August 3, 2025 • 58 mins
On today's program, we speak with the co-founder of Evolv Technologies in Waltham, a company which offers security screening solutions. Doug Banks, the Executive Editor of the Boston Business Hournal shares the top business stories of the week. Jo Ann Simon of the Northeast Arc talks about an important anniversary. Tucker Holland, housing expert on Nantucket, gives us the details of a new housing option for workers. And finally, the Assistant Business Editor of the Boston Globe, Andy Rosen, talks about grocery store prices and Market Basket
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the New England Business Report with Joe Shortsleeve
and Kim Carragan, a weekly roundup and discussion of the
top business news impacting our New England economy.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
All right, well, good morning everybody. Welcome to the New
England Business Report. Joe Shortsleave here along with Kim Carragan
on this Sunday, Dare I say it? August third, we
have breached summer at this point we are staring at.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Well, you know what, Kim. Actually there are five Sundays.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
In August, so we have five shows, so you know,
we have a good amount of time here.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
Absolutely, we still got every bit of a month. I
know a lot of parents who are starting to go,
m oh, the labor days early this year, that's good.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Yeah, no, I know, Monday September first.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
Yeah, yeah, really early.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
And the kids, I know, my granddaughters in school the
week before that is Wednesday, Wednesday before that. So yeah,
so for those kids, you know here we are on Sunday,
August third, school starts in a little bit.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
They'll be ringing the bell.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Hey, today's program we're gonna be talking about, well, we're
gonna be talking with evolved technologies out there in Waltham.
We're gonna be talking with their co founder, a Nil
chit Kara, And you know, it's interesting. They provide security
screening solutions. So it's a fancy way of saying, well,
it keeps you all safe when we're all at these
big events, right Kim. Yeah, I mean they're involved in
(01:27):
the FIFA World Cup right now, and of course that'll
be in Boston a year from now.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
They have a lot of their technology at locations where
we don't know it's there, like the TD Garden or
down Chillette Stadium, you know, in large crowd locations, and
their technology is such that it can it scans people
and bags and whatnot for concealed weapons.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
I mean you look at their website and they say
that they detect five hundred firearms daily. Yeah, they have
nine hundred and fifty customers across industries and they screen
three million people a day.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
It just feels like to me right now, this is
an industry that has to be booming because you know,
every day we're seeing crazy things happen in our world.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
So that certainly is.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
And we'll be talking with the Neil Chikara, he is
the co founder there also in the program today, of course,
we're going to be talking without Doug Banks, executive editor
of the Boston Business Journal, and he's going to sort
through the top business stories of the weak Forest. One
thing they did, Kim, is they took a look at
ceo pay. Now, that's always sort of a fun topic
to see how much these individuals are making.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
But what the BBJ did is a little different.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
They look at the pay and then they add this
caveat which Massachusetts ceo is truly earning their pay. Well,
we crunched the numbers. It's an interesting way to look
at ceo pay and you know, so that's that's just
the first half of the show, Kim.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
That's interesting for us. I'm not sure all the CEOs
want to see all that. I think it's really good
for those of us who are not CEOs.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Yeah, especially I mean a TJX and I guess Boston
Scientific I guess they're earning their money over there.
Speaker 6 (03:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
Absolutely, take a look at the second half of the show.
The Americans with Disabilities Act is thirty five years old.
It just hit that milestone the last part of July.
The impact that it's had on employers and employees is
pretty dramatic over the last thirty five years. Joanne Simon's
the CEO of the North East Arc, is going to
join us talk a little bit about how that has
impacted some of the people that they serve. We're also
(03:39):
going to be talking about housing. This is a subject
that everybody's talking about here in Massachusetts. The cost of
living on the Cape and the islands is so high
at this point that it's pricing out local year round residents.
And so today we're going to specifically look at the
issue on Nantucket. You know, there's firefighters and their school
teachers and other first responders who are having a really
(04:02):
hard time staying on that island because they can't afford
to live anywhere.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yeah, imagine going to work by ferry every day, because
that's what you know, half these workers do. I mean,
they don't live there on the island. They have to
go back and forth in a steamship.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
Then the management saga over there at market Basket. I mean,
this just keeps going. This is the story that just
keeps on given. And certainly we're going to talk a
little bit about what's been going on the last week,
but really interesting The Boston Globe decided that in the
midst of all of this saga, is it really worth
it when you shop at market Basket? Is it cheaper
(04:37):
than other grocery stores like so many people believe it is.
And I think people may be a little bit surprised
to see the outcome of a survey they went in
and bought the same items in about five different stores.
I think you might be interested to see how that
comes out. Senior Assistant Business editor Andy Rosen will be
our guest.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Yeah, Andy Rosen is you know he's gonna be a
fascinating conversation nonetheleast just his job. I mean, how many
business stories go across his desk every day at the
Boston Globe. So yeah, we'll touch base with and it
should be a good conversation.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
But first, Joe, you know, we're all familiar with security
cameras that are really sort of following our every moon move,
especially if we're in major metropolitan areas. But did you
know in some locations there's technology at work scanning crowds
to detect concealed weapons and other threats. Of course, all
of this in an effort to keep all of us safe,
and a lot of it is brought to you by
(05:31):
a local company. It's Evolved Technology. They're based over there
in Waltham, and we are joined by a Neil Chitkara.
He is the co founder of Evolve and Neil always
great to have folks like you on and we're so
glad that you could join us today. Let's get started
this morning by you telling us a little bit about
Evolve and exactly what you guys do.
Speaker 7 (05:52):
Well. First of all, thanks for having me on this morning,
and I really appreciate you putting a spotlight on safety
and security. It's a very importantly we've seen events over
the last few weeks. We started Evolved Technology in twenty thirteen.
It was started by myself and my co founder and
friend Mike ellen Bogan, who had been in the physical
security technology space for decades before. He had done a
(06:14):
lot of aviation security. And what happened was on April
fifteenth to twenty thirteen, I was standing on Arlington Street.
I was waiting for my wife to finish the Boston Marathon.
I had my three kids who were eleven, nine and
five at the time, and she finished. It was her
eighth Boston Marathon. We got in the car and left
and as we all know, the bombing happened shortly after that.
Speaker 8 (06:36):
It happened that day and it was tragic.
Speaker 7 (06:40):
Luckily we had left, but a close friend of ours
was not as fortunate.
Speaker 8 (06:44):
He was affected by the second device.
Speaker 7 (06:47):
And when I went and visited him at Mass General
and saw the folks that were injured, seriously, it just
struck us that these two kids, these two punks, could
use the internet go to st worst that we can
all go to and create a weapon that could do
such damage.
Speaker 8 (07:04):
And it just was not acceptable.
Speaker 7 (07:06):
If you backtrack about four months before that, on December fourteenth,
was the Sandy Hook tragedy again, twenty young kids, six adults,
and that there was a series of shootings between those
two events, and Mike and I said, there's got to
be a way we can help out. There's got to
be a way we can use technology to help keep
(07:27):
our kids, our families, our friends, and others say from
some of this violence.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
So, Aneil, what is different today since you started this
company in July of twenty thirteen.
Speaker 7 (07:39):
So the traditional way that a lot of these venues,
stadiums and locations were doing security and screening for concepts
concealed weapons was walk through metal detectors. Walk Through metal
detectors were first deployed in nineteen twenty six. They haven't
fundamentally changed, but we've changed. We carry a lot more
on us. Weapons have changed, the threats have changed, and
(08:00):
so what we did is we looked at technology that
could do three things. One it can differentiate personal items
from weapons that are on your body or in a bag. Two,
it can happen very quickly. And three we can use
technology to inform the security operator as to who might
have a threat and where on that person it is.
(08:21):
So if we can make it easy to differentiate a
phone from a firearm, do it very quickly, and make
it easy for security operators who might be law enforcement
or they might be somebody that's doing it as a
side job on a Sunday afternoon, make it easy as
possible for them to differentiate these threats and identify.
Speaker 8 (08:38):
And resolve them. That would help move things along with
more quickly.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
So tell us a little bit about some of the
locations that that technology is being used.
Speaker 7 (08:48):
So we have about six thousand systems largely across the US.
We first deploy them in twenty nineteen, and we screen
over two billion people in the US since then, so
they're widely used every day. There is about two or
three million people the day they use them. They're at schools,
they're at hospitals, they're at sports and entertainment venues, and
(09:08):
they're at workplaces. And in the Boston area, we're at Gillette,
We work with the team at Gillette, TD Bank North Building,
the Box Center, Fenway. So there's a series of places
we go every day where these systems are being used
and helping the security teams make their places safer.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Now does each venue different or do they all have
basically the same type of technology And maybe you could
give us so for instance, obviously at Fenway Park, but
I'm also reading here that you're involved in the World
Cup this year, and of course that's coming to Boston
next year, right.
Speaker 7 (09:40):
So the core technology has built in some flexibility, so
it's designed to rapidly screen people for compiled threats, whether
they're hidden on their body and their pants or in
a bag it's over their shoulders.
Speaker 8 (09:52):
That's what the core technology does.
Speaker 7 (09:54):
Now, how different venues use it as different Some want
to make it very free flowing. Some might want to
to stop people and have them go through one at
a time, so each venue is a little bit different,
and what we see in sports venues they typically use.
Speaker 8 (10:08):
It sort of in a similar way that we've all
been through.
Speaker 7 (10:10):
Schools might do it a little bit differently, and hospitals
which have threats coming in through either the front or
through the emergency department.
Speaker 8 (10:18):
Maybe doing it a little bit differently as well.
Speaker 7 (10:19):
So each security team decides how to operationally use it
to optimize the people that are coming in and the
threats they're concerned about.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
And Neil, is there any issue associated with privacy and
this kind of technology.
Speaker 7 (10:33):
It's a very good question. So on the privacy side,
the system doesn't store any personal information, it doesn't store
any pictures of people.
Speaker 5 (10:41):
We don't use.
Speaker 7 (10:42):
Facial recognition technology, so it's agnostic. And in fact what
we see is when a group of people are coming
through and if somebody gets stopped, sometimes they think why
is it me? Is it what I'm wearing?
Speaker 8 (10:53):
Is it what I look like?
Speaker 7 (10:54):
And in fact it's the technology that's identifying the person
based on what they're carrying, and then there's just an
image of that person there, so the security team can say,
this is the technology identified you as potentially having something
we need to look at more closely. Here's a picture
of that, so we're sure it's.
Speaker 8 (11:11):
You and this location is what we need to look
at more closely.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Talking with a Nilt chit Kara, co founder of Evolve
Technologies and Waltham, I guess I'm I'm looking at your
website and it says, you know, five hundred firearms detected daily,
nine hundred and fifty customers across all industries, some three
million people screened daily. I mean, give it an example
here to our listener. You guys must have success stories
(11:34):
every day or certainly every month. What's a success story
that you know you're talking about at the end of
your workday.
Speaker 7 (11:42):
Yeah, so I'll give you two. Unfortunately, we see kids.
Speaker 8 (11:47):
Carrying guns into schools around the US.
Speaker 7 (11:50):
Sometimes they're carrying them in for safety, sometimes they're carrying
it for their own ego reasons. Regardless of why they're
carrying them in, they're prohibited and they create a dangerous environment.
So schools are one of the largest types of places
where we're deployed, and we continually get updates of teens
at schools who have detected a firearm on an individual
(12:12):
on a student stopped that student and took it away.
Sometimes it's an illegal firearm, sometimes it's legal. It might
be a parents firearm they've taken from the house, but regardless,
it shouldn't be in the school. That's one scenario. There's
another scenario where we work with a number of hospitals.
There was one hospital where an individual, a family was
(12:32):
having a situation in the hospital. The patient took a
turn for the worst. The father left, went out to
the parking lot, came back about forty five minutes later
carrying a duffel bag, went through our system. The system alerted,
the security team looked in the duffel bag and there
were multiple firearms in the duffel bag. It was not
(12:53):
a scenario where he didn't realize they were in there.
Speaker 8 (12:56):
That could have been another tragedy.
Speaker 7 (12:58):
So there's examples like this we hear from our customers
which are unfortunate but real So.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
And Neil, this sounds like technology that should be in
every school, maybe at every church and every location like that.
Is it cost prohibitive for a lot of these different locations.
Speaker 7 (13:15):
So schools, churches, these different venues, they really need to
look at what's most important to them and what threats
they're trying to avoid, and a lot of them need
to do some of the basics, like they have to
have locking.
