Coincidentally, it is almost time for lunch:
"Wegmans may open in Fenway, near new Whole Foods; Boston grocery fight heats up" by Casey Ross | Globe Staff, March 25, 2013
A battle for supermarket supremacy....
A big reversal for many city residents who have endured years of poor or no grocery options in their neighborhoods.
But with Boston growing in population, and more urban consumers craving high-quality foods on the go, upscale grocers in particular are popping up around the city....
And once again we see that it is the upper class that has benefited from the alleged recovery.
The new owner of the Landmark Center, Steve Samuels, teamed up with JPMorgan Chase & Co....
That ought to whet your appetite, Boston!
Related: Slow Saturday Special: Crime Does Pay For Dimon
Now I'm feeling sick to my stomach.
The pending deal with Wegmans was disclosed Monday by Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who cited the grocery chain’s plan as an example of renewed interest in Boston by retailers and other businesses that want to be near the city’s growing population of young workers.
The news set off a social media whirlwind, with Wegmans enthusiasts throwing up posts crowing about the deal on Twitter and Facebook....
Obviously tools of the tyrants, which is why you find me sitting right here.
The company’s expansion sets up a showdown with Whole Foods....
I'm sorry, readers, I'm divided over Whole Foods.
A Fenway store would also put Wegmans near the Shaw’s supermarket at the corner of Boylston Street and Brookline Avenue.
Shaw’s is located in a concrete block of a building and has become increasingly dated in appearance and food selection....
Someone might want to check the freezer.
--more--"
One who bet and lost:
"Shaw’s struggles against lower-priced competition" by Jenn Abelson | Globe Staff, January 25, 2013
Elizabeth D’Oliveira was a loyal Shaw’s supermarket shopper until last year, when she began checking prices at other local grocers. The Charlestown mother of two says she never recovered from the sticker shock.
On all the basics — eggs, milk, bread, pasta, and juice — Shaw’s had the highest prices, according to D’Oliveira. “It just blew me away. Shaw’s was more expensive than everyone else, except for maybe Whole Foods,” she said.
And with that, Shaw’s, once one of the region’s dominant grocery sellers, lost another customer.
I'll bet newspapers can empathize.
D’Oliveira ditched her regular visits to the Somerville location and started making a longer trip to Market Basket in Chelsea.
Multiply D’Oliveira by thousands of other consumers and you get an idea of the problem Shaw’s is facing. During the past decade, a growing number of the West Bridgewater-based chain’s devotees have defected.
Yep.
Some say they left because of steep prices, poorly trained staff, dingy stores, and better alternatives.
Shaw’s sales have eroded by about $1.5 billion since 2006 and its New England market share has dropped from 19 to 11 percent, according to The Griffin Report of Food Marketing, a Duxbury trade publication.
“Shaw’s has simply lost its way. They have become so overpriced that shoppers have left in droves,” said Edgar Dworsky, who runs the consumer education site ConsumerWorld.org.
With a group of private investors about to take control of the company, what’s next for Shaw’s is unclear.
I think we can take a gue$$.
But the status quo, analysts say, is unsustainable....
And that is where Cerbereus comes in.
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"Shaw’s, StarMarket part of $3.3 billion sale" by Chris Reidy and Jenn Abelson | Globe Staff, January 11, 2013
The investment group buying Shaw’s and its sister supermarket brand Star Market said it plans no immediate changes at the New England chains.
No renovations of those dingy, decrepit stores? No price cuts?
The grocers are part of a larger $3.3 billion buyout that would put the supermarkets in the hands of private equity firms, including Cerberus Capital Management, the company that controls the Boston-based Steward Health Care System hospital network....
You mean the guys that load companies with debt, take a handsome profit, and then sell 'em off?
Related: Sunday Globe Special: The New Steward of Massachusetts Health Care
Doesn't make you feel very good, does it? I guess you will need that health care after all.
How interesting that they were also invested in gun manufacturers. I gue$$ that's getting the bu$ine$$ at both ends and a good bu$ine$$ model.
