Today's Highlights: Reducing Heating Costs, Celebrity Ventures, and Promising Ski Season

On today’s program, we talked with Jon Chesto of The Boston Globe about the cost of heating your home and what’s being done to reduce those costs. We’re also joined by Doug Banks of the Boston Business Journal who shares with us celebrities getting involved in all kinds of new businesses. The president of ski New Hampshire shares news of  a promising ski season for many industries in New Hampshire. The CEO of the Massachusetts Cannabis Business Association explains the challenges facing the industry state wide. And finally, we close the program talking with Martha Sheridan of MeetBoston about the dine out program involving 200 restaurants.

Episode Transcript

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):
And good Sunday morning, Sunday, February the twenty third, Welcome
to the New England Business Report. Joe shortsleaved Kim Caragan
up early with you on this February morning, and Kim,
how are you? I mean, I wanted to point out
and I think you already know this. This broadcast is
well an anniversary for us.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
Yes, it certainly is. Happy anniversary, Joe.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Happy one year ago. We started this program with February
the twenty fifth of twenty twenty four, and here we are, Kim,
We're still standing.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
And we are still standing, my friend. Yes, we certainly are.
And we've had a good year with lots of great,
you know, guests, and you appreciate all the guests who
have joined us. So all is well.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Yeah, I mean, of course we are. iHeart WRK was
owned by iHeartMedia and they shared with us some stats
about the program. I'm just going to tell our listen,
you know, just let them know that they're in the
right spot. Apparently the ratings for this particular spot on
Sunday mornings, So I guess at some point we've five
times that whatever it used to be prior to Kim's arrival,

(01:12):
and you know, now we're up five times in some cases.
But the interesting staff they shared with us at iHeart
about the program, Kim because people listen for very long
periods of time. They say it's the number one station
in the market for time spent listening.

Speaker 3 (01:27):
Yeah. Yeah, when people get on, they stay, which is
great because again going back sounds a little selfish, but
going back to our show, you know, we have great
guests spread throughout the hour, so we hope that people
always stay with us because you know, we don't necessarily
have our strongest guest store our only guests in the
first half hour.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
There you go. Now today we're going to start out
with Testo Main's business. They're at the Boston Globe, wonderful
business reporter there. And this is a story everybody's talking about.
And this has to do with of course natural gas
rates and sticker shock people got when they opened up
their heating mills this month. You know, really crazy, I mean,
and everybody's talking about it and of course, the senators

(02:09):
and state reps are scrambling up on Beacon Hill try
to get the Department of Public Utilities to do something
about this. How about you, Kim, did you notice it or.

Speaker 3 (02:18):
We did notice it? Yes, you know, and I mean
I think everybody would have noticed it no matter what,
because we're having a particularly cold winter. But now this
has been added to it. So yeah, it's a bit
of a sticker shock.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Well exactly, That's what I thought when I saw it.
I said, O, is it just the extreme cold or
something's going on with my bill? Okay, so we're gonna
be talking cesto about that about what's next there. Also,
then we're going to be reaching out to Doug Banks,
executive editor of the Boston Business Journal, and he's got
sort of the celebrity news this morning. Kim. I mean,
we got her Chambers, we got Tom Brady, we got

(02:51):
Brad Marsham. They're all making business news.

Speaker 3 (02:53):
I think that he said we'll talk cars, cards and coffee.
So the Three Seeds this morning.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
Yeah, no, so stick around for that. It's actually kind
of a fun. We're going to try to do a
trifecta with the Doug Banks this morning.

Speaker 3 (03:07):
Kim absolutely a second half hour today. We've got some
really great guests as well, Jessica Killa. She's the president
of Ski New Hampshire. She's going to join us obviously,
just coming off of the vacation week. I'm here in
Massachusetts and New Hampshire has their school vacation week this
next week. These are really important weeks for those folks
up in ski country, so we'll talk to them. I

(03:28):
think so far it's been a pretty successful season, thanks
to the fact that it's been so cold and they've
had some snow up that direction.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
I took us off a stat of twenty five percent
improvement over last year for many resorts, which makes sense.
I mean, I mean the weather is dramatically different.

Speaker 3 (03:43):
So absolutely last week I think they had some seventy
nine trails in New Hampshire open, so that's pretty darn good.
The marijuana establishments across Massachusetts generated one point six four
billion dollars in gross sales in twenty twenty four. That's
a new annual record. But the question is what is

(04:03):
the state of the cannabis industry. There's been a lot
of confusion, a lot of issues associated with it. So
we're going to talk to David O'Brien. He's the president
and CEO with the Massachusetts Cannabis Business Association. He's going
to be our guest. We'll see what the state of
the industry is here in Massachusetts and what they're anticipating
for twenty twenty five. And then finally, today marks the

(04:27):
beginning of Dine Out Boston. It's back, and you know what,
it's bigger than ever. Three full weeks this year, Jeff, three.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
Weeks you put. It's an interesting decision by these restaurants
to send this out. I mean, obviously, I guess you know,
bottom line business, it works.

Speaker 3 (04:42):
I think you're right, and I think it may speak
a little bit about maybe some of the issues that
they face in the month of March. So this helps
to really get people out there and to dine even
when it's still a little chilly. So Marth the Sheridan,
she's the president's CEO of Meet Boston, and she's going
to talk to it about these three weeks of din
ow Boston, what they mean for the hospitality industry here

(05:05):
in the area.

Speaker 2 (05:07):
All Right, Well, everybody's talking about it, and I do
mean everybody. They opened up the heating bill this month,
and you know, basically fell over backwards onto the floor,
going what the heck is going on? Well, John Cestel
JUSTO means Business of the Boston Globe. He's getting to
the bottom of it. Everybody's talking about this, John, So

(05:28):
let's talk about this whole issue in terms of delivery
charges and supply charges on folks heating bills this month.
What's going on?

Speaker 4 (05:36):
So consumers are probably surprised to see the really high
bills in January and in February. What what happened, particularly
if you're in the ever source area, is that the
bills themselves went up some twenty five to thirty percent
year over year, but that was compounded by the fact
that it was a particularly cold month in January, and

(05:59):
of course it's still cold in February, and so usage
has gone up twenty percent. So what you see, you know,
what you're actually spending might even go go up more
than you know if if the temperatures have remained the same.
And so we're talking hundreds and hundreds of dollars everyone's
paying for their heating bill and it's so boiled over
now to a big plica bruhaha. As I'd say, practically

(06:24):
half the legislatures signed on to a letter calling on
the State Department of Utilities to get involved and protect
consumers from this rate hike.

