Dig Boston published a game for all us local lovers that features
Somerville Local First's Joe Grafton navigating a maze, trying to avoid big name locations to get some eats at McKinnon's. You can print and reprint and reprint this for your maze solving pleasure. Thank me later!
Also, did you know that Ward 5 Online feeds to the SLF website? Well, now you do!
In conjunction with this awesome organization, posts that discuss city legislation impacting local businesses is
fed to the SLF Blog. You can thank me, or Andy Pyman from
Truly Good Design, later!
5 comments:
Not sure how we should regard Johnnie's Foodmaster and Market Basket. They aren't based in Somerville but they are local to eastern Massachusetts (I think Chelsea and Tewksbury respectively).
FoodMaster started as a Mom & pop ethnic oriented neighborhood store in East Cambridge. Not having it's own direct warehouse, technically, cannot be defined as a "chain."
Was once headquarted in their store in Ball Square---a former First National store. Now gone from there.
Their Somerville Beacon Street store was formerly a Stop & Shop.
Their Alewife store was formerly an Elm Farm store.
Market Basket, once known as DeMoulas and still owned/run by that family, classifies as a Chain Regional Operation, having many stores in New Hampshire and Massachusetts... and their own direct warehouses.
No way one can "knock" them, given the thousands of jobs they provide.
For that matter, so does Stop & Shop, Shaws/Star, and other major retail entities.
Historically have always co-existed with local neighborhood entities.....and still do.
By the way---
The very successful Market Basket on Somerville Avenue was formerly a NEWLY built A&P Supermarket that failed/closed after 6 months.
Many Somerville people lost their jobs at that time. Market Basket/DeMouls filled the void there.
DeMoulas started as a neighborhood store, on Dummer Street, in Lowell, by a 1st generation Greek immigrant, serving a heavily Greek neighborhood----primarily with cuts of Lamb---that they brought live from upstate New York, and slaughtered for sale and consumption locally.
It was that immigrant's sons, Mike and George ,who grew the chain.
Star market started locally with one store in Watertown Square, serving primarily the heavy Armenian population there.
Stop & Shop--The Rabb family--started with a store--not a stop & Shop, but the forerunner for the Stop & Shop chain, it was located at the corner of Cedar & Highland where now stands East Cambridge Bank.
So, "pound the drum" all you want for people to support their local grocery stores---but, not to forget, the "evil chains" started as "local stores" and grew to provide thousands of jobs directly in-stores; and indirectly. Indirectly, for example, providing work for the construction trades.
If MacKinnon's grew likewise would they then be labeled as "evil"?
There are other McKinnon's meat markets in Everett, Danvers, and southern New Hampshire. They apparently aren't related to the Davis Square store, but were they once related?
Depends on who you talk to....and hearsay.
Going back many yesrs,some say there was a "split" in the family, with the Davis unit, and family member, ending up "detached" to settle a rift.
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