"Sales tax holiday seen as crucial in bringing customers back into stores" by Lucas Phillips and John Hilliard Globe Correspondent and Globe Staff, August 29, 2020
Shoppers checked in before entering Best Buy, during the Tax free shopping weekend at CambridgeSide mall (Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff).
CAMBRIDGE — Buffeted by a pandemic and subsequent economic downturn, the state’s local businesses hope this weekend’s sales tax holiday will entice coronavirus-weary consumers back through their doors to spend money there rather than online.
“It’s the beginning of a process of trying to bring the consumer back,” said Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts after the “twin crises” that have wracked the nation for the past six months.
Massachusetts retailers have been slowly reopening over the summer, while implementing measures meant to slow the spread of COVID-19, under a phased restart of the state’s economy.
The state’s annual sales tax holiday allows customers to buy products, such as televisions, grills, and kitchen appliances, that cost under $2,500 without paying the state’s 6.25 percent sales tax. Some items, including meals, alcoholic beverages, and marijuana products, are still subject to taxes, according to the state.
Local brick-and-mortar businesses are trying to emphasize what can’t be duplicated by online shopping, Hurst said.
“That shopping experience, that impulse-buying type of browsing experience that you don’t really duplicate well online or on your smartphone, is what keeps a lot of hope alive for these small businesses, and for our main streets,” Hurst said.
Yeah, keep hope alive!
Good Chri$t!
I don't even know what to say knowing of the empty and bankrupt malls, the rotting Maine Streets, and the endless and onerous restrictions as the government at all levels fines folks for weddings, no church services are allowed, and bars are closed.
The whole thrust and theme of this BG pos is shallow and superficial $hit, as if everything is near normal so get out there and shop!
An experience like that attracted Rebecca Thompson, who visited the CambridgeSide Saturday to pick up a new phone she had purchased a day earlier.
The 27-year-old from Mattapan hadn’t planned on doing any shopping — but then, a pair of pink shoes caught her eye. Maybe she could check out one store after all.
“Just because I saw them,” she said.
Rebecca Thompson (cq) left waited on line to shop at the Apple store during Tax free weekend (Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff).
I don't know how she saw them of that near-blinding muzzle!
I thank the Globe for allowing me to see all the masked ghouls, for it confirms my decision to keep what little money I have in my pocket.
On Tuesday, Governor Charlie Baker promoted the weekend’s sales tax holiday and importance of shopping at local businesses during a press conference at Wheelworks bicycle shop in Belmont.
Small businesses employ about half of the state’s workforce, and many of their employees live in the communities they work in, Baker said.
I will save the bike ride for a bit later, and the laughing jackal only wants the tax loot!
Hurst said retailers association would survey members to review how much business they had this weekend. The sales tax holiday comes as retailers prepare for back-to-school shopping and fall fashions. On the heels of that will be the holiday shopping season and November’s small business Saturday, Hurst said.
Listen to them!
As if all is normal, the sales seasons are coming, it's back-to-school and the fall fashion set followed by holiday shopping and small biz November!
Forget what has been previously reported regarding the economic disaster this state is, or all the wealth flowing upward which in turns erects the enslavement system all around us under this massive fraud and lie called COVID, without a doubt the biggest lie of my lifetime and I've seen a lot of them.
Hurst said consumers are still very wary of going into businesses because of the coronavirus and over the past several months, many have increasingly turned to doing business with online retailers.
Who benefits at bottom there?
As businesses reopened, much of their messaging and advertising has focused on promoting options like curbside service and visiting stores by appointment only, he said. That outreach has included an emphasis on safety, like requirements for wearing masks and maintaining social distancing.
Expectations on sales are lower this year compared to previous sales tax holidays, Hurst said, but he anticipates this will be the best weekend for retailers since February, he said.
Consumers’ shopping at local businesses has a significant impact on the state’s economy and workers’ livelihoods, he said.
“They need to shop like jobs depend on it, because they do,” Hurst said.
Well, then you a$$holes shouldn't have done this. You can f**k off with your begging as we all suffer.
Call the whole thing off, let us get us back to our lives, and jail the f**king political puppets and their ma$ters and then we will talk.
So what mall did the Globe go to?
At CambridgeSide Saturday, crowds were light as shoppers made their way into the mall. Among them was a 77-year-old Everett man who said he hadn’t been to the mall since February, but the opportunity to buy an iPad during the state’s sales tax holiday was too enticing for him to pass up.