Speaker 5 (13:26):
Doors first, for example.
Speaker 7 (13:27):
So there's some basic security technologies or approaches that have
to be deployed, and then once they're in place, they'll
look to add additional layers of security.
Speaker 8 (13:37):
We think about it as multiple layers, and conceal weapons
detection is another layer.
Speaker 7 (13:42):
There are different grants that are available, federal grants and
state grants for schools and houses of worship in other places.
But ultimately it's a decision as to you know, what
are the threats we have, what's the budget we have,
and what's the implication we want to have on our
students or congregants or whoever's.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Coming through And Neil, what's on your desk right now?
What do you need to do this month or next.
Speaker 7 (14:06):
So we had success with the Club World Cups in
the past months. It was very successful in them using
our systems to screen at stadiums and other places. It's
a good example where these big public events also have
threats that present themselves, and so what we're looking at
is how can we serve these types of events more efficiently,
(14:31):
How can they use our technology as a part of
a multi layered system to try to keep the public
safe so they can enjoy the event they're going to enjoy.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
And Neil Chikara, what a fascinating business that you are
developing and continue to develop. We can wish you the
best of luck. It's called Evolve technology. Everybody in Waltham, Massachusetts.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
Good to know they're there, right Kim. I mean, it's
just good to know they're there.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
And this doesn't always make the headlines, the stuff he's
talking about.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
And maybe sometimes it's best that it doesn't, right Sure,
you know, I'm just so glad that we could have
him on and people could hear about this, because it
just feels like to me, this is something that every
major location should have. All right, still coming your way,
the BBJ recently broke down CEO salaries. We're gonna have
that when we come back right here on the New
England Business Report.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
You are listening to the New England Business Report on
the Voice of Boston WRKO six eighty. Joe and Kim
will be right back.
Speaker 9 (15:39):
There's a lot love about it. There's a lots love
about you.
Speaker 10 (15:45):
Don't miss the subro of New England A Lot to
Love event. Get more of what you value most with
the trust Is twenty twenty five Super out Back with
some metrical all wheel drive. Buy with one point nine
percent financing for up to sevenwenty two months, or lease
for just two fifty five per month for thirty six
months with forty two to fifty four do it signing.
(16:07):
Built for your next adventure, the twenty twenty five Outback
features standard symmetrical all wheel drive and Subaru's reliable engineering
that combines adventurous capability with state of the arts safety.
Speaker 7 (16:20):
Love all.
Speaker 10 (16:20):
The Trusted twenty twenty five Subaru Outback has to offer
buy with one point nine percent financing for up to
seventy two months, or lease for just two fifty five
per month with forty two fifty four do it signing.
You don't want to miss the Subaru of New England
A Lot to Love events.
Speaker 11 (16:38):
Are you a brother or sister of one of Greater
Boston's local trade unions and finally thinking about getting ready
to hang up your tools after thirty five years of
working your tail off. Congratulations, you worked hard to build
your retirement nest egg. But now what Let me help
you break through the nonsense and financial speak so we
can get to the questions that are important to you.
As you know, nothing gets built without a set of plans,
(16:59):
and neither will you a financial future. My name is
Mike Marshall, President and CEO of Marshaal Wealth Management and
creator of the Marshall Plan, a comprehensive customized plan that
will help you answer important questions in all seven key areas.
You don't have to do it alone. There is no
cost or obligation. Call us at eight five seven three
four two ten thirty. That's eight five seven three four
(17:22):
two ten thirty. Well check us out online at Marshallwealth
dot Com, Marshall with two els, Marshallwealth dot Com.
Speaker 12 (17:29):
Advisory services offered through Capital Analysts or Lincoln Investment Registered
Investment Advisors. Securities offered through Lincoln Investment Broker Dealer Member FINRA, SIPC,
Lincoln Investment dot Com, Marshall Wealth Management and the above
firms are independent and not affiliated.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
Hi everybody, I'm Kim Kerrigan and.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
I'm Joe Shortsley. If you want to be part of
the New England Business Report, sponsorships are still available.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
You can email us at any business radio at gmail
dot com.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
That's any business Radio all one word at gmail dot
com and we'll get your business on the show too.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
And welcome back to.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
The New England Business Report on this Sunday morning, August third.
Of course, every week we check in with Doug Banks,
executive editor of the Boston Business Journal, to find out
what stories are making headlines in the business community and interesting.
This week, you know, Doug shared with us three or
four stories that actually have been big this past week.
(18:32):
But one of them was a story they developed on
their own, and it really has to do with pay
to CEOs. Now, we always love the os stories, right,
but the BBJA did something different here. They didn't just
look at the pay. The second line headline here is
which Massachusetts CEOs are truly earning earning their pay? We
(18:52):
crunch the numbers. Well, that's an interesting way of looking
at it, Doug Bank, So tell us what is this
for you?
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Used and what did you come up with?
Speaker 13 (19:02):
Good morning Joe and Kim. Yes, every year we ranked
the fifty highest paid CEOs. We've been doing this since
I mean I've been here since nineteen ninety eight as
long as I can remember, and in the past we
have you know, we've tried to compare a CEO's compensation
with the performance of their company. This year, we changed
the methodology a little bit. We wanted to see how
(19:25):
they rank again based on company performance, but the ultimate
question being do shareholders get a bang for their buck?
And so we took a new formula in which we
compared their compensation to the company's market cap, which your
listeners will know the market. Company's market cap is their
total number of shares multiplied by.
Speaker 5 (19:46):
The share price.
Speaker 13 (19:47):
That's how you get the total value for a company.
But we also so we took all that, but then
we also took the company's revenue change. Did their revenue
go up or down over the past year. We actually
took market cap, double the value the revenue change. We
scored them all against the CEO's pay. Many of these
CEOs are making you know, millions to tens of millions
(20:09):
of dollars. Most of that compensation is in the form
of stock options, stock awards, and bonuses, and so we
took the total compensation, compare that year over year, and
then we kind of made this sort of you know,
ratio if you will, to look and see how the
companies performed against the company's CEO. So we had the
(20:29):
fifty highest paid CEOs. We only there was a few
companies like Geo Vernova for example, that wasn't trading a
year earlier because you know that spun out of the
what was ge so we didn't include them. So here's
the interesting thing and here's the findings. Right, So the
top three CEOs that get the best bang for their
buck among their shareholders were Ernie Herman from tj X,
(20:51):
which is the parent company of TJ Max and Marshalls,
and Mike Mahoney Boston Scientific. They actually tied for first
based on our numbers. And then the third was State
Street's CEO Ron o'hanley. In all three cases, their market
cap of their company changed per dollar of compensation you know,
(21:12):
well into the hundreds of dollars to the good. So
all of them saw their company value outpace their compensation change.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
Okay, but what was did you have? What you said
there was a ratio? What was the ratio?
Speaker 13 (21:25):
So the ratio is we looked at the market cap
change per dollar of compensation change, and so that's so
then we and we kind of came up with that ranking.
So if you go to our website, Boston Business Journal
dot com. You'll see everything that our associate managing editor
Jess Allow pulled together. She's got everything that a business
reader would love. She's got bubble charts, she's got spider
(21:46):
scale charts. It's all kinds of good stuff. We know
that your listeners and our readers love numbers, so we've
got the numbers.
Speaker 4 (21:53):
So Doug, let me just quickly ask you here though,
who's the Who is the he or she who's being overcompensated.
Speaker 13 (22:00):
So unfortunately, at the bottom of the list was Christopher
Wiebacher at Biogen he saw, and then Steph Stefan bon
Sell at Maderna. Both of those companies have taken some
serious hits in the past year to their stock price,
to their market cap, and so in the case of
Biogen's CEO, his his market cap of the company's gone
(22:22):
down by about six hundred and eighty three dollars for
every dollar of compensation that he earned, and the revenue
change was more modest that just six dollars and seventy
nine cents drop in revenue. So we know that Biogen
is you know, has invested a lot of money in manufacturing.
They're working on, you know, getting spin Raza further th along.
(22:44):
So they've kind of had a rebuilding year, kind of
like the Patriots, we have a rebuilding, you know. And Maderna,
of course is you know, they've they've had layoffs this
year and last year. They've been trying to go move
beyond just the COVID vaccine into other areas and it's
been a bumpy road for them as well.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
How about but back to the top of the people
who are actually earning their pay have you heard from
these CEOs?
Speaker 13 (23:09):
I mean they don't like to No ceo likes to
tell talk to us about their paychecks, so we never
really hear from them. Oftentimes the companies will make it
very clear they're not actually taking home you know, thirty
million dollars in the case of Mark Casper at Thermo Fisher.
You know, they take home there, you know, million or
(23:29):
two million, and then the rest is stock options which
have to vest over time. And then you'll see from
time to time a CEO will want to buy a
new house in Brookline, so they'll cash out four or
five million.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Of their stock options, you know for.
Speaker 13 (23:43):
But no, they don't tend to want to talk to
us about it unless they're clarifying some mistake that they
think we've made right exactly.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
Let's take a look a great story, by the way,
that's always fun to take a look at. Let's take
a look at some of the other stories that you
guys had highlighted this week. I love this story about Lexington.
They are the first MBTA Communities project underway.
Speaker 5 (24:07):
Joe.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
We've talked about this with Doug so many times. Who
would you know, is this actually going to happen? And
who would start to build there? They are in Lexington building.
Speaker 13 (24:15):
Yes, So everybody's heard about the MBTA Communities Act at
this point. This is the law that applies to almost
two hundred cities and towns in eastern and central mass
that are te adjacent, subway station adjacent, commuterial adjacent. And
some of the communities in Greater Boston have been, you know,
okay with approving zoning that allows for denser residential development
(24:37):
without special permitting, and other towns like Milton have fought
it and very publicly. Lexington has really gained a reputation
as being one of the towns that are perhaps most
permissive near Boston when it comes to new growth. I
mean it's a very high net worth town. And yet
they've been very vocal will saying no, no, we want
to do more housing near the Tea, more multi family housing.
(25:01):
And so the story that Grant Welker had this past
week was that there's a three hundred and twelve unit
housing development right on Heartwell Avenue that is taking place
moving forward. It's the former building that was of Fractal Health,
which was a biotech company that moved to Burlington, and
(25:21):
so now they're converting that to residential, which is another
trend that of course we've been talking about, which is
office to residential conversions.
Speaker 5 (25:28):
Right.
Speaker 13 (25:29):
But yeah, good for Lexington. I think Lexington and Salem
are the two communities that are most moving most quickly
to get into compliance with multi family development. And everybody
knows we need more housing in Massachusetts. The more people
complain about the cost of housing, the more you'd say, well,
then we got to start adding housing because the demand
(25:49):
is not going away and we just got to continue
to increase the supply.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
This issue, obviously, it's an issue right now in this
blossoming race for governor as well. Some communities have you
pointed out already, Doug, don't like this, and went all
the way to the SJAC and I got settled there.
Then basically the SJAC said, tough luck. The state can
do this to local communities.
Speaker 13 (26:10):
Yes, I think that.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
You know.
Speaker 13 (26:11):
The hang up was whether the state could force a
town to do it versus just withhold the credits and
the sort of the rewards that they were hoping it
was carried in a stick approach. And the sg's s
JC said, you know, towns can't get away with not
doing it just because they want to say, well, we
don't need your carrot. So we're gonna we're gonna stay,
(26:33):
you know, we're gonna not do it. And so there's
been a number and it's still going back and forth.
There's a number of communities that have simply been non compliant.
They're just dragging their feet and so we'll we'll see
how how that continues.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
All right, All right, he's Doug Banks.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
He is the executive editor of the Boston Business General.
In a regular here on the New England Business Report.
Looking ahead to our program on this Sunday morning, we're
gonna be talking with the Andy Rosen of the Boston Globe.
Oh now, he's the business editor there so he sees
every business story that comes across his desk. And though
we'll be looking at well the issue of market basket
(27:09):
and are you really getting a good deal there?
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Kim and Joe will explore more business news that impacts
our New England economy when they return.
Speaker 9 (27:24):
There's a lot's a love about it. There's a lot's
a love about you.