Speaker 3 (06:33):
Well, John break this down. For So they got a
red hike back in November, right, That's that was when
it wasp.

Speaker 4 (06:40):
That DPU actually approved it November first, And this happens
every six months. They approve these, you know, because because
the heating season is different than the than the summer season,
so they approve modest changes to the bills every six months.

Speaker 3 (06:55):
Okay, so what what is besides the raid hike? There's
other things that are sort of involved in this that
have made these bills rise, right, like delivery fees suddenly
have gone up, and there's all kinds of things that
have been tacked on correct well.

Speaker 4 (07:12):
So they all part of the rate hike. There are
different things causing it to rise. There's sort of the
infrastructure that every source says it needs to build to
build a less leaky gas system, and some of that
is for if you remember, they never sort of took
over at Columbia Gas after some pre awful explosions in

(07:37):
the Merrimack Valley, and there's a lot of work that's
needed there, and guess who pays for that. Some of
that's just you know, the state wants leaky gas pipes
to be fixed, and so they that can be passed
down to rate payers. But it's also interesting, and this
is drawing the mass save program into the spotlight the
home energy efficiency program where you can get subsidies essentially

(08:03):
for you making your house more energy efficient, and the participation,
the increased participation in that is driving a costs and
that's showing up in the bills as well. And the
anticipated I think it's like a twenty five percent increase
in the budget for this current three year cycle for
that program. That's also starting to show up in the bills.

(08:25):
So MATS Save is a key driver in these increases.
As ever, Source would be more than happy to point.

Speaker 2 (08:34):
Out well, John Cestos, our guest cheestaman's business, the Boston Globe,
you know, from my team day as we always would say, Okay,
who's the bad guy? Who is the bad guy here?

Speaker 5 (08:45):
I mean it sounds like it's hard to really say
so it's kind of you know, Ever, Source is a
publicly traded company, needs to needs to have some sort
of profit, you know, the the lawmakers are insense about
this company because they are profitable.

Speaker 4 (09:01):
Ever Source says it takes ten percent profit on its
gas bill charges, which, to be honest, for me, seems
reasonable for a public utility. But that's going to get
scrutinized as well. Meanwhile, the dpu's approval of the rates
back in before the November first date is going to

(09:23):
get scrutinized because now they're trying to drag the gas companies,
all of them, not just ever Source, back to the
table to get better rates for customers. I think the
end result might be I'd be surprised if the utilities
accept the rate cut, but maybe they will spread out
the cost over time. I don't know. It's very curious.
I've never seen something quite like this. And then there's

(09:45):
the question of MATS save and whether the state has
made a clear policy decision to subsidize those who want
to make their homes and energy efficient by asking everyone
else to pay for that. And they're obvious the positive
public policy goals with that, you know, reduced carbon emissions,

(10:07):
because if you presumably want you you know, make your
house manergy efficient, you're using less energy and and probably
some savings in the long run. But there's also a
cost that has to be paid for that. So there's
a I mean, I guess if you want to point fingers.

Speaker 6 (10:23):
There's there.

Speaker 4 (10:23):
There are a number of reasons. There's not necessarily one
bad guy as you put it there. I think everyone's
going to be scrutinized as this has never quite seen
something like this where in Massachusetts. Kinnecticut has gone through
something similar already with their electric bills, and I imagine

(10:43):
the electric bills will be next in Massachusetts to get scrutinized.

Speaker 3 (10:48):
So John, just adding to this idea of that ten
percent they took in with profits, I know it was
brought to light yesterday that are our last week. I
want to say that their CEO took a miselle. We
have eighteen million dollars last year. As these rates are
going up like that.

Speaker 4 (11:04):
That's never a good look. I mean, they're they're gonna
have hard time defending that. You know, much of that
is our stock options, but still it looks really bad.
That kind of take home pay when a lot of
us are basically living paycheck to paycheck, and makes it

(11:25):
makes it a lot harder when your utility bills double.

Speaker 3 (11:27):
So let me just throw out the I'm sorry, I
was just going to say, I just wanted to throw
out there real quickly. What what is it that the
governor is saying that she wants to do about this?
It does she have any you know, jurisdiction over this
when it's all said and done.

Speaker 4 (11:40):
She does to some extent in that she appoints commissioners
on the DPU. In fact, two of the three commissioners
are her appointees, and she sent a very strongly worded letter.
I will point out after the legislators sent their own
strongly worded letter, she sent her letter on Sunday to
the DPU and asks for something similar. She said, you
have to figure out a way to make this more

(12:01):
palatable for consumers in the state. So she is using
what for she canbering to bear to make this a
little bit less of a pain point for consumers. I think,
you know, the fact that January and now February is
such a cold month. I mean, these are unusually cold months,

(12:22):
especially following a few winters that were more on the
warmer side, is really exacerbating the situation. You know, the
rates themselves, they did approve those, but they didn't approve,
you know, ten degree days and ice everywhere back in November,
and that's that's playing a role too. So it'll be

(12:43):
interesting to see what these negotiations that are now being
the DPUs having with the data companies. What is the
true result and whether it be actual savings or more
just sort of smoothing out of the impact of the bills.

Speaker 2 (12:58):
Yeah, well, I mean, I think that's the real question.
John thing shy of a COT or some sort of
rebate here, it's just not going to be met well
with the public out there. Everybody's in the narrative that
the governor's sharing at this point is suggesting that something
can be done.

Speaker 4 (13:12):
That is what she's saying. And I think something will
be done. But how much of it will be symbolic
versus a real discount to residents that makes a difference
in their financial situation, that remains to be seen.

Speaker 2 (13:26):
All Right, He's John Chesto or the Boston Globe. Chesto
means business. We appreciate you taking time in joining us
on this Sunday morning. Up next, let's talk about some
celebrity business news with Doug Banks, executivetor of the Boston
Business journ We're talking about Herb Chambers, Tom Brady, Brad
Marsha on Stick Around.

Speaker 1 (13:48):
You are listening to the New England Business Report on
the Voice of Boston w RKO six 't eighty Joe
and Kim will be right back.

Speaker 2 (14:02):
Falling in love with.

Speaker 7 (14:05):
You, fall in love with driving of brand new trusted
twenty twenty four Subaru cross Track starting at twenty five
one ninety five with two point nine percent financing for
up to forty eight months or lease for just two
ninety nine per month for thirty six months with two
thousand and five forty nine duet signing with standard symmetrical

(14:27):
all wheel drive to take on any terrank and iesight
driver says technology. The twenty twenty four cross Track is
built for you to confidently explore wherever your fall adventures
take you. Fall in love with a brand new twenty
twenty four Subaru Crosstrack Buy with two point nine percent
financing or lease for just two ninety nine per month

(14:48):
four Complete details and define your authorized Subaru retailer. Visit
Subaru of New England dot com.

