot dogs and Italian Beef—draw local residents and tourists year-round, with summer and October the busiest times.
“I love the history, and I love the river, too,” says Marci Sanders. “It's just a perfect kind of setting for what we want to do here.”
The Sanders’ dreams for the taproom, however, went beyond food and drinks. Delivering streaming entertainment with great customer experience—along with paperless operations—would require reliable Internet connectivity.
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A need for simplicity with robust connectivity
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“This is a 1912 building. It’s on the national historic register,” says Marci. “The local phone company came out and they were going to have to bore a hole through this foot-thick wall. I said ‘No, that's not going to work.’”
In addition to offering great food, fun drinks and streaming entertainment, the Sanders also wanted to operate a nearly paperless operation, with a lean staff. They knew all those goals would only be possible with an Internet solution simple enough for everyone to use, along with fully dependable Internet connectivity.
Marci says, “I could imagine, with us trying very hard to go as paperless as possible, how difficult that would be for us if we did lose connectivity. I really was looking for a solution that was as simple as possible, but also gave us the robustness we could rely on.”
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Simple, plug-and-play connectivity for a paperless business
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The Sanders chose to connect their business with Verizon's LTE Business Internet, a simple, plug-and-play, wireless internet service. After a consultation with their Verizon partner, they settled on a plan that would support the restaurant, even on their busiest nights.
One reason they lean so hard on their connectivity is a desire to run a paperless business. They don’t issue paper receipts, and all their food and beverage orders are relayed electronically from counter to bar to kitchen.
We did not want to have the encumbrance of paper,” says Marci. She says the digital system “cuts down on having to bother the cook and say, ‘Whose order is this?’ When we're really busy the cook needs to concentrate and not be interrupted.”
Their Verizon LTE Business Internet has proven to be a wise decision through two peak periods in the first few months after expanding.
Randy Sanders says, “We had a pre-opening party with the St. Helens summer concert series going on at the same time. It was crazy. thousands of people in town, using their phones and whatnot, so we were worried that maybe that would affect our bandwidth in the tap room. And it didn't—it was fine.”
Marci adds, “We just came off of a whole month of Halloweentown, when the little town of St. Helens turns into a big tourist mecca. And I can just tell you that the last thing we ever had to worry about was our connectivity and all of our systems working. We did not have to worry one second about it.”
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Long-term satisfaction and flexibility
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As satisfied as they are with the performance of their Internet setup, the Sanders are equally pleased with the service they’ve received from their Verizon Account Manager.
“Our Verizon rep came onto the scene right away when I first ordered the equipment,” says Marci. “And I was able to install it myself with his help. He held my hand all the way through the whole process of getting the router here and getting it set up. And I'm not really a techie person, but when the second router arrived, he didn't have to walk me through everything.”
The Sanders see the benefits of Verizon LTE Business Internet every night, but they also appreciate the long-term flexibility the system gives them.
“It's so different from when we were in the business a decade ago,” says Marci. “Everything has become so much so much easier, more plug and play, being able to change things on the fly and not have to have somebody come in to update something.
“I do think that, as time moves along, it'll just keep getting better.”
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Verizon’s 4G LTE network to US business customers with 999 lines or less, subject to credit review. Plans reflect maximum available download speeds, which may vary. Upload speeds also vary & will be lower than download speeds. All plans include 300 GB/mo/line of data; if usage exceeds that allowance, blocks of 5 GB will be automatically added to your account for an additional charge of $10 per block, plus taxes. All plans include a monthly allotment of premium network access (varies per plan) after which your data may be temporarily slower than other traffic in times of congestion. No domestic or international roaming. Cannot be used for certain applications, including audio/video streaming, web hosting, public/guest Wi-Fi, voice & texts. Compatible LTE-enabled router required (Verizon-provided or Customer-provided). Terms apply.