Speaker 10 (27:31):
Don't miss the suber of New England. A lot to
love event. Get more of what you value most with
the Trusted twenty twenty five SUPERU cross Track with symmetrical
all wheel drive. Get one point nine percent financing for
up to sixty three months on select models, or lease
for just two sixty nine per month with thirty two
sixty eight do it signing. The twenty twenty five cross
(27:53):
Track is built for your next adventure with standard symmetrical
all wheel drive, the latest tech and trust to super
safety features, all packed and the right size suv love
all The twenty twenty five cross Track has to offer
give one point nine percent financing for up to you
sixty three months on select models, or at least for
just two sixty nine per month with thirty two sixty
(28:16):
eight do it signing. You don't want to miss the
Subaru of New England A lot to love event.
Speaker 11 (28:24):
Are you a brother or sister of one of Greater
Boston's local trade unions and finally thinking about getting ready
to hang up your tools after thirty five years of
working your tailoff? Congratulations, you worked hard to build your
retirement nest egg. But now what Let me help you
break through the nonsense and financial speak so we can
get to the questions that are important to you. As
you know, nothing gets built without a set of plans,
(28:45):
and neither will you a financial future. My name is
Mike Marshall, President and CEO of Marshal Wealth Management and
creator of the Marshall Plan, a comprehensive, customized plan that
will help you answer important questions in all seven key areas.
You don't have to do it alone. There is no
cost or obligation. Call us at eight five seven three
four to two ten thirty. That's eight five seven three
(29:07):
four two ten thirty. Well check us out online at
Marshallwealth dot com Marshall with two els Marshallwealth dot Com.
Speaker 12 (29:15):
Advisory services offered through Capital Analysts or Lincoln Investment Registered
Investment Advisors. Securities offered through Lincoln Investment Broker Dealer member Finra, SIPC,
Lincoln Investment dot Com, Marshall Wealth Management and the above
firms are independent and not affiliated.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
Welcome back.
Speaker 4 (29:29):
Everybody did the New England Business Report on this Sunday morning.
It is August the third. Good to have you along.
I'm Kim Kerrigan along with Joe short Sleeve. Quick reminder
are still coming up. We're gonna have a discussion about
housing on Nantucket, but we before we do, we always
like to talk about some stories that got our attention.
And Joe knowing that we were going to be talking
about that housing issue, this story in the Globe this
(29:49):
past week by Kara Miller really got my attention. As
housing prices in Massachusetts sore, they've remained stagnant in downtown Boston,
and here's what that means for the city. You know,
we I know Doug Banks talked about it earlier. You know,
everybody's talking about housing and the cost of housing in
Boston and really in surrounding areas and how astronomical it's gotten.
(30:11):
But really this is interesting, a millennial tower in downtown Boston.
Carr used this as an example of how things have
gotten a little bit stagnant in the city. She talked
about this two bedroom, two and a half bath condo
has these sweeping views of you know, the city, and
it's got a parking spot.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
It's old.
Speaker 4 (30:31):
In June for two point one million dollars. That was
down from the buying price at two point eight to
five million in twenty seventeen. So so many of these
condos in places downtown are either stagnant or people are
losing money. And she surmises that the reason is because
(30:51):
after COVID again, people have not gone back to the
city and they're still not really anxious to move there.
They want to get back out. They want to stay
out in the suburbs, which would be very disappointing. I
guess if you bought a condo in twenty seventeen, right.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Yeah, I mean things did get pretty crazy there. I mean,
you know, it's like you and I do in the
program at Bloomberg several years ago, and they talk about
all this the dollars they are paying build all this
lab space, you know, and guess what we had said ourselves,
do they really need all this lab space? Well, yeah,
it turns out they really didn't. But I think the
same thing you know is true in residential real estate
(31:28):
or commercial real estate, that things exploded and now we're
sort of coming back down on the other side.
Speaker 4 (31:35):
Yeah, and there's lots of repercussions as a result of it.
Very important milestone was marked on to lie the twenty
sixth Joe. It was the thirty fifth year that the
Americans with Disabilities Act has been in existence. It was
signed into law by President George H. W.
Speaker 11 (31:52):
Bush.
Speaker 4 (31:53):
Law protects the rights of those living with disabilities, and
we want to learn a little bit more about the
impact of that law in the workplace. So joining us
to talk about that this morning is the CEO of
the Northeast ARC. This is Joanne Simons. Joanne, thank for
joining us. Explain to everybody first, Ada, what exactly is it?
Speaker 14 (32:10):
Well? Ada is a landmark civil rights law that was
passed to ensure that people with disabilities had access to transportation, housing, employment,
and all the rights that everybody else has enjoyed for years.
And as a result, many of us who are not
(32:31):
even impact personally by disability, has found that the law
has actually benefited us. For example, in curb cuts, which
were for people with disabilities, but every mother or a
father or person with a stroller has really benefited by that.
Or carrying a big bag of groceries into a building
where you didn't have to open a handle but could
(32:52):
press a button to get in. Those barriers which prevented
people from with disabilities to have access has really provided
some wonderful opportunities for all of us.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
Thirty five years later, Joanne, how would you describe the
business community.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
Have they embraced Ada?
Speaker 14 (33:11):
I think that it's our work is not complete. I
think there are employers who have embraced it with enthusiasm
and others reluctantly. I hope that more and more see
that the value of people with disabilities in the workplace
is evident by the competency that they have to in
the jobs that they're able to do. And I think
(33:35):
that when I look back at the last thirty five years,
I'm actually quite optimistic and hopeful for the future because
I've seen such positive embracements of people with disabilities in
the workplace. It's so common now to walk into businesses
and see people with disabilities, where it was a novelty
(33:59):
thirty five years ago.
Speaker 4 (34:00):
Right right, you talk about you know how it's impacted
the workplace talk about how it's impacted people with disabilities.
Speaker 14 (34:09):
I think people with disabilities now have the legal right
to employment and they have seen a more opening workplace.
And you know, disability is a broad term in terms
of oh they cover, so for people that we support,
(34:29):
where people who are with some significant intellectual disabilities or
developmental disabilities or autism, we've seen that the workplace has
been able to accommodate them in spite of the fact
that they may not be able to do all of
things that another worker could do. We've seen employers willing
to carve out in a job, for example, the pieces
that the person with the disability can do. We've been
(34:52):
able to see a simple accommodations where instructions could be given,
you know, Redman written instructions, somebody would have them on
tape that they could listen to, or someone could use
an assistive device to be able to accomplish their job.
And I think that many employers have seen that people
with disabilities have actually actually change the culture of their
(35:15):
workplace in a positive way, so that it's more welcoming,
more inclusive, and more mirrors our communities. So people, whether
or not they're shopping or dining or or you know,
doing transactional business in a law office, for example, they're
seeing people that look like their sons and daughters and
their brothers and sisters and their other family members and
(35:39):
feel that this is a business that they would want
to support.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
Joanne, Obviously a lot more needs to be done, for example.
Speaker 14 (35:50):
Yes, I think we need to because we have champions
in businesses, you know, those businesses that are really inclusive
and understand it and get it, and then that there
are other companies that really need to be brought along,
so the work is never done. I'm hopeful that the
fact that we have have this into the ADA, we
(36:11):
had you know, educational acts that ensured students with disabilities
had equal access to education, so that business owners and
employees of businesses who grew up educated alongside students with
disabilities will see naturally that they could be employees with disabilities.
(36:31):
So I think we've seen a huge cultural shift as
a result of the ADA, But I don't want to
discount that there are other educational advancements that I think
have contributed to a more inclusive workplace.
Speaker 4 (36:45):
She is the CEO of the Northeast Ark Joeyann Simons. Joanne,
thank you so much for joining us today. Let's change
gears just a.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
Bit if we could.
Speaker 4 (36:54):
We've talked about this throughout the show this morning, Housing
and how important it is, and the lack of afford
housing in the state. It has become a hot button issue,
even hotter on the cape and on the islands. So
recently we spoke to the head of the nonprofit Nantucket
Land Trust, his name is Tucker Holland, about the issue
facing the island and the concern that year round workers
(37:17):
are being priced out. Well, there may be a lot
of luxury homes, luxury yachts, you know, private planes over
on Nantucket, but that does not reflect what some of
the workers who live there on Nantucket on a regular
basis are experiencing. There is a housing issue there for
those who work on and live on that island year round.
(37:41):
Joining us to talk a little bit more about this issue,
which is based on a New York Times article that
Joe and I saw Nantucket's workers are living on. The
Margins is executive director of the Nantucket Land Trust. It's
a nonprofit. They are on Nantucket. This is Tucker Holland,
Tucker good to have you along talk to us a
(38:02):
little bit about this article that Joe and I saw
from the New York Times and the fact that workers
there on the island and we're talking about school teachers,
and we're talking about first responders and what's happening to
them there on Nantucket.
Speaker 6 (38:17):
We're appreciative of the New York Times devoting some focus
to this issue. In the story, a number of different
folks and departments were highlighting the housing challenge. It is
a crisis, as we refer to it in Nantucket, and
if we're not able to properly address it, including providing
(38:40):
home ownership options, were literally not going to have things
like a police department and fire department that are functioning properly.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
Tucker Hollins our guest, the executive director of the Nantucket
Land Trust, Perhaps you could share with us a couple
of four instances. I mean, I'm looking at the article
in the New York Times and they talk about the
July twenty twenty two of Veranda House hotel fire.
Speaker 15 (39:05):
What happened there in the Randi fire case, we were fortunate,
I mean, first of all, we have a great fire
department on Nantucket, and they responded very quickly and very
fully and were able.
Speaker 6 (39:20):
To keep things under control. So they did a great job. Fortunately,
we were able to get folks from the cape there,
but not for several hours. And in addition, what helped
with the situation was there actually were some off duty
firemen from various locations who happened to be vacationing on
(39:44):
the island and jumped into service.
Speaker 4 (39:46):
So sixty five percent, according to this article from The
New York Times, sixty five percent of the island's twelve
thousand houses are actually seasonal residence. And the median home
price there on Nantucket at this point is two point
five million dollars. So how do you go about changing
(40:07):
that situation so that individuals who live on that island
year round and service that island year round can survive.
Speaker 6 (40:15):
Well, there are a few different things. I mean, first
of all, voters very supportive of addressing the issue. Over
the last five years. They have voted in support of
over one hundred and forty million to really start to
address the issue. There are a couple other things that
really would move the needle in a significant way. One
(40:35):
is if the Massachusetts legislature would enact a transfer fee
for housing so much like our existing land bank fee,
which has been incredibly successful in the conservation field, the
ability to impose a modest one half a percent fee
(40:58):
on amounts over two million in real estate transaction would
add up very quickly in Nantucket, and that could be
hundreds of millions to address the problem, which is important
because you know, we still have a half a billion
dollar problem to really make a big difference in helping
the folks that you were just talking about. As well.
(41:19):
We have several great housing organizations on the island. We're
adding one right now, a community land trust, the Nantucket
Land Trust, which I am involved with, which really is
focused on home ownership opportunities for year rounders, not simply
at the traditional federal definition of affordable level, but really
(41:41):
the missing middle as folks have been hearing about middle
income earners.
Speaker 2 (41:45):
Talking with Tucker Holland, and if there is an expert
on this topic, it would be Tucker Holland. Looking at
his resume, he was the housing coordinator in the Town
of Nantucket, He was the Housing director for the Town
of Nantucket, and currently is the executive director of the
Nantucket Land Trust. I guess mytion to you, Tucker is this.
Where are you in terms of optimism, in terms of
solving this problem.
Speaker 6 (42:06):
I'm an incredibly optimistic person. When I was on the
board of the Community Foundation here, we had a nonprofit
rock Star, who is Massachusetts based, generally named Dan Palada,
who came to Nantucket and said, in short, you all
are in a very unique position, giving your geographic isolation,
given the financial strength of the town, given the pill
(42:28):
inthrop a community that you have here, you all are
in a position to solve what are otherwise systemic problems
in other places. And he actually went on to use
housing as the example. I completely subscribe to it. We
can do it. We're going to need some help from
the legislature, as I mentioned, but folks in Nantucket, whether
(42:48):
year round residents or seasonal residents, are really united in
trying to address this problem.
Speaker 4 (42:53):
And what about the legislature getting a sense that the
legislature is open to helping Nantucket certainly hopeful.
Speaker 6 (43:01):
I think the last few years there's been a lot
of education that's gone on up at the state House.
We're hoping to get a few folks from leadership in
the legislature to the region to the islands this session.
I think the need has become even more pronounced, not
only in our region but across the state, and I
(43:23):
think that the legislature can.