“There’s too much to be saved,” said John, who declined to give his last name, as he used a magnifying glass to read a smartphone.
Melissa LaVita, a CambridgeSide spokeswoman, said social distancing rules imposed during the pandemic capped the mall at 40 percent of its capacity — about 6,000 people, she said.
Mask wearing at the mall was universal, save for a few people who sneaked sips from a drink here and there. Crowds were thin enough to make social distancing mostly easy.
Well, that couldn't have helped sales any after all this time with limited revenue.
Even with the reduced numbers, some managers had taken precautions and were prepared in case of large crowds.
Sarah Hesbacker, general manager of the Best Buy store at CambridgeSide, said she had scheduled all of her employees to come in that day, with managers working at least 10 hours.
“This is our Black Friday dry run,” she said.
(Blog author simply shakes his head at the delusion of these people. It's the death of a dream and they are clinging to wisps of promises from state authoritarians planning a second, more destructive lockdown)
The store has three entrances, and Hesbacker said she had been planning how to manage potential crowds all week. One change was to not allow mallgoers to cut through the store, tying up capacity that would leave would-be shoppers waiting in a line, and to let in customers a few at a time, she said.
That threw off John Tuttle, 58, of Stoneham, who usually visits the Best Buy first on his trips to the mall.
When he arrived at the mall Saturday he feared would not be allowed in if he did not plan to buy anything, according to his sister Jane Tuttle, 59, who looks out for her brother, who has autism.
CambridgeSide is where Tuttle goes “to have time for himself, Jane Tuttle said.
So which vaccine poisoned him?
His world is all messed up, huh?
I'm supposed to feel sorry for him, is that it?
I mean, all our worlds are messed up for the benefit of a very few sick, psychopathic, sociopathic, genocidal eugenicists populating the ruling cla$$.
At least some guys don't have problems:
Michael Yeates, 66, of Cambridge said he had the tax holiday marked on his calendar for a couple weeks, after he read about it.
Recently retired and an avid TV watcher, it seemed like a good time to replace a 15-year-old television, he said, something he has been planning for a couple years.
“When I realized it was a tax holiday, I said ‘what can I get?’” Yeates said, after picking up a new television at Best Buy.
“At least I’ll get some discount,” he said, and a distraction from his home improvement projects.
Lucky he has a home he can keep, at least for now.
Michael Yeates checked out of Best Buy, with his 43 inch TV (Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff).
As Bo$ton burns, Yeates watches TV!
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Did you see the lunch break they took?
Marie Darline had a lunch break with her children Stevenson and Stevenda at CambridgeSide (Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff)
Was the food court off-limits or something?
Or is that a decontamination chamber so mall guests can eat?
Looks almost, dare I say, RACIST!!
Now that the kids are fueled-up they can hop on a bike:
"How big can BlueBikes get?; Expansion will double number of cities and towns in the bike-share system" by Adam Vaccaro Globe Staff, August 6, 2020
That date is not a misprint.
The Globe is running or rerunning month-old reports in print now!
The upcoming expansion of the BlueBikes system will double the number of communities that use Greater Boston’s public bicycle rental program, spurring interest in its potential to expand across the region.
For seven years, BlueBikes was limited to Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, and Brookline, gradually expanding to cover more neighborhoods, but never crossing their borders.
Not anymore. Everett joined the network last year, and BlueBikes stations are arriving in Arlington, Newton, Watertown, Chelsea, and Revere throughout the summer.
It’s causing other local leaders to consider whether they could join too.
“I would be more than open, and probably excited, to take a look at it,” said Lynn Mayor Thomas McGee, who noted that construction is well underway on a major bike path linking his city to nearby communities, including Revere and Everett. “BlueBikes is obviously another piece of the puzzle, once you start seeing the infrastructure come into play.”
What he is referring to, of course, is the Great Re$et whereby the $laves will bike to $erve the ma$ters so that the planet can be Green!
The fact that the Globe continues to pedal the agenda to self-destruction only adds to the sense of inevitable doom for their business model, which is no longer viable.
It’s unclear if the business model is viable.
“Part of the reason why the expansion is even possible in the first place is Boston and neighboring municipalities made a decision to own the system and invest in it,” said Stacy Thompson, director of the advocacy group Livable Streets Alliance, but that arrangement also means cities and towns must make a serious financial commitment to join. The five new communities are each paying $100,000 for the infrastructure. Some are receiving state grants, and Lyft is also subsidizing the expansion, according to Eric Bourassa, transportation director for the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, a regional agency that helped negotiate the deal.
