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Thursday, November 15, 2012

The Word Around The Ward


Not that I need any more reason to love the Somerville Police Department, I must mention how impressed I was with Officer Paul Trant’s research method of looking up “Stew 238” who spray painted some properties over the weekend. Paul looked up the tag name in the SPD database, but was not able to pull anything up. This database is filled with popular tag names that the city has compiled over the years. Although it was not able to help with this situation, I appreciate his effort!

The market in Magoun square, occupying the old Cara Donna location, can’t some soon enough as some Somerville neighborhoods will lose food sources with the closings of Johnnie’s Foodmaster. One will be replaced with a Whole Foods (Beacon Street) and the other, across from Clarendon Hill, will remain closed. Those residents will feel a similar strain to Winter Hill residents when they lost the Star Market (although Johnnie's Foodmaster was known for cheaper prices than Star Market). The market hasn’t opened yet, but a full report will be published once it does. Unfortunately, both Foodmaster locations are set to close very soon.

There was no awkward moment when both candidates for Ward 5 Alderman addressed residents at last night’s ResiStat meeting. Sean O’Donovan gave a great welcoming and diligently took notes of raised concerns, occasionally, chiming in his own thoughts during presentations. Mark Niedergang gave an excellent overview of the Somerville Schools, pointing out successes and answering questions. I hope this continues throughout the campaign season with both displaying professionalism and courtesy as previous races have proven that negativity does not equal victory.

I love when local businesses frequent local businesses! I certainly got a little jealous when I read some tweets sent by Mike Dulock from Daddy Jones Bar during last night's meeting that also featured pictures of his meals too! You would've heard my stomach growl, but the hot Pini's Pizza delivered at the beginning of the meeting prevented that from happening. Not to be outdone, I'll be doing my own tweeting when I stop in Daddy Jones for a bite after work later on this evening.

Somerville Local First is putting the final touches on their Local is For Lovers holiday market for this year and are looking for some vendors! Check out their latest blog post for details.

December 6th marks the final presentation by a group of MIT students on Winter Hill and Magoun Square at the Winter Hill Community School. The meeting starts at 6:30pm and I highly encourage residents to attend.

For the next few months, you will see a significant increase in the pages for both Sean O'Donovan and Mark Niedergang in preparation for the 2013 election season. I will be adding as much information as I can possibly think of, but as always, remain open to suggestions. Please feel free to email me with ideas or questions you have so I can offer the most information I can. This is the first race I get to write about in the four years since Ward 5 Online was launched and I am looking forward to it!

Speaking of Ward 5 Online...Happy 3rd Birthday!! So happy to get out of my terrible 2's!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Now you've got me torn. Was planning on the Saloon tonight, but maybe I will see if everyone is up for Daddy Jones instead.

Brendan

Anonymous said...

I keep reading and hearing about Johnnie's Foodmaster customers being upset about their closing because (claiming) Johnnie's had everyday "lower prices" and some locations were very much a convenience for some, particularly seniors and people with out cars.

While, in my opinion, the "convenience" claim is very much viable; the "lower prices" claim is NOT TRUE.

Everytime a pricing survey was done among local supermarkets Johnnie's everyday shelf prices were shown to be right up there among the highest, if not higher.

There was/is a good reason why their everyday prices, and promotional advertised prices were higher, and that is Johnnie's never had the luxury of having their own direct warehouse to buy goods directly from manufacturers at a lower delivered case/unit cost enabling lower retail price points.. Meaning, the bulk of their items for resale at store level had to be, and were supplied, by independant wholesalers and distributors; in effect a "middlemans" service and delivery $$$$$ charges that resulted in having to pay a higher delivered case/unit cost resulting in higher retail price points to secure the profit margins necessary to operate "in the black."

Supermarkets with their own warehouses were/are able to take advantage of lower cost volume truckload deliveries; and promotional monies (regularly) offered by manufactures; some of which they, direct buyers, did pass on to markets such as Johnnies for a specified time window.

These same direct buyers, Stop & Shop, Star/Shaws, and independent wholesalers and distributors, etc., loaded-up on
these promotional goods; and when the manufacture's promotional money ended, and they all had an ending date, these direct buyers reverted to original case/unit costs to stores such as Johnnies; pocketing and not reflecting their lower promotional case costs to their stores supplied by them. For Johnnies, absent a warehouse to load up on lower cost promotional goods delivered from their wholesaler or distributor were at a disadvantage when competing with the direct-buy entities such as Stop & Shop, Shaws/Star, etc.

If one follows the advertised feature prices each week one will often see that Johnnies's advertised "lower prices" were higher for the same item(s) that were advertised by chains with warehouses; but the bigger problem for customers, with RARE exception, was their higher everyday shelf price points.

It was the nature of the business, especially in hard economic times, that "killed" Johnnies.

I truly am sorry to see Johnnie's, or any other retail entity close go out of business,lost jobs, shoppers convenience, etc.

As a broker-salesman, at one time, Johnnies was one of my customers; as well as several direct buyer chains and distributors with warehouses.

I also worked as a retail salesman calling on stores supplied by their own warehouse; and stores, such as Johnnies, without their own warehouse.

I know whereof I speak!