Speaker 2 (43:25):
Get there, Tucker, last question from me, But in the
New York Times article, they talk about this is an
issue in Spain. They talk about day laborers in the
Hamptons forming encampments. They talk about Frisco Colorado or ski
instructors and er nurses and others live.
Speaker 3 (43:41):
In their cars.
Speaker 2 (43:43):
I guess, are there any lessons that Nantucket can learn
from what is going on in the rest of the country.
Speaker 6 (43:48):
Sure, I mean, you know, there's always room for improvement.
We certainly don't have a monopoly on good ideas. That
really is an idea that was born in terms of
our awareness right next door on our sister island, Martha's Vineyard. Community.
Land trusts are being used throughout the country, but we're
(44:09):
open to different ideas. We're certainly researching them. Nantucket has
some unique aspects to it, but we're confident that we
can employ the best practices from other places to address
our unique needs.
Speaker 4 (44:26):
Tucker Holland, thank you so much for being our guest.
Speaker 6 (44:29):
Very appreciative to be with you all today and very
grateful for you bringing attention to this issue. It obviously
is existential as far as Nantucket goes, and every community
very happy to be joining you today and thank you
for this opportunity.
Speaker 4 (44:45):
Tucker, thanks so much. Still come in your way. With
all the controversy being reported about market Basket, is it
really the cheapest way to shop? Boston Globe put that
question to the test.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
You are listening to the New England Business Report on
the Voice of Boston WRKO six 't eighty Joe and
Kim will be right back.
Speaker 11 (45:05):
Are you a brother or sister of one of Greater
Boston's local trade unions and finally thinking about getting ready
to hang up your tools after thirty five years of
working your tailoff. Congratulations, you worked hard to build your
retirement nest egg. But now what Let me help you
break through the nonsense and financial speak so we can
get to the questions that are important to you. As
you know, nothing gets built without a set of plans,
(45:26):
and neither will your financial future. My name is Mike Marshall,
President and CEO of Marshall Wealth Management and creator of
the Marshall Plan, a comprehensive, customized plan that'll help you
answer important questions in all seven key areas. You don't
have to do it alone. There is no cost or obligation.
Call us at eight five seven three four two ten thirty.
(45:46):
That's eight five seven three four two ten thirty.
Speaker 1 (45:49):
Well.
Speaker 11 (45:50):
Check us out online at Marshallwealth dot com Marshall with
two ls Marshallwealth dot Com.
Speaker 12 (45:56):
Advisory services offered through Capital Analysts or Lincoln Investment Registered
Investment Advisors. Securities offered through the line an investment Broker
Dealer member Finra, SIPC, Lincoln Investment dot Com, Martial Wealth
Management and the above firms are independent and not affiliated.
Speaker 9 (46:06):
There's a lot love about. There's a lot a lover about.
Speaker 10 (46:11):
You don't miss the subrew of New England a lot
to love event. Get more of what you value most
with the Trusted twenty twenty five super Cross track with
symmetrical all wheel drive. Get one point nine percent financing
on select models or lease for just two sixty nine
per month. Details at Subro of New England dot com.
Speaker 9 (46:36):
There's a lot love about. There's a los lover about.
Speaker 10 (46:41):
You don't miss the Suber of New England a lot
to love event. Get more of what you value most
with the trusted twenty twenty five suberw Out Bent with
symmetrical all wheel drive FIE with one point nine percent
financing or lease for just two fifty five per month.
Details at Subaro of New England dot com.
Speaker 4 (47:09):
Hi everybody, I'm Kim Kerrigan and I'm Joe Shortsley.
Speaker 2 (47:12):
If you want to be part of the New England
Business Report, sponsorships are still available.
Speaker 4 (47:17):
You can email us at any Business Radio at gmail
dot com.
Speaker 2 (47:22):
That's any Business Radio all one word at gmail dot
com and we'll get your business on the show too.
Speaker 1 (47:37):
The New England Business Report on WRKO is brought to
you in part by Subaru of New England. Feel the
freedom of a brand new twenty twenty four Subaru featuring
symmetrical all wheel drive SUPERUF New England dot com.
Speaker 2 (47:53):
Welcome back to the New England Business Report on this
Sunday morning. Obviously we are the place to be when
you are looking for your business news, and who better
to know what's going on in the city business wise?
And our next guest, he's Andy Rosen. Now he's the
senior assistant business editor there at the Boston Globe and
taking a look at his profile on the Globe website.
(48:13):
He helps guide the globe coverage of economic and financial issues.
He's been a key part of the Globe's business and
breaking news teams. Actually, in the second stint at the Globe,
he was a never met Kim in twenty twenty when
the COVID outbreak happened and was the Biogen You know
the Biogen Boston conference. Well, Andy was part of that too,
so he helped break that story. So Andy, and welcome
(48:36):
to the program. We want to talk about the story
about market Basket and they're pricing. But before we get there,
give us a little bit of idea of what you do,
what your job is there, and how many business stories
you see on a weekly basis.
Speaker 16 (48:50):
Well, I'd have to count him up, but basically my
job is I'm a editor of the reporters in the
business section, a subsection of the reporters, so out of
hands of people working with me, and one of those
people is Diana.
Speaker 5 (49:04):
Gerber, the author of the market Basket story you asked about.
So I wanted to I wanted to talk a little
bit about it. Unfortunately Diana is out of town. But
you know, I touch a lot of these stories and
pretty much anything on the topic of Harvard University coming
out of the business department right now is coming through me.
(49:25):
And yeah, I was lucky to get this market basket
story because we're all working really hard to keep track
of what's going on. We know how important it is
to the people in Boston and beyond what's happening with
that grocery store and all the turbulence there. But I
think the question we took on here is one that
will always be asking, which is we're going to get
the best deal.
Speaker 4 (49:44):
Well, you know, Andy, this is what really caught my attention,
I think Joe's as well, because this was the headline.
Market prices really still offer more for your dollar, and
you guys decided to put it to the test. I
think a lot of us have wondered, you know, with
all this turbulence going on, eventually, if the management changes,
(50:04):
is that going to change? So, before we get into
this fully about the test that you guys ran, do
you anticipate that if the management changes there may be
a change at the register as well.
Speaker 5 (50:16):
I think there's a chance.
Speaker 16 (50:18):
I mean, we just have to see what they wind
up doing and how they resolve this.
Speaker 5 (50:22):
Family feud over the over the future of the grocery chain,
but I think there are some things that are differences
in management style. A lot of this has to do,
on the other hand, with just you know, who's going
to take over when the famous RDT the CEO is
ready to retire, And some of this is just sort
of planning for the future and things about you know,
(50:43):
kind of which part of the family gets to control this. Again,
these family businesses, there's a lot they can do and
there's a lot that is challenging for them. So some
of it may be beyond the consumer level. But I
would say that ultimately, if I had to give a
hypothesis again, we'll just have to see. Part of what
makes market Basket successful is its volume based business, right,
(51:06):
so it sells a lot of things for us for
a lower margin, is what we found in this article,
for a lower margin than maybe other grocery stores might.
So say, you know, another competitor is selling x amount
of something at a higher price. If market Basket sells
more at a lower price, they still get the same
(51:26):
profit because they're repeating that transaction so many more times.
So they'd have to really rethink, you know, the consumer
experience in a way that'd be pretty substantial, I think,
to get far away from the business model that currently
supports them. But could prices go up, could things change?
You know, we just don't know.
Speaker 2 (51:42):
All right, Andy Rosen's our guest senior assistant business editor
there at the Boston Globe. A right, let's answer the question,
you've started to do market basket prices really still offer
more for your dollar And the answer to how'd you
reach a conclusion here, well, what.
Speaker 5 (51:57):
We decided to do, and really this I got to
give credit to the reporters here. They came up with
a great plan. You know, there's a lot of different
ways to look at it, and certainly we found many
many readers who had differences of opinion and how we
should have calculated this, But what we tried to do
because it's so subjective, right, you may buy a very
different package of things at the grocery store than I do,
(52:17):
and it may be more expensive at one store than
another because of your personal choice.
Speaker 8 (52:22):
So we just had to pick something and try.
Speaker 5 (52:23):
To eliminate as many variables as possible. So we just
tried to go with a kind of breakfast oriented shopping list.
So some of the things we had sour dough bread,
Greek yogurt, treaded cheese, bacon. If you go on our
site and look for this article, you will be able
to see the whole list. But you know, this is
something that our team worked on quite a bit, and
(52:45):
we've been you know, we've been tracking grocery prices for
the last few years, especially I through this inflation crisis,
and so through that knowledge, Dana you know, had a
pretty good idea of things that you're kind of representative
of the costs that you might see again trying to
squeeze out some variables. So, you know, one of the
things that's really interesting is market Basket tends to have
(53:05):
pretty consistent prices across its locations. Well not every other
grocery store does that. So what we tried to do
to kind of keep it consistent is go to one area.
So we were in the Summerville area, though we had
to cross the border a little bit, so that's kind
of how we took it. So we really tried to,
you know, get it as consistent as possible. But again,
(53:25):
there may be very different ways that people shop that
affect you know, maybe you're a super coupon or maybe
you only buy generic brands. There's lots of different ways
that you can control your grocery prices beyond what story
you picked. But for this experiment, market Basket did come
in as a leader unpriced.
Speaker 4 (53:42):
Yeah, you did it. There were other grocery stores. You
shopped at, Whole Foods, at Star Markets, stop and Shop,
and Wegmans. Wegmans is where you had to go across
the border just a bit. There wasn't a Wegmans there
in Somerville. I was actually surprised, though. I thought that
that mark A Basket would come in lower, considerably lower
(54:04):
than the others, and that really wasn't the case.
Speaker 5 (54:07):
Yes, I don't know. You know, again, we started with
a hypothesis, and maybe the hypothesis was more for your dollar, right,
does it really that you know? I think you know,
we were we weren't surprised to see the lowest price.
But again, one of the pieces of commentary that we
saw in the story is that even though they still
(54:27):
lead on price in this particular experiment, there are there
are some, you know, trends that have moved away from
Market Baskets, so maybe they're not as far ahead as
they once were. But again, it's going to depend on
the market because various other grocery stores pricing will fluctuate. Sure,
So that's kind of something that's interesting. Another piece of
(54:48):
interesting information that we got as we were looking is that,
you know, really people have this perception of market Basket
is having the best price. So, you know, consumers in
a survey that we looked at ranked market Basket is
the top grocery store for price consistency, not changing prices
too often, things like that. So, uh, number three in
(55:12):
base price, you know. So its surveyed eleven thousand consumers,
and that's their perceptions, not not on hard hard cash prices.
So you know, people, as you say, perceive market Basket
prices to be lower as well, and I imagine that
is to the benefit of their marketing department. So think
about it, just what you were saying, Right, they have
(55:33):
this perception and it plays to their to their benefit. Right.
They people think they're going to get a good deal there.
They may not shop around as much, they may not
price compare because they think they're going to get the
best price. And so what we found is that in
this case they would, but you don't you know, if
you are market Basket and you're trying to decide your
next you know, business move and where you want the
(55:54):
trajectory of your business to go. That's something to think about.
You have this real perception that you provide value and
that is worth a lot of money to them, I
would imagine.
Speaker 3 (56:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (56:02):
I mean in your article there written by Dana Gerber,
and again we did reach out, but that individuals on vacation.
So market Basket clinched the cheapest prices on five items.
So yeah, but I guess when you break it down further,
they got tripped up with honey nut cheerios and Russet potatoes,
so not across the board.
Speaker 5 (56:23):
No, And you know, you just have to remember. I
think one thing that we all forget, except maybe the
grocery people who are listening, is that the grocery storism
is a modern miracle. No matter which brand you're going to,
the number of different things that come to you from
all around the world and all around the country, things
that have to stay cold, things that have to stay dry.
(56:46):
I mean, the ability of them to the ability of
them to build a you know, a selection like that.
You know that people that they can compete with on
price through is extremely impressive. So you know, you just
have to realize that they all have different formats and
(57:06):
different ways that they get these things there, and that's
why you see these price fluctuations.
Speaker 3 (57:11):
All right. He's Andy Rosen.
Speaker 2 (57:12):
He's the assistant business editor there at the Boston Globe,
and we appreciate you joining us on the New England
Business Report.
Speaker 3 (57:18):
All right, Kim.