Speaker 8 (14:56):
Falling 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

(15:17):
can get to the questions that are important to you.
As you know, nothing gets built without a set of plans,
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.

(15:39):
Call us at eight five seven three four two ten thirty.
That's eight five seven three four two ten thirty. Well
check us out online at Marshallwealth dot Com, Marshall with
two ls Marshallwealth dot Com.

Speaker 9 (15:52):
Advisory services offered to 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 but
firms are independent and not affiliated.

Speaker 3 (16:04):
Welcome back everybody. The new England Business Report. Good to
have you with us on this Sunday morning. Well, Joe,
we said this off at the top of the show,
We're going to have a little celebrity news here, business
celebrity news. It's three c's, it's cars, it's cards, and
it's coffee. And who better to talk about that than
our celebrity here on the New England Business Report. The

(16:26):
executive editor of the Boston Business Journal, Doug Banks, is
joining us this morning.

Speaker 10 (16:30):
Don'g.

Speaker 3 (16:30):
Good to have you, like always, so we've got.

Speaker 6 (16:33):
Here, I'm here with my coffee.

Speaker 4 (16:34):
I'm ready to go.

Speaker 3 (16:35):
There you go. Is it your Marshan coffee?

Speaker 7 (16:39):
No?

Speaker 6 (16:40):
Yeah, right, we will definitely get into that.

Speaker 3 (16:42):
All right, Let's let's start though. Big news this past week,
and that's at HERB Chambers is selling all those dealerships
to a big auto company out of Georgia. I guess
I was a little bit surprised. Maybe I was behind
the eight ball here and didn't realize that those those
dealerships were up for sale. And I also so I
think I never really realized how many he has.

Speaker 6 (17:03):
Yeah, I mean, Herbchambers has been a billionaire in his
own right for a while now. He's a you know,
major philanthropist. He's you know, he lent the Herb Chambers
name to the Boston Pops Fireworks Fourth of July fireworks
last year. He just donated one hundred million dollars in
mass general for one of the tower in one of
its new buildings that it's under construction. And you know,

(17:25):
he's eighty three years old. So while I don't think
they were you know, publicizing the fact that he was
selling it, it's not a huge surprise. He sold it
for one point three billion dollars. And like you said,
it's a publicly traded car dealership company out of Georgia,
and he's got thirty three Herb Chambers dealerships, fifty two franchises,

(17:49):
three collision centers, and all told, all of that generated
three billion dollars in revenue last year. So if you
think about it, that company is going to.

Speaker 4 (17:58):
Make their money back within a year of that.

Speaker 6 (18:00):
So while it's a big sticker price, it, you know,
sounds like it's a great deal for Georgia and a
good deal for Herb Chambers, who's the founder and build
a primary you know, owner.

Speaker 2 (18:11):
Of the company. Well, it is a loss for the
Boston business community. That's for sure though. But I guess,
as you point out, not surprising her being eighty three
years old. All right, let's move on to mister Brady.
Tom Brady your headline there on the BBJ, Tom Brady
acquires fifty percent steak and trading card business card Vault.
Tell us about card Vault and Brady's role here.

Speaker 6 (18:33):
So if you've ever, you know, like me, had baseball
cards that you threw into the spokes of your bicycle
as a kid to make that kind of click click
click sound, this is not that.

Speaker 4 (18:41):
Kind of a baseball card.

Speaker 6 (18:45):
Tom Brady has bought into this company called card Vault,
which was started by Ed Kine, who owns Big Night Entertainment,
you know over down at the TD Garden. And so
Tom Brady's bought in with a fifty percent stake into
this company. And what makes card Vault different. It is
unlike the trading card you know, little shops that you
might go to if you want to sell your you know,
your nineteen eighty one Ricky Henderson Rookie card or something,

(19:08):
it's usually kind of like a just a place in
a strip mall. It's a glass case. You kind of
walk around card ball is like way different. It's it's
very upscale. They have like you know, lounge seating, they've
got music, they've got food. It's more of a like
an immersive experience. And they started it I think it
was in twenty twenty, so it was right during COVID

(19:31):
and they've since opened up at Jillette Stadium, Patriot Place
in Foxborough, They've got one at the TD Garden in Boston.
They've got another one down at Foxwood, so it's kind
of a destination place. And Tom Brady's bought in, like
I said, at fifty percent stake to this, so they're
really trying to ramp up the sports collectible card experience

(19:51):
and kind of changing the way sort of retail.

Speaker 4 (19:55):
Is done for sports cards.

Speaker 6 (19:57):
It's it's really interesting to see, and it looks like
they're changing the name from what I could tell. I
think it's going to start being called card Vault by
Tom Brady, so they'll have the name of this.

Speaker 2 (20:07):
I bet he is. I bet it is.

Speaker 3 (20:10):
He buys fifty they get his name. That seems like
a pretty good deal. Huh yeah. Do you know, by
any chance, Doug, are they going to expand even further,
is there going to be more of them or those?

Speaker 6 (20:21):
Yeah, I think that there's uh they're looking at launching
a store in New Jersey and with Brady money, I
would not be surprised if they try to take this,
you know, in many more locations.

Speaker 2 (20:32):
Absolutely.

Speaker 4 (20:33):
I keep an eye out for that. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (20:34):
Absolutely, Yeah, it's really interesting because that has really come
back trading cards like that, and the value of some
of these cards is just off the charts, unbelievable.

Speaker 2 (20:44):
I guess Brady, you know, he had his own card
sold over eBay for a million dollars that according to
your article here, Doug.

Speaker 6 (20:53):
Yeah, it's I mean he's been obviously seeing what his
you know, his card and his image has gone for.

Speaker 4 (20:59):
But you know that's not even that's not even the most.

Speaker 6 (21:03):
I mean we've you know, we've written there's the Honus
Wagner card. I think when for you know, six million
or something, it's been it's insane how many you know,
how much these cards can go for.

Speaker 4 (21:13):
It's big.

Speaker 6 (21:13):
It is big, big money.

Speaker 2 (21:14):
And and the.

Speaker 6 (21:15):
Way you have to treat the cards and how you
seek them out, it is it is a whole business
in and of itself.

