I’ve noticed too. Peak frequency used to be about every 4-6 minutes on the 39 but they’ve cut it back a lot due to driver shortages. Even with the reduced schedule though, they don’t have enough drivers to run the reduced schedule so some trips are canceled minutes before they’re supposed to run, leaving bigger gaps between buses.

Further, they don’t have enough bus dispatch staff, so operators often leave the terminal before or after they’re supposed to. This is further compounded by the fact that most of the 39’s route runs on Centre and South Sts, which are congested for large stretches of the day. That’s hard to plan around. This part has gotten a little better with the new bus lanes on Huntington, but the 39 still gets caught in a lot of traffic, making headways less reliable.

A lot of CVS locations take them. The location finder on their website will tell you if a store offers that or not

Ah, ok. I can’t find it now, but I remember a policy a while back where you can’t ride GRTC routes past the “end.” The made an exception for the 19 because W Broad in short pump is so dangerous to cross, but that was the only one at the time. Things might’ve changed by now though

Is this the 19 by any chance?

Yeah this is the one. Often times it's not "broken" exactly, but they cut it out in the closed position until the motor/sensors can be reset at the yard.

Yeah there are signs on both sides of the street on that block

All the recs in this thread are good but my personal go-to is Atomic. They have a cafe in Beverly but they ship (free most of the time) and the beans are always roasted the immediate day prior to shipment when I get them