Speaker 2 (57:18):
I guess that wraps it up for us on this
Sunday morning. And I always love to talk to the
folks over there at the Boston Globe and the Boston
Business Journal, because you know what, folks, this radio show,
the New England Business Report, this is where you get
your business headlines every week. Get up early, set that
alarm Sunday morning, eight am. We'll be here on WRKO,
(57:40):
the Voice of Boston AM six' eighty
This is the New England Business Report with Joe Shortsleeve
and Kim Carragan, a weekly roundup and discussion of the
top business news impacting our New England economy.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
All right, well, good morning everybody. Welcome to the New
England Business Report. Joe Shortsleave here along with Kim Carragan
on this Sunday, Dare I say it? August third, we
have breached summer at this point we are staring at.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Well, you know what, Kim. Actually there are five Sundays.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
In August, so we have five shows, so you know,
we have a good amount of time here.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
Absolutely, we still got every bit of a month. I
know a lot of parents who are starting to go,
m oh, the labor days early this year, that's good.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Yeah, no, I know, Monday September first.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
Yeah, yeah, really early.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
And the kids, I know, my granddaughters in school the
week before that is Wednesday, Wednesday before that. So yeah,
so for those kids, you know here we are on Sunday,
August third, school starts in a little bit.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
They'll be ringing the bell.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Hey, today's program we're gonna be talking about, well, we're
gonna be talking with evolved technologies out there in Waltham.
We're gonna be talking with their co founder, a Nil
chit Kara, And you know, it's interesting. They provide security
screening solutions. So it's a fancy way of saying, well,
it keeps you all safe when we're all at these
big events, right Kim. Yeah, I mean they're involved in
(01:27):
the FIFA World Cup right now, and of course that'll
be in Boston a year from now.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
They have a lot of their technology at locations where
we don't know it's there, like the TD Garden or
down Chillette Stadium, you know, in large crowd locations, and
their technology is such that it can it scans people
and bags and whatnot for concealed weapons.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
I mean you look at their website and they say
that they detect five hundred firearms daily. Yeah, they have
nine hundred and fifty customers across industries and they screen
three million people a day.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
It just feels like to me right now, this is
an industry that has to be booming because you know,
every day we're seeing crazy things happen in our world.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
So that certainly is.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
And we'll be talking with the Neil Chikara, he is
the co founder there also in the program today, of course,
we're going to be talking without Doug Banks, executive editor
of the Boston Business Journal, and he's going to sort
through the top business stories of the weak Forest. One
thing they did, Kim, is they took a look at
ceo pay. Now, that's always sort of a fun topic
to see how much these individuals are making.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
But what the BBJ did is a little different.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
They look at the pay and then they add this
caveat which Massachusetts ceo is truly earning their pay. Well,
we crunched the numbers. It's an interesting way to look
at ceo pay and you know, so that's that's just
the first half of the show, Kim.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
That's interesting for us. I'm not sure all the CEOs
want to see all that. I think it's really good
for those of us who are not CEOs.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Yeah, especially I mean a TJX and I guess Boston
Scientific I guess they're earning their money over there.
Speaker 6 (03:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
Absolutely, take a look at the second half of the show.
The Americans with Disabilities Act is thirty five years old.
It just hit that milestone the last part of July.
The impact that it's had on employers and employees is
pretty dramatic over the last thirty five years. Joanne Simon's
the CEO of the North East Arc, is going to
join us talk a little bit about how that has
impacted some of the people that they serve. We're also
(03:39):
going to be talking about housing. This is a subject
that everybody's talking about here in Massachusetts. The cost of
living on the Cape and the islands is so high
at this point that it's pricing out local year round residents.
And so today we're going to specifically look at the
issue on Nantucket. You know, there's firefighters and their school
teachers and other first responders who are having a really
(04:02):
hard time staying on that island because they can't afford
to live anywhere.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yeah, imagine going to work by ferry every day, because
that's what you know, half these workers do. I mean,
they don't live there on the island. They have to
go back and forth in a steamship.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
Then the management saga over there at market Basket. I mean,
this just keeps going. This is the story that just
keeps on given. And certainly we're going to talk a
little bit about what's been going on the last week,
but really interesting The Boston Globe decided that in the
midst of all of this saga, is it really worth
it when you shop at market Basket? Is it cheaper
(04:37):
than other grocery stores like so many people believe it is.
And I think people may be a little bit surprised
to see the outcome of a survey they went in
and bought the same items in about five different stores.
I think you might be interested to see how that
comes out. Senior Assistant Business editor Andy Rosen will be
our guest.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Yeah, Andy Rosen is you know he's gonna be a
fascinating conversation nonetheleast just his job. I mean, how many
business stories go across his desk every day at the
Boston Globe. So yeah, we'll touch base with and it
should be a good conversation.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
But first, Joe, you know, we're all familiar with security
cameras that are really sort of following our every moon move,
especially if we're in major metropolitan areas. But did you
know in some locations there's technology at work scanning crowds
to detect concealed weapons and other threats. Of course, all
of this in an effort to keep all of us safe,
and a lot of it is brought to you by
(05:31):
a local company. It's Evolved Technology. They're based over there
in Waltham, and we are joined by a Neil Chitkara.
He is the co founder of Evolve and Neil always
great to have folks like you on and we're so
glad that you could join us today. Let's get started
this morning by you telling us a little bit about
Evolve and exactly what you guys do.
Speaker 7 (05:52):
Well. First of all, thanks for having me on this morning,
and I really appreciate you putting a spotlight on safety
and security. It's a very importantly we've seen events over
the last few weeks. We started Evolved Technology in twenty thirteen.
It was started by myself and my co founder and
friend Mike ellen Bogan, who had been in the physical
security technology space for decades before. He had done a
(06:14):
lot of aviation security. And what happened was on April
fifteenth to twenty thirteen, I was standing on Arlington Street.
I was waiting for my wife to finish the Boston Marathon.
I had my three kids who were eleven, nine and
five at the time, and she finished. It was her
eighth Boston Marathon. We got in the car and left
and as we all know, the bombing happened shortly after that.
Speaker 8 (06:36):
It happened that day and it was tragic.
Speaker 7 (06:40):
Luckily we had left, but a close friend of ours
was not as fortunate.
Speaker 8 (06:44):
He was affected by the second device.
Speaker 7 (06:47):
And when I went and visited him at Mass General
and saw the folks that were injured, seriously, it just
struck us that these two kids, these two punks, could
use the internet go to st worst that we can
all go to and create a weapon that could do
such damage.
Speaker 8 (07:04):
And it just was not acceptable.
Speaker 7 (07:06):
If you backtrack about four months before that, on December fourteenth,
was the Sandy Hook tragedy again, twenty young kids, six adults,
and that there was a series of shootings between those
two events, and Mike and I said, there's got to
be a way we can help out. There's got to
be a way we can use technology to help keep
(07:27):
our kids, our families, our friends, and others say from
some of this violence.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
So, Aneil, what is different today since you started this
company in July of twenty thirteen.
Speaker 7 (07:39):
So the traditional way that a lot of these venues,
stadiums and locations were doing security and screening for concepts
concealed weapons was walk through metal detectors. Walk Through metal
detectors were first deployed in nineteen twenty six. They haven't
fundamentally changed, but we've changed. We carry a lot more
on us. Weapons have changed, the threats have changed, and
(08:00):
so what we did is we looked at technology that
could do three things. One it can differentiate personal items
from weapons that are on your body or in a bag. Two,
it can happen very quickly. And three we can use
technology to inform the security operator as to who might
have a threat and where on that person it is.
(08:21):
So if we can make it easy to differentiate a
phone from a firearm, do it very quickly, and make
it easy for security operators who might be law enforcement
or they might be somebody that's doing it as a
side job on a Sunday afternoon, make it easy as
possible for them to differentiate these threats and identify.
Speaker 8 (08:38):
And resolve them. That would help move things along with
more quickly.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
So tell us a little bit about some of the
locations that that technology is being used.
Speaker 7 (08:48):
So we have about six thousand systems largely across the US.
We first deploy them in twenty nineteen, and we screen
over two billion people in the US since then, so
they're widely used every day. There is about two or
three million people the day they use them. They're at schools,
they're at hospitals, they're at sports and entertainment venues, and
(09:08):
they're at workplaces. And in the Boston area, we're at Gillette,
We work with the team at Gillette, TD Bank North Building,
the Box Center, Fenway. So there's a series of places
we go every day where these systems are being used
and helping the security teams make their places safer.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Now does each venue different or do they all have
basically the same type of technology And maybe you could
give us so for instance, obviously at Fenway Park, but
I'm also reading here that you're involved in the World
Cup this year, and of course that's coming to Boston
next year, right.
Speaker 7 (09:40):
So the core technology has built in some flexibility, so
it's designed to rapidly screen people for compiled threats, whether
they're hidden on their body and their pants or in
a bag it's over their shoulders.
Speaker 8 (09:52):
That's what the core technology does.
Speaker 7 (09:54):
Now, how different venues use it as different Some want
to make it very free flowing. Some might want to
to stop people and have them go through one at
a time, so each venue is a little bit different,
and what we see in sports venues they typically use.
Speaker 8 (10:08):
It sort of in a similar way that we've all
been through.
Speaker 7 (10:10):
Schools might do it a little bit differently, and hospitals
which have threats coming in through either the front or
through the emergency department.
Speaker 8 (10:18):
Maybe doing it a little bit differently as well.
Speaker 7 (10:19):
So each security team decides how to operationally use it
to optimize the people that are coming in and the
threats they're concerned about.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
And Neil, is there any issue associated with privacy and
this kind of technology.
Speaker 7 (10:33):
It's a very good question. So on the privacy side,
the system doesn't store any personal information, it doesn't store
any pictures of people.
Speaker 5 (10:41):
We don't use.
Speaker 7 (10:42):
Facial recognition technology, so it's agnostic. And in fact what
we see is when a group of people are coming
through and if somebody gets stopped, sometimes they think why
is it me? Is it what I'm wearing?
Speaker 8 (10:53):
Is it what I look like?
Speaker 7 (10:54):
And in fact it's the technology that's identifying the person
based on what they're carrying, and then there's just an
image of that person there, so the security team can say,
this is the technology identified you as potentially having something
we need to look at more closely. Here's a picture
of that, so we're sure it's.
Speaker 8 (11:11):
You and this location is what we need to look
at more closely.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Talking with a Nilt chit Kara, co founder of Evolve
Technologies and Waltham, I guess I'm I'm looking at your
website and it says, you know, five hundred firearms detected daily,
nine hundred and fifty customers across all industries, some three
million people screened daily. I mean, give it an example
here to our listener. You guys must have success stories
(11:34):
every day or certainly every month. What's a success story
that you know you're talking about at the end of
your workday.
Speaker 7 (11:42):
Yeah, so I'll give you two. Unfortunately, we see kids.
Speaker 8 (11:47):
Carrying guns into schools around the US.
Speaker 7 (11:50):
Sometimes they're carrying them in for safety, sometimes they're carrying
it for their own ego reasons. Regardless of why they're
carrying them in, they're prohibited and they create a dangerous environment.
So schools are one of the largest types of places
where we're deployed, and we continually get updates of teens
at schools who have detected a firearm on an individual
(12:12):
on a student stopped that student and took it away.
Sometimes it's an illegal firearm, sometimes it's legal. It might
be a parents firearm they've taken from the house, but regardless,
it shouldn't be in the school. That's one scenario. There's
another scenario where we work with a number of hospitals.
There was one hospital where an individual, a family was
(12:32):
having a situation in the hospital. The patient took a
turn for the worst. The father left, went out to
the parking lot, came back about forty five minutes later
carrying a duffel bag, went through our system. The system alerted,
the security team looked in the duffel bag and there
were multiple firearms in the duffel bag. It was not
(12:53):
a scenario where he didn't realize they were in there.
Speaker 8 (12:56):
That could have been another tragedy.
Speaker 7 (12:58):
So there's examples like this we hear from our customers
which are unfortunate but real So.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
And Neil, this sounds like technology that should be in
every school, maybe at every church and every location like that.
Is it cost prohibitive for a lot of these different locations.
Speaker 7 (13:15):
So schools, churches, these different venues, they really need to
look at what's most important to them and what threats
they're trying to avoid, and a lot of them need
to do some of the basics, like they have to
have locking.
Speaker 5 (13:26):
Doors first, for example.
Speaker 7 (13:27):
So there's some basic security technologies or approaches that have
to be deployed, and then once they're in place, they'll
look to add additional layers of security.