Speaker 3 (21:20):
It absolutely is well and by him, you know, with
the money that he's putting into this business, it I
would imagine gives them the opportunity to go out and
invest in even more valuable cards that they can ultimately trade.

Speaker 6 (21:33):
Yes, yeah, I think that the plan is that they
want to use the money to go to open up
in international markets, go where the money is in other
countries across the US. And so I think that it'll
be to open up these sort of retail destination locations
where guys, and it is mostly guys, I'm being honest,
you know, have these sports cards that's uh, you know,

(21:53):
and they're smoking cigars and having you know, there's.

Speaker 4 (21:57):
It's a whole. It's a whole thing. It's a whole.

Speaker 3 (21:59):
It's a whole.

Speaker 2 (22:00):
Doug Banks, executive or of the Boston Business Journal's our guest.
We've he's doing the celebrity news this morning. He's already
covered herb Chambers of course, the headline he made selling
those thirty three car dealerships, and Tom Brady and Cardwall
and how about Brad Marshaw. He's launching a coffee brand. Doug.

Speaker 6 (22:18):
It's yes, it's you know, it's funny. So Brad Marshall
captain of the Bruins. He's got his own brand of
ground coffee now it's called Brad's Brew. And for those
of us like me shops at Market Basket, it's gonna
be a ninety Market Basket grocery stores across New England
starting uh, you know, should be starting soon. It's actually

(22:40):
gonna be roasted by Boston's Best Coffee down down in
southeaston which the family owned local business. So he's you know,
putting his likeness on he's putting his brand on it,
which is you know, is really interesting.

Speaker 8 (22:51):
Right.

Speaker 6 (22:52):
So if you think about it, the average hockey career
is like five or six years. He's well beyond that.
I mean, he's thirty six years old. So these you know,
athletes have come up with other ways of leveraging their
likeness their brand. And you know, last year we saw Gronk,
Rob Gronkowski do a deal with Sentient Jet, Christiano Ronaldo

(23:13):
partnered with Whoop, the Boston May fitness tracker last year,
you know, Christiano Ronald of course, the Portuguese soccer star.
And and then Shark Ninja, which is another local company,
has David Beckham as their sort of you know sponsor
uh fained celebrity guy helping sell blenders and vacuum cleaners.

(23:34):
So it's you know, you see a lot of this.
It's not uncommon, but it's always funny. It's interesting to
see sort of what an athlete gravitates towards. And in
this case, Brad Marshall must drink a lot of coffee.

Speaker 3 (23:45):
That's that's what I think so interesting. Brad's brew immediately
makes me think that maybe it's it's an alcoholic beverage.
And when I think about Bruins fans, I would anticipate
they would kind of gravitate that way. But more power
to him. I like coffee myself. Hey, thanks Doug Banks
very much. Great celebrity news this morning. Lots of celebrities

(24:06):
in the news. All right, still come in your way.
Here on the New England Business Report, we're going to
be talking with Jessica Keeler of Ski New Hampshire. She's
going to tell us how that ski season is going
up there up north. This is the New England Business Report.

Speaker 1 (24:26):
Kim and Joe will explore more business news that impacts
our New England economy when they return are Falling.

Speaker 6 (24:35):
In Love with You?

Speaker 7 (24:37):
Fall in Love with the all new twenty twenty five
Subaru Forester starting at twenty nine six ninety five with
three point nine percent financing for up to forty eight
months or lease for just three nineteen per month for
thirty six months with three thy two nineteen duet signing.
The fully redesigned twenty twenty five Forester is equipped with

(24:58):
the latest and Subaru safety tech now like upgraded standard
symmetrical all wheel drive and eyesight drivers says technology to
keep you safe on.

Speaker 3 (25:07):
Every fall adventure.

Speaker 7 (25:08):
Fall in love with the twenty twenty five SUPERU forrestone
file with three point nine percent financing for up to
forty eight months or lease for just three nineteen per
month with three thousand, two nineteen do it signing four
Complete details and to find your authorized Subero retailer, visit
Subaru of New England dot com.

Speaker 3 (25:27):
Finar Hi everybody, it's Kimcare or get along with Bill
Chase of high Tech Windows in Siding. Now, Bill, we've
been hearing a lot about your windows being the same
windows installed at the top of Mount Washington and that
these windows are only sold by high Tech.

Speaker 2 (25:45):
That's right, Kim.

Speaker 11 (25:46):
Our Summer Series windows are designed to keep your house
warm in the winter and cool in the summer and
can withstand the harsh New England weather better than any
other window on the market.

Speaker 3 (25:56):
That sounds great, But what about the cost bill Because
things have been pretty tight for people these days.

Speaker 11 (26:00):
Well that's a great reason to call us now, Kim.
Our windows are half the price of the big window companies,
and right now we are offering buy one window, get
one off.

Speaker 5 (26:11):
But call us now.

Speaker 11 (26:12):
This is our biggest sale of the year.

Speaker 3 (26:13):
It sounds terrific. So the best prices and the best
quality call high Tech today at nine seven eight seven
seven one eight nine three nine. That's nine seven eight
seven seven one eighty nine thirty nine, or visit high
Techcorp dot biz for a free estimate. Hi everybody, I'm

(26:35):
Kim Kerrigan.

Speaker 2 (26:36):
And I'm Joe Shortsley. If you want to be part
of the New England Business Report, sponsorships are still available.

Speaker 3 (26:43):
You can email us at any Business Radio at gmail
dot com.

Speaker 2 (26:48):
That's any Business Radio all one word at gmail dot
com and we'll get your business on the show too.

Speaker 3 (27:01):
Welcome back everybody to the New England Business Report. Great
to have you with us on this Sunday morning. Kim
Carogan along with Joe short Sleeve. Quick reminder that in
this half hour we're going to be talking cannabis and
how the industry is doing here in the Bay State.
Before we do, though, we always like to check some
headlines that maybe you've missed. And here's one Joe that
I saw earlier this week that I thought was so interesting.

(27:21):
The nash Casino, which is up in Nashaua, New Hampshire,
has now just you know, allowed the media in to
see some preview pictures of what's coming up when it
opens on March the fifth. Really interesting. It's opening in
the Pheasant Lane Mall in Nashaua, New Hampshire. And what

(27:43):
I thought was really fascinating is the fact that they
have built a huge sports betting parlor. It's a place
where they're saying that you could it's a two story
television screen where they're going to show you know, sporting events,
whether it's you know, the super Bowl or it's March Madness,
and they're going to have this big, you know, sports

(28:05):
betting area which has been sort of weak.

Speaker 6 (28:08):
In the.