Are you flipping kidding me?
Unemployment is the worst in the nation, the aid money has dried up, and taxpayer dollars are being spent outfitting the designs of the Great effin' Re$et?
Still, some officials view the price tag as a barrier.
“I don’t see us putting the money up,” said Kevin Duffy, a business development officer in Malden, who said the dockless bikes were more convenient for trips between home and MBTA stations.
Well, Harvard is making a big push for consensus on rebuilding, and with a stalemate threatening to undo much of the project’s promise the university wants the state to seriously consider a business-backed compromise in light of all the budget woes.
Quincy traffic director Chris Cassani said he is open to the idea, and that city investment could create a better system, but he was unsure that Quincy would be a good location for BlueBikes because it is so far removed from Boston’s major commercial districts.
As if all were "normal" in Boston's major commercial districts!
This BlueBikes expansion is a two-year pilot project, and there’s no guarantee it will succeed, but Lyft said it is open to conversations about bringing BlueBikes to other communities, particularly dense urban areas with good biking infrastructure. Bourassa said it may eventually make sense for the state or a regional organization to take greater control of BlueBikes as it expands, since it may be difficult to keep so many communities on the same page.
Yeah, no guarantee it will succeed but at least some tax loot was wasted on some well-connected intere$t pushing an agenda that somehow bikes its way to greater centralization and tyranny.
Time to ditch the bike!
Galen Mook, director of the Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition, envisioned a future BlueBikes system with both docked and dockless bikes to appeal to different types of communities. Electric-powered bikes would also make it easier to travel longer distances between communities, he added.
Does weather ever factor in here, or is Bo$ton to look like downtown Havana or Beijing in the years to come?
I'm sure Baker and Walsh will still be chauffeured to "work" via taxpayer expense, and all the pooh-bags of Bo$ton will have their caravans -- with less street traffic if the Globe has its wish!
Simply installing stations may not be enough to get people on bikes, said Vivian Ortiz, a cycling advocate in Mattapan, where BlueBikes stations were installed in 2018. She noted that ridership is higher at stations along the Neponset Greenway trail, but less in other parts of the Boston neighborhood, suggesting that creating better bike paths and lanes may be crucial to growing ridership in a new BlueBikes setting.....
If you build it, they will bike!
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Here is where they are headed first:
"Marijuana store proposed for Boston’s Quincy Market; Team behind the proposed shop includes former city officials" by Dan Adams Globe Staff, August 29, 2020
A recreational marijuana store could soon join the ranks of retailers in Boston’s historic Quincy Market, under new plans unveiled last week by a local businessman whose team includes several former top city officials.
Oh, the evil that flows from drug profits!
If approved by local and state authorities, the pot shop — dubbed “Redemption Cannabis” — would open on the second floor of Quincy Market’s North Market building, above Lucy’s League athletic apparel store.
“We’re imagining we can bring a respectful, responsible, and discreet marijuana establishment to the family-friendly destination that is Quincy Market,” Redemption founder and entrepreneur Geoffrey Reilinger said in an interview Friday.
Family-friendly, huh?
They are as bad as the tobacco people!
Reilinger spent years trying to open a medical marijuana dispensary on Newbury Street with a well-connected team of political insiders but ran into stiff opposition from some neighbors.
Redemption’s ownership team includes Reilinger’s mother, former Boston School Committee chair Dr. Elizabeth Reilinger, and Alfreda Harris, who founded Roxbury’s Shelburne Community Center after serving as the women’s basketball coach at several local universities. Dan Linskey, former superintendent-in-chief of the Boston Police Department, will serve as the firm’s security consultant.
Hey, pa$$ the joint!
To open for business, Redemption will have to clear a number of hurdles, including winning an exception from a city rule that mandates a half-mile buffer between all licensed marijuana facilities; Patriot Care currently operates a medical dispensary on nearby Milk Street that is less than a half-mile from the proposed Quincy Market site.
“We think there’s more than enough room to go around in this neighborhood,” Reilinger said.
If the project receives local approval, it can then apply for a state license from the Cannabis Control Commission, a process that typically takes months and would set up the store for an opening sometime in 2021.
Reilinger said he reached out to Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp., which manages Quincy Market, after noticing “for rent” signs while walking his dog through the plaza near Faneuil Hall. The company was interested, he said, in large part because the coronavirus pandemic has decimated the business of other retail tenants that rely on tourism and foot traffic.