Speaker 8 (13:37):
We think about it as multiple layers, and conceal weapons
detection is another layer.
Speaker 7 (13:42):
There are different grants that are available, federal grants and
state grants for schools and houses of worship in other places.
But ultimately it's a decision as to you know, what
are the threats we have, what's the budget we have,
and what's the implication we want to have on our
students or congregants or whoever's.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Coming through And Neil, what's on your desk right now?
What do you need to do this month or next.
Speaker 7 (14:06):
So we had success with the Club World Cups in
the past months. It was very successful in them using
our systems to screen at stadiums and other places. It's
a good example where these big public events also have
threats that present themselves, and so what we're looking at
is how can we serve these types of events more efficiently,
(14:31):
How can they use our technology as a part of
a multi layered system to try to keep the public
safe so they can enjoy the event they're going to enjoy.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
And Neil Chikara, what a fascinating business that you are
developing and continue to develop. We can wish you the
best of luck. It's called Evolve technology. Everybody in Waltham, Massachusetts.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
Good to know they're there, right Kim. I mean, it's
just good to know they're there.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
And this doesn't always make the headlines, the stuff he's
talking about.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
And maybe sometimes it's best that it doesn't, right Sure,
you know, I'm just so glad that we could have
him on and people could hear about this, because it
just feels like to me, this is something that every
major location should have. All right, still coming your way,
the BBJ recently broke down CEO salaries. We're gonna have
that when we come back right here on the New
England Business Report.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
You are listening to the New England Business Report on
the Voice of Boston WRKO six eighty. Joe and Kim
will be right back.
Speaker 9 (15:39):
There's a lot love about it. There's a lots love
about you.
Speaker 10 (15:45):
Don't miss the subro of New England A Lot to
Love event. Get more of what you value most with
the trust Is twenty twenty five Super out Back with
some metrical all wheel drive. Buy with one point nine
percent financing for up to sevenwenty two months, or lease
for just two fifty five per month for thirty six
months with forty two to fifty four do it signing.
(16:07):
Built for your next adventure, the twenty twenty five Outback
features standard symmetrical all wheel drive and Subaru's reliable engineering
that combines adventurous capability with state of the arts safety.
Speaker 7 (16:20):
Love all.
Speaker 10 (16:20):
The Trusted twenty twenty five Subaru Outback has to offer
buy with one point nine percent financing for up to
seventy two months, or lease for just two fifty five
per month with forty two fifty four do it signing.
You don't want to miss the Subaru of New England
A Lot to Love events.
Speaker 11 (16:38):
Are you a brother or sister of one of Greater
Boston's local trade unions and finally thinking about getting ready
to hang up your tools after thirty five years of
working your tail off. Congratulations, you worked hard to build
your retirement nest egg. But now what Let me help
you break through the nonsense and financial speak so we
can get to the questions that are important to you.
As you know, nothing gets built without a set of plans,
(16:59):
and neither will you a financial future. My name is
Mike Marshall, President and CEO of Marshaal Wealth Management and
creator of the Marshall Plan, a comprehensive customized plan that
will help you answer important questions in all seven key areas.
You don't have to do it alone. There is no
cost or obligation. Call us at eight five seven three
four two ten thirty. That's eight five seven three four
(17:22):
two ten thirty. Well check us out online at Marshallwealth
dot Com, Marshall with two els, Marshallwealth dot Com.
Speaker 12 (17:29):
Advisory services offered through Capital Analysts or Lincoln Investment Registered
Investment Advisors. Securities offered through Lincoln Investment Broker Dealer Member FINRA, SIPC,
Lincoln Investment dot Com, Marshall Wealth Management and the above
firms are independent and not affiliated.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
Hi everybody, I'm Kim Kerrigan and.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
I'm Joe Shortsley. If you want to be part of
the New England Business Report, sponsorships are still available.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
You can email us at any business radio at gmail
dot com.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
That's any business Radio all one word at gmail dot
com and we'll get your business on the show too.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
And welcome back to.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
The New England Business Report on this Sunday morning, August third.
Of course, every week we check in with Doug Banks,
executive editor of the Boston Business Journal, to find out
what stories are making headlines in the business community and interesting.
This week, you know, Doug shared with us three or
four stories that actually have been big this past week.
(18:32):
But one of them was a story they developed on
their own, and it really has to do with pay
to CEOs. Now, we always love the os stories, right,
but the BBJA did something different here. They didn't just
look at the pay. The second line headline here is
which Massachusetts CEOs are truly earning earning their pay? We
(18:52):
crunch the numbers. Well, that's an interesting way of looking
at it, Doug Bank, So tell us what is this
for you?
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Used and what did you come up with?
Speaker 13 (19:02):
Good morning Joe and Kim. Yes, every year we ranked
the fifty highest paid CEOs. We've been doing this since
I mean I've been here since nineteen ninety eight as
long as I can remember, and in the past we
have you know, we've tried to compare a CEO's compensation
with the performance of their company. This year, we changed
the methodology a little bit. We wanted to see how
(19:25):
they rank again based on company performance, but the ultimate
question being do shareholders get a bang for their buck?
And so we took a new formula in which we
compared their compensation to the company's market cap, which your
listeners will know the market. Company's market cap is their
total number of shares multiplied by.
Speaker 5 (19:46):
The share price.
Speaker 13 (19:47):
That's how you get the total value for a company.
But we also so we took all that, but then
we also took the company's revenue change. Did their revenue
go up or down over the past year. We actually
took market cap, double the value the revenue change. We
scored them all against the CEO's pay. Many of these
CEOs are making you know, millions to tens of millions
(20:09):
of dollars. Most of that compensation is in the form
of stock options, stock awards, and bonuses, and so we
took the total compensation, compare that year over year, and
then we kind of made this sort of you know,
ratio if you will, to look and see how the
companies performed against the company's CEO. So we had the
(20:29):
fifty highest paid CEOs. We only there was a few
companies like Geo Vernova for example, that wasn't trading a
year earlier because you know that spun out of the
what was ge so we didn't include them. So here's
the interesting thing and here's the findings. Right, So the
top three CEOs that get the best bang for their
buck among their shareholders were Ernie Herman from tj X,
(20:51):
which is the parent company of TJ Max and Marshalls,
and Mike Mahoney Boston Scientific. They actually tied for first
based on our numbers. And then the third was State
Street's CEO Ron o'hanley. In all three cases, their market
cap of their company changed per dollar of compensation you know,
(21:12):
well into the hundreds of dollars to the good. So
all of them saw their company value outpace their compensation change.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
Okay, but what was did you have? What you said
there was a ratio? What was the ratio?
Speaker 13 (21:25):
So the ratio is we looked at the market cap
change per dollar of compensation change, and so that's so
then we and we kind of came up with that ranking.
So if you go to our website, Boston Business Journal
dot com. You'll see everything that our associate managing editor
Jess Allow pulled together. She's got everything that a business
reader would love. She's got bubble charts, she's got spider
(21:46):
scale charts. It's all kinds of good stuff. We know
that your listeners and our readers love numbers, so we've
got the numbers.
Speaker 4 (21:53):
So Doug, let me just quickly ask you here though,
who's the Who is the he or she who's being overcompensated.
Speaker 13 (22:00):
So unfortunately, at the bottom of the list was Christopher
Wiebacher at Biogen he saw, and then Steph Stefan bon
Sell at Maderna. Both of those companies have taken some
serious hits in the past year to their stock price,
to their market cap, and so in the case of
Biogen's CEO, his his market cap of the company's gone
(22:22):
down by about six hundred and eighty three dollars for
every dollar of compensation that he earned, and the revenue
change was more modest that just six dollars and seventy
nine cents drop in revenue. So we know that Biogen
is you know, has invested a lot of money in manufacturing.
They're working on, you know, getting spin Raza further th along.
(22:44):
So they've kind of had a rebuilding year, kind of
like the Patriots, we have a rebuilding, you know. And Maderna,
of course is you know, they've they've had layoffs this
year and last year. They've been trying to go move
beyond just the COVID vaccine into other areas and it's
been a bumpy road for them as well.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
How about but back to the top of the people
who are actually earning their pay have you heard from
these CEOs?
Speaker 13 (23:09):
I mean they don't like to No ceo likes to
tell talk to us about their paychecks, so we never
really hear from them. Oftentimes the companies will make it
very clear they're not actually taking home you know, thirty
million dollars in the case of Mark Casper at Thermo Fisher.
You know, they take home there, you know, million or
(23:29):
two million, and then the rest is stock options which
have to vest over time. And then you'll see from
time to time a CEO will want to buy a
new house in Brookline, so they'll cash out four or
five million.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Of their stock options, you know for.
Speaker 13 (23:43):
But no, they don't tend to want to talk to
us about it unless they're clarifying some mistake that they
think we've made right exactly.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
Let's take a look a great story, by the way,
that's always fun to take a look at. Let's take
a look at some of the other stories that you
guys had highlighted this week. I love this story about Lexington.
They are the first MBTA Communities project underway.
Speaker 5 (24:07):
Joe.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
We've talked about this with Doug so many times. Who
would you know, is this actually going to happen? And
who would start to build there? They are in Lexington building.
Speaker 13 (24:15):
Yes, So everybody's heard about the MBTA Communities Act at
this point. This is the law that applies to almost
two hundred cities and towns in eastern and central mass
that are te adjacent, subway station adjacent, commuterial adjacent. And
some of the communities in Greater Boston have been, you know,
okay with approving zoning that allows for denser residential development
(24:37):
without special permitting, and other towns like Milton have fought
it and very publicly. Lexington has really gained a reputation
as being one of the towns that are perhaps most
permissive near Boston when it comes to new growth. I
mean it's a very high net worth town. And yet
they've been very vocal will saying no, no, we want
to do more housing near the Tea, more multi family housing.
(25:01):
And so the story that Grant Welker had this past
week was that there's a three hundred and twelve unit
housing development right on Heartwell Avenue that is taking place
moving forward. It's the former building that was of Fractal Health,
which was a biotech company that moved to Burlington, and
(25:21):
so now they're converting that to residential, which is another
trend that of course we've been talking about, which is
office to residential conversions.
Speaker 5 (25:28):
Right.
Speaker 13 (25:29):
But yeah, good for Lexington. I think Lexington and Salem
are the two communities that are most moving most quickly
to get into compliance with multi family development. And everybody
knows we need more housing in Massachusetts. The more people
complain about the cost of housing, the more you'd say, well,
then we got to start adding housing because the demand
(25:49):
is not going away and we just got to continue
to increase the supply.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
This issue, obviously, it's an issue right now in this
blossoming race for governor as well. Some communities have you
pointed out already, Doug, don't like this, and went all
the way to the SJAC and I got settled there.
Then basically the SJAC said, tough luck. The state can
do this to local communities.
Speaker 13 (26:10):
Yes, I think that.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
You know.
Speaker 13 (26:11):
The hang up was whether the state could force a
town to do it versus just withhold the credits and
the sort of the rewards that they were hoping it
was carried in a stick approach. And the sg's s
JC said, you know, towns can't get away with not
doing it just because they want to say, well, we
don't need your carrot. So we're gonna we're gonna stay,
(26:33):
you know, we're gonna not do it. And so there's
been a number and it's still going back and forth.
There's a number of communities that have simply been non compliant.
They're just dragging their feet and so we'll we'll see
how how that continues.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
All right, All right, he's Doug Banks.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
He is the executive editor of the Boston Business General.
In a regular here on the New England Business Report.
Looking ahead to our program on this Sunday morning, we're
gonna be talking with the Andy Rosen of the Boston Globe.
Oh now, he's the business editor there so he sees
every business story that comes across his desk. And though
we'll be looking at well the issue of market basket
(27:09):
and are you really getting a good deal there?
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Kim and Joe will explore more business news that impacts
our New England economy when they return.
Speaker 9 (27:24):
There's a lot's a love about it. There's a lot's
a love about you.
Speaker 10 (27:31):
Don't miss the suber of New England. A lot to
love event. Get more of what you value most with
the Trusted twenty twenty five SUPERU cross Track with symmetrical
all wheel drive. Get one point nine percent financing for
up to sixty three months on select models, or lease
for just two sixty nine per month with thirty two
sixty eight do it signing. The twenty twenty five cross
(27:53):
Track is built for your next adventure with standard symmetrical
all wheel drive, the latest tech and trust to super
safety features, all packed and the right size suv love
all The twenty twenty five cross Track has to offer
give one point nine percent financing for up to you
sixty three months on select models, or at least for
just two sixty nine per month with thirty two sixty
(28:16):
eight do it signing. You don't want to miss the
Subaru of New England A lot to love event.