Speaker 2 (28:10):
General holiday on from Moncore, Boston Harbor the President right
up and they have a beautiful sports betting area right
there on the floor of the casino and goes, what right,
it's kind of quiet because everybody does it on their phone.
Is no offense to anybody, you know in the space,
but everybody just uses their.

Speaker 3 (28:24):
Phones absolutely well. It's just easier, you know, it really
is for people. They can sit right on the couch
and do that. I think this sounds like a really
great venue when it comes to getting together with people
and watching sports. But it'll be interesting to see just
how well that does. But it is the Nash Casino.
It opens March the fifth, and they're hoping to give
some of the casinos down here in Massachusetts a run

(28:46):
for their money.

Speaker 2 (28:47):
It's a mall. I mean, it's a mall, and you know,
all you can say is up in New Hampshire, the
rules are very different when it comes to gambling, a
lot easier. I guess, all right. They just wrapped up
school vacation week and I think helped a lot of
the parents survived it. But I do think that they're
still counting the dollars. At the ski mountains up north,

(29:07):
things went very well. I guess I'm seeing some stats
might suggest that business is up at least twenty five
percent at many of these ski destinations. Let's bring in
the Jessica Keeler if we could. She is the president
of Ski New Hampshire. Jessica, welcome to the program. Let's
start with tell us about what Ski New Hampshire is.

(29:28):
Tell us about your association.

Speaker 10 (29:30):
Yeah. Sure, So we're a nonprofit trade association. We are
membership based. We work with over thirty ski areas in
the state of New Hampshire and we help out with advocacy,
government relations education for our ski area members and we
do some marketing and communications work for them as well.

Speaker 3 (29:48):
Jessica, I was reading that last week seventy nine percent
of New Hampshire's trails were open in eighty one percent
of the lifts were operating, So that sounds pretty good
to me. Is that Are we having a good season?

Speaker 10 (30:01):
Yes, we are having a good season, and I think
that number has been inching up the more snow we've
been getting, which is fantastic. Yeah, this is really the
snowiest season we've had in probably ten or eleven years.
I think the last time we saw as much snow
as the winter of twenty fourteen twenty fifteen, when Boston
also saw a lot of snow, so we've been just
rejoicing with all that Mother Nature has been delivering to us.

(30:26):
You know, we've had I think, let's be one, two, three,
plus five or six different snowstorms this month in February
which has dumped anywhere from two to over three feet
of snow at our ski areas. So yeah, it's it's
been great for business and great for skiers and writers
coming up to the mountains to enjoy it.

Speaker 2 (30:45):
Jessica Killers, our guest president of Ski in New Hampshire.
All right, you know we're a business program. Take us
inside the numbers if it could a little bit. I mean, okay,
you say business is up, you know, give us an idea.
What's up? Visits, lift, tickets, restaurants, I mean break it down.

Speaker 10 (31:00):
Yeah, well it's actually it's been kind of interesting. We've seen,
you know, as far as skier visits go, they have.
They started We started with the slow season, so the
beginning of the year. I don't know if you were
called so long ago now, but December late November it
was pretty warm and it took a while for our
serious to kind of get off the ground and get running.

Speaker 4 (31:20):
If you will.

Speaker 10 (31:21):
So some ferias, including some of our bigger ones, started
like a week or two later than they normally would,
so that kind of put us at a deficit going
into our weekly counts on skier visits. But because of
the snow, you know, we had a good holiday period.
You know, we've been seeing those numbers catch up and
do better. And so it's varied from ski area to

(31:43):
ski area how they're doing, but I think overall we're
probably going to end up, you know, with a with
a solid season. I think when weather happens has a
big impact on us. So for example, this past weekend,
the long President's Weekend, you know, we had this big
storm on Sunday with a lot of snow. There was
some sleet and freezing rain in places, and I think
that actually will have impacted the skiers in terms of

(32:08):
not having had as many visitors. I know that there
were some cancelations from that. But what I'm also hearing
is that folks think that there we're going to start
seeing more pick up as we go further into the
week because this is actually still vacation week for us
or really you know for a lot of Lake Massachusetts
school districts and such and so we're expecting to see,

(32:29):
you know, as the weather has been getting nicer and nicer.
We also had a lot of wind. We're going to
see more skier visits. Again, it kind of varies from
resort to resorts. Some places are seeing a lot of
growth in their lessons, a lot of kids lessons. That
seems to be a theme where we're seeing growth in that,
you know, compared to last year. Rentals. Some places it's up,
some places it's down. Food and beverage, same thing. But

(32:51):
I think, you know, I think generally the season has
been going well and if we can maintain this you know,
winter weather and keep our snowpack throughout March and maybe
you know, have a few more snow events, we will
finish the season in good fashion.

Speaker 3 (33:06):
So what does the ski industry mean to this the
state of New Hampshire.

Speaker 10 (33:11):
For New Hampshire, Yeah, it's an important piece of our economy,
especially when you're talking about some of the more northern
and rural areas of the state where we have mountain
and we have a lot of rural and mountainous areas
in the states that do rely on and on outdoor
recreation in general. But certainly winter recreation. So skiing is
a big part of winter recreation. It's also one of

(33:33):
those activities or sports that you can rely on despite
what the weather's doing. I mean, this has been a
great winter with the snow and the cold temperatures consistently
across the last couple of months. But there are lots
of years, as we all know, where we're not getting
those cold and snowy weather patterns. But the ski industry

(33:54):
is able to take advantage of the cold that we
do have and make snow and we've been you know,
we've been working on that for decades, so it's something
that is reliable. So you know, the communities that have
ski areas and the surrounding areas, you know, it's really
important to those communities to have these areas to be
able to to be in business to draw tourists because

(34:15):
of course that impacts other businesses in the area, you know, restaurants, lodging, retail,
gas stations, that sort of thing. So it's really is
an important part of our economy. A number of years ago,
we did an economic impacts because this is like been
about six years since we completed that that showed that

(34:35):
it was about a half a billion dollars UH total
impact to the state, you know, and that includes taxes
locally statewide and certainly includes you know, impacts on workers
and that sort of thing.

Speaker 2 (34:50):
You know.

Speaker 10 (34:50):
The other thing that's worth noting too is that as
as our skiers have become more and more year round,
it's great for maintaining and retaining UH employees. Know, it's
really it can be really hard to find seasonal employees.
Not everyone wants to do that. People are looking for stability.
So when we can offer you know, not just winter
but summer and fall activities as well and keep people employed,

(35:13):
it's great for It's great for the business, it's great
for the employee, it's great for local economies.