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Related: Shaw’s ex-owner cuts 1,100 jobs
Was the strike worth it? Good thing I go to Stop & Shop.
Also see: Today's Boston Globe Menu
I've already lost my appetite.
UPDATE (think of it as a dessert):
"Capitalism gets a bad rap, Whole Foods CEO says; Whole Foods chief calls criticism unfair" by Alyssa Edes | Globe Correspondent, February 08, 2013
Whole Foods Market cochief executive John Mackey, not known for muffling his opinions, says US businesses are “under attack” from critics who unfairly malign capitalism.
I wish I could be attacked in a way that would insure me an age of golden profits. Instead I'm hammering away here for nothing.
Speaking at a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce breakfast Thursday, Mackey said the public perception of how most companies operate is out of line with reality.
They must be reading newspapers because those contradictory, mixed-message pieces of propaganda of everything from environment to economy and everything inbetween do the same thing.
‘‘Business is fundamentally good and has created more value in the world than any other institution,” the upscale-supermarket chain executive told an audience at the Seaport World Trade Center.
Mackey, 59, is on a national tour to promote a book, “Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business.” He was joined at the Seaport by his coauthor, Raj Sisodia, a professor of marketing at Bentley University in Waltham and the cofounder — with Mackey — of the nonprofit Conscious Capitalism Inc.
Their book makes a case for the “inherent good of capitalism” and pushes for a new age of business leadership and higher purpose.
“If we allow it, I have no doubt capitalism will wipe out poverty and illiteracy,” Mackey said at the breakfast. “Humanity has been lifted up by business and yet it has been completely hijacked by its enemies who create a narrative that business is selfish, and greedy, and exploitative.”
When they start proving they are not that way then I'll buy in; otherwise, don't talk with your mouth full.
Mackey, who cofounded what would become Whole Foods in 1978 as a 25-year-old college dropout, has made no secret of his disdain for government-imposed business mandates. In recent weeks, his sharp attack on President Obama’s national health care reform put him in the media spotlight.
Where does he stand on bank regulation?
In an interview with NPR, Mackey characterized so-called Obamacare as “fascism,” saying the plan’s coverage requirements will cost employers too much money.
He doesn't even know what the word means.
The remark drew a largely negative response from listeners.
And his customers.
He made another appearance on NPR to quell the criticism, saying, “I realize that [fascism] has so much baggage associated with it, from World War II with Germany and Italy and Spain, that that’s just such a very provocative word, so I regret using it.”
Yes, it is so sad that the term that even Mussolini admitted was the symbiotic melding of corporate and state interests (what we have now, with the international banking syndicate at its center) has been usurped and perverted to describe what were basically nationalist movements (and what coincidentally where the greatest threat in world history to the international banking syndicate).
Yes, it is quite amazing how a certain group's version of history became ensconced in world consciousness
He made a similar apology on the television show “CBS This Morning.’’ Days later, he was back at it, telling Mother Jones that global warming “is perfectly natural and not necessarily bad.” Hype over climate change, he warned, could “stop virtually all economic progress.”
Okay, in this case he is wrong about global warming (I would hope the late, late, late winter would convince you of that), but right if it were happening. Throughout history warming has always been followed by increased food yields and age expectancies.
But he's just a kook at it again, so....
On Thursday in Boston, Mackey said businesses should be free to “realize their higher purpose beyond making money” and “create value for all stakeholders.” He illustrated that ethic by citing Whole Foods’ employee culture, which he said is based on “empowerment, decentralization, collaboration, and love.”
Now if only we could only have a government run the country that way.
Fortune magazine has named Whole Foods one of the top companies to work for 15 years in a row. The chain operates more than 340 grocery stores — including 21 in Massachusetts — and generated $11.7 billion in revenue during the last fiscal year. “We really do think this is the future of business,” he said of the company’s philosophy. “And our economic outperformance proves that.”
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Wow, Globe sure serves up a big piece of Whole Foods pie, huh?
Related: Walmart Won't Come to Watertown
For those who wanted another slice.
UPDATE:
"Construction delays and the juggling of other projects are the reasons for the delay"
