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October 18, 2011

Feds Allege Big Labor Violations At Market Basket

DeMoulas Supermarkets Inc., the company that owns Market Basket grocery stores, faces some hefty federal fines. Jenn Abelson writes for Boston.com that the US Department of Labor is citing Demoulas “for 30 alleged ‘willful, repeat and serious violations.’” More specifically, the Department of Labor wants DeMoulas to pay $589,200 in fines for violations at stores […]

Map: Where Lowe’s Is Closing

Yesterday, Lowe’s announced it’s closing 20 under-performing stores across the country. Based on the company’s press release, we’ve generated this map of cities that will lose a Lowe’s. The Northeast by far took the biggest hit. The swath of country from New Jersey to Maine accounts for 45 percent of closures. And among all the […]

September 30, 2011

BJ’s Wholesale Club Has New Owners

BJ’s Wholesale Club has new owners, and its common stock will be falling off the New York Stock Exchange…at least for now. In a press release issued today, private equity firms Leonard Green&Partners and CVC Capital Partners announced they bought the club. According to the announcement, BJ’s stockholders approved the sale earlier this month. The […]

September 9, 2011

Liquor Sales Spiked In Days Before Irene

The Liquor Commission’s been in the news a lot lately, between record-breaking year-over-year sales and plans to add a new store at Manchester-Boston Regional Airport. But StateImpact was curious about something else. Was there a spike in booze sales in the run-up to Irene?

September 1, 2011

How Big Box Stores Stayed Stocked Up on Batteries During the Hurricane Scare

If you were in the Northeast last week, you probably saw the retail aftermath of a freak hurricane scare: Big box store shelves denuded of cheap flashlights and, more importantly, their constant companions, those hulking, hard-to-store, near-obsolete D batteries. People who didn’t even remember where their flashlights were suddenly started scouring New England for the […]

August 2, 2011

Talbot’s Preps Poison Pill

A Massachusetts-based retailer with outposts in New Hampshire is trying to stave off an investor takeover. An AP piece published by The Boston Globe lays out Talbot’s strategy to maintain status quo and hold off Sycamore Partners, LP (and by extension, investor Stefan Kaluzny). The name of the play has a desperately grotesque ring: poison […]

July 28, 2011

Can Bull Moose Survive Where Borders Couldn’t?

In an earlier version of this post, our photo caption described Portland, Maine as Bull Moose’s “original stomping grounds.” The company actually opened its first store in Brunswick, Maine. We regret the error. The fate of prime strip mall real estate in New England might not be sealed just yet. The hallowed halls of Borders Books stores aren’t […]

July 26, 2011

More Bad News For Borders Fans

In his blog for the Concord Monitor, Ben Leubsdorf reports that Borders has pounded the last nail into the coffin of its Fort Eddy store. It looks like rival Books-A-Million won’t be taking over the strip mall space after all. So big-box bookstore devotees will have to go farther afield to take advantage of three-for-the-price-of-two sales […]

July 21, 2011

Why Borders Books Failed and Barnes & Noble Didn’t

Annie Lowrey at Slate wrote a decent summary of how a series of bad top-level decisions laid the course for Borders Books closing. In a nutshell: The internet didn’t do it. Granted, in today’s bookselling world, that’s like saying, “No. Really. It wasn’t the butler.” Which is basically what Lowrey says, at least for the most part. She […]

State Prepares For Borders Closing

Between its Express stores and the strip mall behemoths, Borders Books actually had a pretty good presence across southern and central New Hampshire, and as far up as North Conway. The fact that it closed wasn’t surprising to anyone who’s been following news from the chain over the past year or so. But what was […]