Speaker 2 (35:18):
Jessica Keaylor is our guest. Our guest, Jessica, if you could,
you know, it's the lift tickets. You know, Mom and
dad think about, Okay, how am I going to pay
for this? How do you get a good deal on
a lift ticket? Because I saw the Globe report that
walk up prices could be close to two hundred dollars.

Speaker 10 (35:31):
Yeah, I've got to say I do not recommend that
people walk up on the day that they want to skie.
I think you've got to do some advanced planning and
you're going to get a better deal that way. So
definitely plan ahead, look online because it's here is kind
of have you know, dynamic pricing, and if you buy
ahead of time, you're likely to get a much better price.
There's other kinds of deals, like if you're willing to

(35:53):
go midweek during a non holiday period, that is also
a great way to have some fantastic savings. You know,
different skierrias will offer different deals. Also, try try some
smaller ski areas. You know, if you just want to
get lost or London, avoid lines and spend less time,
you know, worrying about how long it's going to take
you to park or get your you know, your gear

(36:15):
or whatever, all set go to a small ski area.
They've got great rates and you can really, you know,
have a great day on at a small ski area.
You know, I would recommend that people go to ski
inh dot com because we have all the information that
we have a page dedicated to different deals that skierries
are offering. We have conditions, you know, so you can
see who got what for snow recently and that sort

(36:37):
of thing. How many lifts and trails are open, and
really like just do some homeworks before going, you know,
I think the fans planning is one of the most
important things people can do to save money.

Speaker 2 (36:47):
All right, Chief Jessic Killer, she's the president of Ski
New Hampshire.

Speaker 3 (36:51):
Well, Joe, As you well know, recreational marijuana was legalized
here in Massachusetts back in twenty seventeen. This was a
result of a ballot measure and since that time, gross
sales have been more than five point six billion dollars
here in Massachusetts. The big question, of course, is that
sustainable or is that the kind of goals that we

(37:11):
had set for the industry at this point are they
reaching it? Joining us to talk a little bit more
about the industry as a whole. As the President and
CEO of the Massachusetts Cannabis Business Association, this is Dave O'Brien. Dave,
good to have you with us this morning. First question
I want to ask you is what is the Massachusetts
Cannabis Business Association, because that's different from the commission.

Speaker 12 (37:34):
It is it is. Indeed, we think of us as
a trade association or chamber of commerce for all things
cannabis and Massachusetts. We got started back in twenty seventeen,
when the adult use market was coming to market after
the as you say, the valid question passed in the
fall of twenty sixteen, and the legislature took six months
what I'll call greater guardrails on the industry that passed,

(37:57):
they passed to build an implementation bill in It was
July of twenty seventeen. So we got started in December
of twenty seventeen to serve mostly the adult use market
and really largely focused, KIM on the Massachusetts born company,
So small and medium sized companies.

Speaker 4 (38:14):
Some of them are vertical companies.

Speaker 12 (38:15):
But many of them are single store operators or single
license manufacturers.

Speaker 2 (38:20):
All right, David, let's talk about what's on your desk.
What are the number one, two, three issues that face
the cannabis industry in the state.

Speaker 12 (38:29):
Well, from an economic point of view, Joe, the price
compression is definitely something we have faced as our state
has matured in the adult use market, in the medical
market as well. So just for sort of reference point,
in the beginning of the adult use days, I mean,
a cultivator could sell a pound of flour for four

(38:54):
forty two hundred dollars a pound. That is now down
to eight hundred, one thousand dollars maybe twelve hundred premium
product for a pounds. So when you see that in
the marketplace, the price gets passed along, the price compression
gets passed along to the consumer. But if you're a business,
you need to do that much more volume to make

(39:14):
up for the sales that you've lost because the numbers
have been cut by thirty fifty sixty. At the federal level,
most people don't realize this. The adult use market is
taxed as if we're still an illicit drugs, so we're
not able to deduct normal business expenses like real estate, rent, leases,

(39:39):
personnel costs, unless it's costs of producing the product. So
only cultivators and manufacturers can deduct those costs of making
the goods. Retailers are sort of stuck on an island
and tax data sixty five seventy percent effective tax rate,
which is really hard to pull out profit when you
do it.

Speaker 3 (39:58):
Not is price compression the result of saturation in the state.

Speaker 12 (40:03):
It's a bit of that.

Speaker 6 (40:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 12 (40:05):
I mean, we've got over one hundred cultivators to got
over one hundred manufacturers. We've got close to four hundred
retailers and one of the people. One of the things
when I first got into this industry back in twenty
sixteen twenty seventeen, people said, when you do retail, it's
like any other retail location. Location location matters. If you
choose a poor location, it doesn't get better with time.

(40:28):
Unless they're building a road that's sends ten thousand cars
by your door every day, that location is going to
be bad. If it's bad from the beginning and is
probably on its way to failure. The other challenge that
operator space is some communities think more is better. So
Northampton's a great example. They allowed twelve retailers. It's way

(40:50):
too many for a community that's small. If they were
the only community in Western mass that had allowed them
to all be destinations. But communities around Northampton, I said,
we're in too. We want retail, we want opportunity for
our consumers to buy, but we also realize that the
pie that the city of Northampton was getting a tax

(41:12):
revenue from, it's just it's a different slice of the
pie that each operator is producing, but it's the same
effective tax revenue they take in. It's just subdivided by
twelve operators. So that's a mistake. I think municipalities, A
handful of municipalities have gone in that direction. And then

(41:33):
just the price compression itself. As I said earlier, it's
passed along to operators, but you still need to meet
your numbers, still need to pay your employees. US are
escalating on the labor side as well.

Speaker 2 (41:48):
Well. Dave O'Brien, president's CEO Massachusetts Cannabis Business Association, he's
taking four hundred retailers out there. Okay, so, and you
got prices down as much as seventy five percent. You're
saying in terms of what they're buying, where are we
with retailers twelve months from now? I mean, what kind
of shakeout is happening here?