Speaker 11 (28:24):
Are you a brother or sister of one of Greater
Boston's local trade unions and finally thinking about getting ready
to hang up your tools after thirty five years of
working your tailoff? Congratulations, you worked hard to build your
retirement nest egg. But now what Let me help you
break through the nonsense and financial speak so we can
get to the questions that are important to you. As
you know, nothing gets built without a set of plans,
(28:45):
and neither will you a financial future. My name is
Mike Marshall, President and CEO of Marshal Wealth Management and
creator of the Marshall Plan, a comprehensive, customized plan that
will help you answer important questions in all seven key areas.
You don't have to do it alone. There is no
cost or obligation. Call us at eight five seven three
four to two ten thirty. That's eight five seven three
(29:07):
four two ten thirty. Well check us out online at
Marshallwealth dot com Marshall with two els Marshallwealth dot Com.
Speaker 12 (29:15):
Advisory services offered through Capital Analysts or Lincoln Investment Registered
Investment Advisors. Securities offered through Lincoln Investment Broker Dealer member Finra, SIPC,
Lincoln Investment dot Com, Marshall Wealth Management and the above
firms are independent and not affiliated.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
Welcome back.
Speaker 4 (29:29):
Everybody did the New England Business Report on this Sunday morning.
It is August the third. Good to have you along.
I'm Kim Kerrigan along with Joe short Sleeve. Quick reminder
are still coming up. We're gonna have a discussion about
housing on Nantucket, but we before we do, we always
like to talk about some stories that got our attention.
And Joe knowing that we were going to be talking
about that housing issue, this story in the Globe this
(29:49):
past week by Kara Miller really got my attention. As
housing prices in Massachusetts sore, they've remained stagnant in downtown Boston,
and here's what that means for the city. You know,
we I know Doug Banks talked about it earlier. You know,
everybody's talking about housing and the cost of housing in
Boston and really in surrounding areas and how astronomical it's gotten.
(30:11):
But really this is interesting, a millennial tower in downtown Boston.
Carr used this as an example of how things have
gotten a little bit stagnant in the city. She talked
about this two bedroom, two and a half bath condo
has these sweeping views of you know, the city, and
it's got a parking spot.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
It's old.
Speaker 4 (30:31):
In June for two point one million dollars. That was
down from the buying price at two point eight to
five million in twenty seventeen. So so many of these
condos in places downtown are either stagnant or people are
losing money. And she surmises that the reason is because
(30:51):
after COVID again, people have not gone back to the
city and they're still not really anxious to move there.
They want to get back out. They want to stay
out in the suburbs, which would be very disappointing. I
guess if you bought a condo in twenty seventeen, right.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Yeah, I mean things did get pretty crazy there. I mean,
you know, it's like you and I do in the
program at Bloomberg several years ago, and they talk about
all this the dollars they are paying build all this
lab space, you know, and guess what we had said ourselves,
do they really need all this lab space? Well, yeah,
it turns out they really didn't. But I think the
same thing you know is true in residential real estate
(31:28):
or commercial real estate, that things exploded and now we're
sort of coming back down on the other side.
Speaker 4 (31:35):
Yeah, and there's lots of repercussions as a result of it.
Very important milestone was marked on to lie the twenty
sixth Joe. It was the thirty fifth year that the
Americans with Disabilities Act has been in existence. It was
signed into law by President George H. W.
Speaker 11 (31:52):
Bush.
Speaker 4 (31:53):
Law protects the rights of those living with disabilities, and
we want to learn a little bit more about the
impact of that law in the workplace. So joining us
to talk about that this morning is the CEO of
the Northeast ARC. This is Joanne Simons. Joanne, thank for
joining us. Explain to everybody first, Ada, what exactly is it?
Speaker 14 (32:10):
Well? Ada is a landmark civil rights law that was
passed to ensure that people with disabilities had access to transportation, housing, employment,
and all the rights that everybody else has enjoyed for years.
And as a result, many of us who are not
(32:31):
even impact personally by disability, has found that the law
has actually benefited us. For example, in curb cuts, which
were for people with disabilities, but every mother or a
father or person with a stroller has really benefited by that.
Or carrying a big bag of groceries into a building
where you didn't have to open a handle but could
(32:52):
press a button to get in. Those barriers which prevented
people from with disabilities to have access has really provided
some wonderful opportunities for all of us.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
Thirty five years later, Joanne, how would you describe the
business community.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
Have they embraced Ada?
Speaker 14 (33:11):
I think that it's our work is not complete. I
think there are employers who have embraced it with enthusiasm
and others reluctantly. I hope that more and more see
that the value of people with disabilities in the workplace
is evident by the competency that they have to in
the jobs that they're able to do. And I think
(33:35):
that when I look back at the last thirty five years,
I'm actually quite optimistic and hopeful for the future because
I've seen such positive embracements of people with disabilities in
the workplace. It's so common now to walk into businesses
and see people with disabilities, where it was a novelty
(33:59):
thirty five years ago.
Speaker 4 (34:00):
Right right, you talk about you know how it's impacted
the workplace talk about how it's impacted people with disabilities.
Speaker 14 (34:09):
I think people with disabilities now have the legal right
to employment and they have seen a more opening workplace.
And you know, disability is a broad term in terms
of oh they cover, so for people that we support,
(34:29):
where people who are with some significant intellectual disabilities or
developmental disabilities or autism, we've seen that the workplace has
been able to accommodate them in spite of the fact
that they may not be able to do all of
things that another worker could do. We've seen employers willing
to carve out in a job, for example, the pieces
that the person with the disability can do. We've been
(34:52):
able to see a simple accommodations where instructions could be given,
you know, Redman written instructions, somebody would have them on
tape that they could listen to, or someone could use
an assistive device to be able to accomplish their job.
And I think that many employers have seen that people
with disabilities have actually actually change the culture of their
(35:15):
workplace in a positive way, so that it's more welcoming,
more inclusive, and more mirrors our communities. So people, whether
or not they're shopping or dining or or you know,
doing transactional business in a law office, for example, they're
seeing people that look like their sons and daughters and
their brothers and sisters and their other family members and
(35:39):
feel that this is a business that they would want
to support.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
Joanne, Obviously a lot more needs to be done, for example.
Speaker 14 (35:50):
Yes, I think we need to because we have champions
in businesses, you know, those businesses that are really inclusive
and understand it and get it, and then that there
are other companies that really need to be brought along,
so the work is never done. I'm hopeful that the
fact that we have have this into the ADA, we
(36:11):
had you know, educational acts that ensured students with disabilities
had equal access to education, so that business owners and
employees of businesses who grew up educated alongside students with
disabilities will see naturally that they could be employees with disabilities.
(36:31):
So I think we've seen a huge cultural shift as
a result of the ADA, But I don't want to
discount that there are other educational advancements that I think
have contributed to a more inclusive workplace.
Speaker 4 (36:45):
She is the CEO of the Northeast Ark Joeyann Simons. Joanne,
thank you so much for joining us today. Let's change
gears just a.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
Bit if we could.
Speaker 4 (36:54):
We've talked about this throughout the show this morning, Housing
and how important it is, and the lack of afford
housing in the state. It has become a hot button issue,
even hotter on the cape and on the islands. So
recently we spoke to the head of the nonprofit Nantucket
Land Trust, his name is Tucker Holland, about the issue
facing the island and the concern that year round workers
(37:17):
are being priced out. Well, there may be a lot
of luxury homes, luxury yachts, you know, private planes over
on Nantucket, but that does not reflect what some of
the workers who live there on Nantucket on a regular
basis are experiencing. There is a housing issue there for
those who work on and live on that island year round.
(37:41):
Joining us to talk a little bit more about this issue,
which is based on a New York Times article that
Joe and I saw Nantucket's workers are living on. The
Margins is executive director of the Nantucket Land Trust. It's
a nonprofit. They are on Nantucket. This is Tucker Holland,
Tucker good to have you along talk to us a
(38:02):
little bit about this article that Joe and I saw
from the New York Times and the fact that workers
there on the island and we're talking about school teachers,
and we're talking about first responders and what's happening to
them there on Nantucket.
Speaker 6 (38:17):
We're appreciative of the New York Times devoting some focus
to this issue. In the story, a number of different
folks and departments were highlighting the housing challenge. It is
a crisis, as we refer to it in Nantucket, and
if we're not able to properly address it, including providing
(38:40):
home ownership options, were literally not going to have things
like a police department and fire department that are functioning properly.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
Tucker Hollins our guest, the executive director of the Nantucket
Land Trust, Perhaps you could share with us a couple
of four instances. I mean, I'm looking at the article
in the New York Times and they talk about the
July twenty twenty two of Veranda House hotel fire.
Speaker 15 (39:05):
What happened there in the Randi fire case, we were fortunate,
I mean, first of all, we have a great fire
department on Nantucket, and they responded very quickly and very
fully and were able.
Speaker 6 (39:20):
To keep things under control. So they did a great job. Fortunately,
we were able to get folks from the cape there,
but not for several hours. And in addition, what helped
with the situation was there actually were some off duty
firemen from various locations who happened to be vacationing on
(39:44):
the island and jumped into service.
Speaker 4 (39:46):
So sixty five percent, according to this article from The
New York Times, sixty five percent of the island's twelve
thousand houses are actually seasonal residence. And the median home
price there on Nantucket at this point is two point
five million dollars. So how do you go about changing
(40:07):
that situation so that individuals who live on that island
year round and service that island year round can survive.
Speaker 6 (40:15):
Well, there are a few different things. I mean, first
of all, voters very supportive of addressing the issue. Over
the last five years. They have voted in support of
over one hundred and forty million to really start to
address the issue. There are a couple other things that
really would move the needle in a significant way. One
(40:35):
is if the Massachusetts legislature would enact a transfer fee
for housing so much like our existing land bank fee,
which has been incredibly successful in the conservation field, the
ability to impose a modest one half a percent fee
(40:58):
on amounts over two million in real estate transaction would
add up very quickly in Nantucket, and that could be
hundreds of millions to address the problem, which is important
because you know, we still have a half a billion
dollar problem to really make a big difference in helping
the folks that you were just talking about. As well.
(41:19):
We have several great housing organizations on the island. We're
adding one right now, a community land trust, the Nantucket
Land Trust, which I am involved with, which really is
focused on home ownership opportunities for year rounders, not simply
at the traditional federal definition of affordable level, but really
(41:41):
the missing middle as folks have been hearing about middle
income earners.
Speaker 2 (41:45):
Talking with Tucker Holland, and if there is an expert
on this topic, it would be Tucker Holland. Looking at
his resume, he was the housing coordinator in the Town
of Nantucket, He was the Housing director for the Town
of Nantucket, and currently is the executive director of the
Nantucket Land Trust. I guess mytion to you, Tucker is this.
Where are you in terms of optimism, in terms of
solving this problem.
Speaker 6 (42:06):
I'm an incredibly optimistic person. When I was on the
board of the Community Foundation here, we had a nonprofit
rock Star, who is Massachusetts based, generally named Dan Palada,
who came to Nantucket and said, in short, you all
are in a very unique position, giving your geographic isolation,
given the financial strength of the town, given the pill
(42:28):
inthrop a community that you have here, you all are
in a position to solve what are otherwise systemic problems
in other places. And he actually went on to use
housing as the example. I completely subscribe to it. We
can do it. We're going to need some help from
the legislature, as I mentioned, but folks in Nantucket, whether
(42:48):
year round residents or seasonal residents, are really united in
trying to address this problem.
Speaker 4 (42:53):
And what about the legislature getting a sense that the
legislature is open to helping Nantucket certainly hopeful.
Speaker 6 (43:01):
I think the last few years there's been a lot
of education that's gone on up at the state House.
We're hoping to get a few folks from leadership in
the legislature to the region to the islands this session.
I think the need has become even more pronounced, not
only in our region but across the state, and I
(43:23):
think that the legislature can.
Speaker 2 (43:25):
Get there, Tucker, last question from me, But in the
New York Times article, they talk about this is an
issue in Spain. They talk about day laborers in the
Hamptons forming encampments. They talk about Frisco Colorado or ski
instructors and er nurses and others live.
Speaker 3 (43:41):
In their cars.