They still haven't changed the name of that slave hall yet?
Summer is now over, too.
How'd you do as we head into an economy-destroying second lockdown?
At least you can RIDE YOUR BlueBIKE THERE!
Don't let that last paragraph ruin your buzz, though!
“It’s no secret the struggle retail everywhere is facing, and being exclusively retail, Quincy Market was taking it on the chin pretty hard,” Reilinger explained, “but marijuana sales are thriving in this time, even when other stuff is really not.”
Quincy Market is owned by the city. A spokeswoman for Mayor Martin J. Walsh declined to comment on the proposal, saying the public must weigh in first.
A virtual community outreach hearing at which neighbors may testify or ask questions is scheduled for Sept. 17 at 6 p.m.
Representatives of the nearby North End/Waterfront Residents’ Association did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Boston recently overhauled its marijuana approval process under pressure from progressive city councilors who said the previous system was opaque, convoluted, and unfair to smaller applicants without political connections. As of this summer, applications are reviewed by the new five-member Boston Cannabis Board, which gives preference to equity applicants from communities affected most by the war on drugs.
Redemption doesn’t qualify as an equity applicant, but Reilinger said the company would make specific commitments to hiring staff from a variety of backgrounds.
“We’re really focused on having this organization reflect the diversity that is Boston,” he said.
After a few hits, that's the end of the bike ride.
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Maybe the SOMA will quell the rioters, 'eh?
Baker activates National Guard, but gives no reason
The Globe infers that it is ostensibly because of "demonstrations against racial injustice and racist policing that have continued throughout the summer in Massachusetts and across the country, with the Wisconsin city of Kenosha the latest US community to experience widespread protests after a police officer there shot and paralyzed Jacob Blake, a Black man, on Aug. 23, and after Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, a white resident of Antioch, Ill., allegedly killed two men and seriously wounded a third during demonstrations in Kenosha on Tuesday" as the three-day old Washington Compost report implies that it is the patient right-wing that has been holding its powder that is responsible for the violence while ignoring the left-wing thuggery and calling it a "pushback when a group of people berated customers at D.C. restaurants this week who refused to raise their fist in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. The confrontations were nonviolent, but conflicts occasionally have become physical," as the ADL instigates confrontation and a civil war (yes, indeed, it seems that Joos are once again at the bottom of the agenda and unre$t, be it on the ground or in the funding, $oro$).
I flip the page and am treated with a $elf-promotion (I won't call it an ad), then flip again and see an open letter to the governor from the Massachusetts Coalition of Police to close out the section.
I gue$$ the Globe will take money from anyone who gives it these days.
Also see:
"Plan are underway to build a machine gun range at a Cape Cod base used for training by the Massachusetts Army National Guard. The proposal for Camp Edwards at Joint Base Cape Cod, the first of its kind in the state, is contained in a 100-page environmental assessment prepared for the Guard and an accompanying draft finding that says the project would have no significant impacts, the Cape Cod Times reports....."
Planning to gun you lefties down, too, or just clear the beach?
Don't worry, they will take good care of your dogs and cats as they contemplate the city seal.
Related:
Protesters march for Blake in Kenosha
'7 bullets, 7 days':
Sharpton bemoans ‘broken promises’ as thousands march in D.C.
Looks like the charlatan has been called into action yet again, for the usual purpose.
I flip the page, it's another urgent self-promotion advancing the agenda, the Fierce Urgency of Now ($upported by Bo$ton's Bu$ine$$ leaders?) festival set for September 16-20, then I flip again and I see another self-promotion regarding the a political conventions debrief and how Democrats and Republicans are framing the stakes of the general election with Globe senior opinion writer Kimberly Atkins, who is no longer a Red Sox fan, and columnist Michael Cohen, who will both take a look back at the parties' national conventions and a look ahead at how the themes each party highlighted will frame the general election.
The Globe is literally becoming a satanic piece of horseshit, because that is the only reason I can see why the “ears are cut off, eyes removed, and an animal is emptied of its blood,” all being explained as "not a new phenomenon because in the 1980s and 1990s, hundreds of horses in Britain, then in Germany, were mutilated while in medieval times, the tails, lips or ears of horses would be cut as acts of vengeance against owners, and theories abound in France as to whether the mutilations are a morbid rite of an unknown cult."