Speaker 12 (42:06):
I think we'll see more shakeout jail. I think we'll
see more closures. And one of the things we see
in cannabis that has happened in probably the biggest corollary
vertical business in Massachusetts would be the alcohol industry. And
when one of the things in cannabis it's become more
and more of a problem over time is accounts receivable

(42:28):
people not being able to pay their bills. That's a
canary in the coal mine. If you're not able to
pay your bills this month. That doesn't get better next month.
If you're not getting more business. And cultivators, retailers, retailers, oh, manufacturers, manufacturers, cultivators,
it just becomes a vicious cycle. And one of the
things the Cannabis Control Commission has been talking about the

(42:48):
last couple of months is do we adopt the the
alcohol model, the ANBCC model, where if someone hasn't been
paying their bills at a certain point, everything needs to
be cod going forward. That would be a challenge for
a lot of businesses, but everybody wants to get paid.
I mean, nobody's in this business to operate as a charity.
They're doing it to make money. So that may be

(43:08):
a pretty Zircronian step to make everything ceod because the
business world survives on credit. So we're taking a close
look at what's going to work for the industry, and
if someone's going to go out of business, they should
go out of business before they hurt more other companies
that they.

Speaker 2 (43:24):
Owe money to.

Speaker 3 (43:25):
Well, David, it sounds like to me your organization represents
some of these smaller, as you said, Massachusetts companies. Is
it that handful of big companies that are nationwide that
are eating up the business in the state. Is that
killing the little guy?

Speaker 12 (43:40):
Yeah, So those we refer to those tim as the
multi state operators. So the companies the largest membership percentage
in our organization tends to be single state operators. They've
got their start in Massachusetts. They may be growing to
New York or a neighboring state nearby. But being the
first first state on the East Coast to legalize, we

(44:01):
had a pretty good run for a couple of years
of sort of owning the market in the northeast. But
as our neighbors all butt New Hampshire now are adult
use legal. As our neighboring states started to onboard, it
really did take a bite out of particularly border communities
like western maass sort of Connecticut border communities because people

(44:23):
now have a choice that can go across the border
and buy it. So the challenge is, you need to
be better than your competition, you need to be better
than what's in a state next door to you. And
until anything happens movement wise at the federal level, we
are still just our own ecosystem. It must be made,
it must be grown, manufactured, and sold in Massachusetts. So

(44:43):
we still we have that for a little while longer.
I'm not in the prediction business of what's going to
happen at the federal level. There was fall starts in
the first Trump administration, fall starts in the Biden administration,
and now we're on de Trump too. I hope that
they do something on banking and allowing for this to
be treated legally where it's been legalized by the States,
because to not be able to get traditional financing or

(45:05):
capital is really hamstrings the industry, so you're forced to
go out to the cannabis lending community, which ends up
charging much higher rates.

Speaker 3 (45:14):
Sure, Dave, we're going to have to leave it right there.
Very interesting. We hope that maybe we can have you
back on to chat a little bit more about the
cannabis industry here in Massachusetts. Coming up next, Dine out Boston.
It is back and it is better than ever.

Speaker 1 (45:30):
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 8 (45:39):
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,

(46:00):
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.

(46:21):
That's eight five seven three four two ten thirty. We'll
check us out online at Marshallwealth dot Com Marshall with
two els, Marshallwealth dot Com.

Speaker 9 (46:30):
Advisory services offered through Capital Analysts or Linkeln 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 7 (46:40):
And let your love give back during the subru of
new England Share the Love events this holiday season. Drive
home in a brand new twenty twenty five Superu Outback
buy with one point nine percent financing for up to
forty eight months, or leaves for just two ninety nine
per month for thirty six months with three thou forty

(47:02):
nine do it signing. The twenty twenty five Outback features
standard symmetrical all wheel drive and advanced super Safety features
for all around safety and confidence on every drive. Share
the Love in the twenty twenty five Subaru Outback buy
with one point nine percent financing, or lease for just
two ninety nine per month with your leaser purchase of

(47:23):
a new Supero. During the Share the Love event, Subaru
and our retailers will donate three hundred dollars to your
choice of our national charities or your retailer's hometown charities.
Details at Subaroofnew England dot com.

Speaker 3 (47:43):
Hi everybody, I'm Kim Kerrigan and I'm Joe Shortsley.

Speaker 2 (47:46):
If you want to be part of the New England
Business Report, sponsorships are still available.

Speaker 3 (47:52):
You can email us at any business Radio at gmail
dot com.

Speaker 2 (47:56):
That's any business Radio all one word at gmail dot
com and we'll get your business on the show too.

Speaker 1 (48:08):
The New England Business Report on WRKO is brought to
you in part by Suparu of New England. Feel the
freedom of a brand new twenty twenty four Subaru featuring
symmetrical all wheel drive superov New England dot Com.

Speaker 3 (48:26):
Welcome back to everyone to the New England Business Report.
It is good to have you with us on this
Sunday morning. And if you are looking for something to
do this afternoon, might I suggest that you hit a
restaurant in Boston because guess what, Dine Out Boston is
back and it's bigger and better than ever. And to
learn more about it, we are joined by the President

(48:46):
and CEO of Meet Boston, Martha Sheridan, our good friend.
Hello there, Martha, good morning. Nice to be here with you. You
bet so. Dine Out Boston it's back now. I just
want to for some of our listeners who maybe aren't
familiar with that name, although it's been Dining Out Boston
for a while, this is the same thing that used
to be Restaurant Week. We used to call it that
here in the Boston area. This year three weeks instead

(49:10):
of two.

Speaker 13 (49:11):
Tell us why yes, well, it's March or February into March,
and you know, it's been a cold winter and even
before the weather started to turn on us, we decided
that restaurants could use a little additional help in this
time of the year, so we expanded it and we
got some feedback from restaurants that that was in fact
what they wanted to do.

Speaker 10 (49:32):
So we are doing three weeks this year.

Speaker 2 (49:34):
Very exciting, Martha giving us a business of this. You know,
explain to us why it works for restaurants, because you know,
where it's always been like a week. You think, oh, okay,
for a week, they'll they'll take the lower prices and
blah blah blah. But to sign on to three weeks,
it seems like a pretty serious commitment to these establishments.

Speaker 13 (49:53):
It is, and we appreciate that. It's an opportunity for
restaurants to showcase themselves, showcase some of it dishes to
diners that may not have been there before. To be
honest with you, it's an opportunity for them to lure
potential new customers in and bring them back, you know,
when the promotion is over for additional dining experiences. So

(50:14):
you know, we're in our twenty fifth year, so it's working, right.

Speaker 10 (50:19):
I'm really enjoying it.

Speaker 3 (50:21):
Yeah, And is this the only time of the year
that it's done or is it done a second time?

Speaker 13 (50:25):
We do it in August as well.

Speaker 3 (50:27):
Yeah, absolutely, that's what I thought. So will that be
three weeks as well?

Speaker 13 (50:31):
No, that will not, that'll stick to two.