Speaker 2 (43:43):
I guess, are there any lessons that Nantucket can learn
from what is going on in the rest of the country.
Speaker 6 (43:48):
Sure, I mean, you know, there's always room for improvement.
We certainly don't have a monopoly on good ideas. That
really is an idea that was born in terms of
our awareness right next door on our sister island, Martha's Vineyard. Community.
Land trusts are being used throughout the country, but we're
(44:09):
open to different ideas. We're certainly researching them. Nantucket has
some unique aspects to it, but we're confident that we
can employ the best practices from other places to address
our unique needs.
Speaker 4 (44:26):
Tucker Holland, thank you so much for being our guest.
Speaker 6 (44:29):
Very appreciative to be with you all today and very
grateful for you bringing attention to this issue. It obviously
is existential as far as Nantucket goes, and every community
very happy to be joining you today and thank you
for this opportunity.
Speaker 4 (44:45):
Tucker, thanks so much. Still come in your way. With
all the controversy being reported about market Basket, is it
really the cheapest way to shop? Boston Globe put that
question to the test.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
You are listening to the New England Business Report on
the Voice of Boston WRKO six 't eighty Joe and
Kim will be right back.
Speaker 11 (45:05):
Are you a brother or sister of one of Greater
Boston's local trade unions and finally thinking about getting ready
to hang up your tools after thirty five years of
working your tailoff. Congratulations, you worked hard to build your
retirement nest egg. But now what Let me help you
break through the nonsense and financial speak so we can
get to the questions that are important to you. As
you know, nothing gets built without a set of plans,
(45:26):
and neither will your financial future. My name is Mike Marshall,
President and CEO of Marshall Wealth Management and creator of
the Marshall Plan, a comprehensive, customized plan that'll help you
answer important questions in all seven key areas. You don't
have to do it alone. There is no cost or obligation.
Call us at eight five seven three four two ten thirty.
(45:46):
That's eight five seven three four two ten thirty.
Speaker 1 (45:49):
Well.
Speaker 11 (45:50):
Check us out online at Marshallwealth dot com Marshall with
two ls Marshallwealth dot Com.
Speaker 12 (45:56):
Advisory services offered through Capital Analysts or Lincoln Investment Registered
Investment Advisors. Securities offered through the line an investment Broker
Dealer member Finra, SIPC, Lincoln Investment dot Com, Martial Wealth
Management and the above firms are independent and not affiliated.
Speaker 9 (46:06):
There's a lot love about. There's a lot a lover about.
Speaker 10 (46:11):
You don't miss the subrew of New England a lot
to love event. Get more of what you value most
with the Trusted twenty twenty five super Cross track with
symmetrical all wheel drive. Get one point nine percent financing
on select models or lease for just two sixty nine
per month. Details at Subro of New England dot com.
Speaker 9 (46:36):
There's a lot love about. There's a los lover about.
Speaker 10 (46:41):
You don't miss the Suber of New England a lot
to love event. Get more of what you value most
with the trusted twenty twenty five suberw Out Bent with
symmetrical all wheel drive FIE with one point nine percent
financing or lease for just two fifty five per month.
Details at Subaro of New England dot com.
Speaker 4 (47:09):
Hi everybody, I'm Kim Kerrigan and I'm Joe Shortsley.
Speaker 2 (47:12):
If you want to be part of the New England
Business Report, sponsorships are still available.
Speaker 4 (47:17):
You can email us at any Business Radio at gmail
dot com.
Speaker 2 (47:22):
That's any Business Radio all one word at gmail dot
com and we'll get your business on the show too.
Speaker 1 (47:37):
The New England Business Report on WRKO is brought to
you in part by Subaru of New England. Feel the
freedom of a brand new twenty twenty four Subaru featuring
symmetrical all wheel drive SUPERUF New England dot com.
Speaker 2 (47:53):
Welcome back to the New England Business Report on this
Sunday morning. Obviously we are the place to be when
you are looking for your business news, and who better
to know what's going on in the city business wise?
And our next guest, he's Andy Rosen. Now he's the
senior assistant business editor there at the Boston Globe and
taking a look at his profile on the Globe website.
(48:13):
He helps guide the globe coverage of economic and financial issues.
He's been a key part of the Globe's business and
breaking news teams. Actually, in the second stint at the Globe,
he was a never met Kim in twenty twenty when
the COVID outbreak happened and was the Biogen You know
the Biogen Boston conference. Well, Andy was part of that too,
so he helped break that story. So Andy, and welcome
(48:36):
to the program. We want to talk about the story
about market Basket and they're pricing. But before we get there,
give us a little bit of idea of what you do,
what your job is there, and how many business stories
you see on a weekly basis.
Speaker 16 (48:50):
Well, I'd have to count him up, but basically my
job is I'm a editor of the reporters in the
business section, a subsection of the reporters, so out of
hands of people working with me, and one of those
people is Diana.
Speaker 5 (49:04):
Gerber, the author of the market Basket story you asked about.
So I wanted to I wanted to talk a little
bit about it. Unfortunately Diana is out of town. But
you know, I touch a lot of these stories and
pretty much anything on the topic of Harvard University coming
out of the business department right now is coming through me.
(49:25):
And yeah, I was lucky to get this market basket
story because we're all working really hard to keep track
of what's going on. We know how important it is
to the people in Boston and beyond what's happening with
that grocery store and all the turbulence there. But I
think the question we took on here is one that
will always be asking, which is we're going to get
the best deal.
Speaker 4 (49:44):
Well, you know, Andy, this is what really caught my attention,
I think Joe's as well, because this was the headline.
Market prices really still offer more for your dollar, and
you guys decided to put it to the test. I
think a lot of us have wondered, you know, with
all this turbulence going on, eventually, if the management changes,
(50:04):
is that going to change? So, before we get into
this fully about the test that you guys ran, do
you anticipate that if the management changes there may be
a change at the register as well.
Speaker 5 (50:16):
I think there's a chance.
Speaker 16 (50:18):
I mean, we just have to see what they wind
up doing and how they resolve this.
Speaker 5 (50:22):
Family feud over the over the future of the grocery chain,
but I think there are some things that are differences
in management style. A lot of this has to do,
on the other hand, with just you know, who's going
to take over when the famous RDT the CEO is
ready to retire, And some of this is just sort
of planning for the future and things about you know,
(50:43):
kind of which part of the family gets to control this. Again,
these family businesses, there's a lot they can do and
there's a lot that is challenging for them. So some
of it may be beyond the consumer level. But I
would say that ultimately, if I had to give a
hypothesis again, we'll just have to see. Part of what
makes market Basket successful is its volume based business, right,
(51:06):
so it sells a lot of things for us for
a lower margin, is what we found in this article,
for a lower margin than maybe other grocery stores might.
So say, you know, another competitor is selling x amount
of something at a higher price. If market Basket sells
more at a lower price, they still get the same
(51:26):
profit because they're repeating that transaction so many more times.
So they'd have to really rethink, you know, the consumer
experience in a way that'd be pretty substantial, I think,
to get far away from the business model that currently
supports them. But could prices go up, could things change?
You know, we just don't know.
Speaker 2 (51:42):
All right, Andy Rosen's our guest senior assistant business editor
there at the Boston Globe. A right, let's answer the question,
you've started to do market basket prices really still offer
more for your dollar And the answer to how'd you
reach a conclusion here, well, what.
Speaker 5 (51:57):
We decided to do, and really this I got to
give credit to the reporters here. They came up with
a great plan. You know, there's a lot of different
ways to look at it, and certainly we found many
many readers who had differences of opinion and how we
should have calculated this, But what we tried to do
because it's so subjective, right, you may buy a very
different package of things at the grocery store than I do,
(52:17):
and it may be more expensive at one store than
another because of your personal choice.
Speaker 8 (52:22):
So we just had to pick something and try.
Speaker 5 (52:23):
To eliminate as many variables as possible. So we just
tried to go with a kind of breakfast oriented shopping list.
So some of the things we had sour dough bread,
Greek yogurt, treaded cheese, bacon. If you go on our
site and look for this article, you will be able
to see the whole list. But you know, this is
something that our team worked on quite a bit, and
(52:45):
we've been you know, we've been tracking grocery prices for
the last few years, especially I through this inflation crisis,
and so through that knowledge, Dana you know, had a
pretty good idea of things that you're kind of representative
of the costs that you might see again trying to
squeeze out some variables. So, you know, one of the
things that's really interesting is market Basket tends to have
(53:05):
pretty consistent prices across its locations. Well not every other
grocery store does that. So what we tried to do
to kind of keep it consistent is go to one area.
So we were in the Summerville area, though we had
to cross the border a little bit, so that's kind
of how we took it. So we really tried to,
you know, get it as consistent as possible. But again,
(53:25):
there may be very different ways that people shop that
affect you know, maybe you're a super coupon or maybe
you only buy generic brands. There's lots of different ways
that you can control your grocery prices beyond what story
you picked. But for this experiment, market Basket did come
in as a leader unpriced.
Speaker 4 (53:42):
Yeah, you did it. There were other grocery stores. You
shopped at, Whole Foods, at Star Markets, stop and Shop,
and Wegmans. Wegmans is where you had to go across
the border just a bit. There wasn't a Wegmans there
in Somerville. I was actually surprised, though. I thought that
that mark A Basket would come in lower, considerably lower
(54:04):
than the others, and that really wasn't the case.
Speaker 5 (54:07):
Yes, I don't know. You know, again, we started with
a hypothesis, and maybe the hypothesis was more for your dollar, right,
does it really that you know? I think you know,
we were we weren't surprised to see the lowest price.
But again, one of the pieces of commentary that we
saw in the story is that even though they still
(54:27):
lead on price in this particular experiment, there are there
are some, you know, trends that have moved away from
Market Baskets, so maybe they're not as far ahead as
they once were. But again, it's going to depend on
the market because various other grocery stores pricing will fluctuate. Sure,
So that's kind of something that's interesting. Another piece of
(54:48):
interesting information that we got as we were looking is that,
you know, really people have this perception of market Basket
is having the best price. So, you know, consumers in
a survey that we looked at ranked market Basket is
the top grocery store for price consistency, not changing prices
too often, things like that. So, uh, number three in
(55:12):
base price, you know. So its surveyed eleven thousand consumers,
and that's their perceptions, not not on hard hard cash prices.
So you know, people, as you say, perceive market Basket
prices to be lower as well, and I imagine that
is to the benefit of their marketing department. So think
about it, just what you were saying, Right, they have
(55:33):
this perception and it plays to their to their benefit. Right.
They people think they're going to get a good deal there.
They may not shop around as much, they may not
price compare because they think they're going to get the
best price. And so what we found is that in
this case they would, but you don't you know, if
you are market Basket and you're trying to decide your
next you know, business move and where you want the
(55:54):
trajectory of your business to go. That's something to think about.
You have this real perception that you provide value and
that is worth a lot of money to them, I
would imagine.
Speaker 3 (56:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (56:02):
I mean in your article there written by Dana Gerber,
and again we did reach out, but that individuals on vacation.
So market Basket clinched the cheapest prices on five items.
So yeah, but I guess when you break it down further,
they got tripped up with honey nut cheerios and Russet potatoes,
so not across the board.
Speaker 5 (56:23):
No, And you know, you just have to remember. I
think one thing that we all forget, except maybe the
grocery people who are listening, is that the grocery storism
is a modern miracle. No matter which brand you're going to,
the number of different things that come to you from
all around the world and all around the country, things
that have to stay cold, things that have to stay dry.
(56:46):
I mean, the ability of them to the ability of
them to build a you know, a selection like that.
You know that people that they can compete with on
price through is extremely impressive. So you know, you just
have to realize that they all have different formats and
(57:06):
different ways that they get these things there, and that's
why you see these price fluctuations.
Speaker 3 (57:11):
All right. He's Andy Rosen.
Speaker 2 (57:12):
He's the assistant business editor there at the Boston Globe,
and we appreciate you joining us on the New England
Business Report.
Speaker 3 (57:18):
All right, Kim.
Speaker 2 (57:18):
I guess that wraps it up for us on this
Sunday morning. And I always love to talk to the
folks over there at the Boston Globe and the Boston
Business Journal, because you know what, folks, this radio show,
the New England Business Report, this is where you get
your business headlines every week. Get up early, set that
alarm Sunday morning, eight am. We'll be here on WRKO,
(57:40):
the Voice of Boston AM six' eighty
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!