Speaker 3 (50:33):
Okay, all right? Explain to everybody what exactly happens when
you go to a restaurant during dine out Boston.

Speaker 13 (50:42):
So the restaurants offer, in addition to their regular menu,
which they still offer, they offer three typically it's three
course meal at a reduced price point or you know,
an attractive price point. And some do it for lunch,
some do it for dinner, some do it for both.
But you can look at the restaurant week menu and

(51:03):
decide is this something that I want to take advantage of?
If you, you know, like the three offerings that are available,
there's typically multiple offerings in each category, so you really
do get a lot of options and you get to
try things that you might not otherwise try.

Speaker 2 (51:18):
Martha, how do you attract the success here? I mean, uh,
do restaurants say business is actually op or business days
the same? I mean, uh, where where is where? Where
do the number? What are the numbers? Tell us?

Speaker 13 (51:29):
Well, we we are able to track reservations through our website.
So if you go to Dinauboston dot com and you
make a reservation at a rest participating restaurant through that site,
we do receive those metrics. But we know that other
people take advantage of the of the promotion without you know,
doing that, So we rely on feedback, you know, post

(51:50):
post event surveys. But I'll tell you what tells me
that this is working is this year we have two
hundred restaurants participating, so it's our largest participation for this
winter installation, and it just tells us that restaurants want
to either stay on board if they've done it before,
or new restaurants want to give.

Speaker 4 (52:09):
It a try.

Speaker 3 (52:10):
How does that compare, Martha?

Speaker 13 (52:13):
This is the largest we've had in the winter during
the winter promotion.

Speaker 3 (52:16):
So I mean, did you guys add fifty restaurants? Did
you know?

Speaker 13 (52:20):
I think probably about twenty five more this year?

Speaker 2 (52:23):
How does that happen? Martha? How do those invitations go out?
I mean, are you just sitting on the receiving end
here or are you reaching out to these two hundred restaurants.

Speaker 13 (52:31):
Oh no, Our team is very very active in reaching
out to restaurants and you know, we obviously use a
list from the previous year, but we also just get
inquiries as well. It works both ways, you know. We
we try and encourage our restaurants to participate, but many
of them come to us because you know, they want
to get on board for the promotion, and we do

(52:51):
a ton of advertising around it. We've got twenty three
influencers going into restaurants during this session, you know, and
they'll be posting on social their experiences at restaurants, so
we know that that's going to generate more interest and
more visitation.

Speaker 2 (53:06):
Tell me about this, who are these twenty three influencers
and what do you have? Who are they and what
are they doing?

Speaker 13 (53:13):
Well, it's people that are active on social media, have
significant following, and have a propensity to to create content
what we call it content creators create content about dining
in particular. So we know people are following these content
creators because they do typically post about food, and people

(53:37):
that are interested in food will obviously take a look
and decide, hey, this looks great, I want to try it.
So it's a great opportunity for you know, those restaurants
that are being visited to, you know, to shine and
to get their name out there. But we also know
that people just post in general. They love to post food,
as we all know. So this is really a great

(53:59):
opportunity for restaurants to get their name out there in
so many ways.

Speaker 2 (54:04):
People love to post food with this generation.

Speaker 1 (54:08):
Me.

Speaker 3 (54:09):
That's right, That is that is the forum of advertising
at this point. There's no two ways about it, Martha,
what's the average price? I mean the restaurants I know
vary you know there there some of them are very
high end restaurants to maybe some cute little delis in
the corner, But what's the what's the average price? And
also it's not just downtown Boston, right.

Speaker 13 (54:31):
It's greater Boston. The beauty of this year is we
have restaurants from the North Store all the way down
to the South Stow participating and obviously in Cambridge as well.
So it's really it's a fantastic opportunity for restaurants across
the region to showcase themselves. There are varying price points,

(54:52):
which is good for the diner but also for the
restaurant because obviously the higher price restaurants want to make
sure that they still you know, make a little bit
of money in this deal. But the range for lunch
is twenty two to twenty seven, thirty two or thirty six,
so you have some options there, and then for the
dining the dinner portion is thirty six, forty one, forty six,

(55:15):
fifty five, so lots of options. You can pick whichever
restaurants get to pick whichever price point they're going to offer,
so you only still only offer typically one price point
for lunch and one for dinner.

Speaker 2 (55:26):
Martha Sheridon's our guest president's CEO of Meet Boston, talking
about Dine Out Boston, which of course begins today and
goes right through March the fifteenth, with some two hundred restaurants. Okay,
so Martha, you also have in your back pocket there.
Boston was just named number six best for food destination

(55:46):
in the United States by trip Advisor. How much of
a difference is a designation like that make?

Speaker 12 (55:53):
Well?

Speaker 13 (55:53):
I mean, I think any kind of any kind of
a stamp of approval on our incredible culinary scene is
always helpful. And you know, we've been working really hard
to elevate Boston as a premier dining destination. I think
sometimes we get pigeonholed right as the city of chowder
and lobster rolls, which we love, but we love it

(56:14):
when others, you know, particularly trip Advisor, which is a
curated site as well, others determine that we've got a great,
diverse dining scene and incredible food in our city. So
just another feather in our cap as we continue to
promote the dining scene here in Boston.

Speaker 3 (56:31):
Martha, we're just about out of time, but we cannot
have you one without asking how is the convention business
looking for twenty twenty five? How are we doing here.

Speaker 13 (56:38):
Convened to looking great? And also sporting events? You know,
we are wrapping up some incredible events that just happened
at Four Nations face Offs, as you know, and then
we're about to welcome the World Figure Skating Championship. So
that coupled with citywide conventions that are both of our
convention centers and of course meetings that are taking place

(56:58):
within our hotels are solid doing very very well. So
we're inticipating a good year for Boston and Boston.

Speaker 3 (57:06):
Hotel Super Martha Sheridan, she is the president CEO of
Meet Boston. Thank you so much for being a part
of the show today. And remember everybody, it's Dine Out Boston.
You can go to Dine Out Boston dot com check
out those restaurants. And that runs from today through March fifteenth.

Speaker 2 (57:21):
All right, that does it for this Sunday Morning on
the New England Business Support. By the way, it's the
last program in February. Next week we welcome in March.
In the meantime, we're going to keep watching your heating bills,
so we're restisured, be comforted that Kim and I are
on it and what's going on with these natural gas
rates and so on and so forth. It's going to

(57:42):
continue to evolve and we'll bring you the very latest
on that story, which of course is a huge business
story next Sunday morning. I'm the New England Business Support
right here on WRKO, the Voice of Boston AM six
eighty