In
the News
November 19, 2006
The
Backup files
A look back at the week in business
By Martin Luttrell TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
mluttrell@telegram.com
Low prices, every day
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer,
announced on Thursday that it will bring its $4 generic
drug program to pharmacies in 44 Massachusetts stores
and in 10 other states. The program now includes 331
generic prescriptions. Lowering drug costs is helping
Wal-Mart reverse its slowing sales growth. Not to be
left behind, Natick-based BJ’s Wholesale Club
announced later the same day that it would charge $4
for a 30-day supply of certain generic prescriptions.
The BJ’s Leominster store is the only one with
a pharmacy in Central Massachusetts.
New life for scratched CDs
It is said that necessity is the mother of invention.
By using his grandmother’s floor buffer and some
ingenuity, Daniel A. Diotte perfected a method of repairing
scratched CDs, DVDs and game discs that is being used
in 40 countries. VenMill Industries, the Webster company
Mr. Diotte founded in 2002, sells an industrial-strength
machine that is used by movie rental companies, libraries
and schools. Now, the company is expanding into the
consumer market with smaller, portable and less costly
machines. A limited number of the new Skip-Away and
Elite 60 models will be available in time for the holidays.
Sorry boomers, those Peter Frampton albums you’ve
been holding onto aren’t worth repairing anyhow.
One man’s carpet is another’s
barrel
Ground was broken at Devens last week for a 91,000-square-foot
recycling complex that will process construction and
demolition debris. Kurt MacNamara, principal of Devens
Recycling Center LLC, said the facility may be the largest
of its kind in the country. It will eventually process
1,500 tons a day of brick, concrete, steel, wood, asphalt,
carpet and gypsum, with much of the material returned
to the market as recycled products such as carpet. The
recycling facility is expected to open in July, with
70 employees to be hired over the next three years,
Mr. MacNamara said.
Foreign competition to sideline Webster workers
Cranston Print Works Co. in Webster is the latest to
fall victim to foreign competition, announcing last
week that it plans to eliminate 60 manufacturing jobs
over the next four months. Executive Vice President
Jodi Beckett blamed reduced demand and increased competition
from the Asian textile market. The layoffs represent
about 30 percent of the company’s Webster work
force, she said. The company’s production has
been geared to the apparel and home furnishing markets,
but the Webster operation also made 75,000 yards of
American flag prints after the 9-11 attacks to meet
the sudden demand.
Soft housing market slows the state’s
economy
Massachusetts is enjoying a growing economy, but still
lags behind the rest of the country and will probably
take another five years to recover the jobs lost in
the last recession. That sobering assessment was given
by Alan Clayton-Matthews, an associate professor at
the University of Massachusetts in Boston and a director
at the New England Economic Partnership. At NEEP’s
fall conference Tuesday, he said the state’s economy
is producing more exports, adding jobs and possibly
reversing the brain drain that economists have cited
in recent years. But a sagging housing market, which
is putting the brakes on economic growth, could last
longer than the housing market slowdown nationwide,
he said.
Turning over a new leaf
A good resume and job interview can be undermined by
criminal offenses in an applicant’s background,
even if the offenses are several years old and unrelated
to the job the applicant is seeking. Now, the New Leaf
Program, offered by the Workforce Central Career Center
and the nonprofit EPOCA, Ex-prisoners and Prisoners
Organizing for Community Advancement, will help job
seekers with criminal records address such obstacles.
The training is an attempt to stem recidivism. Employment
is a key factor in keeping people from going back to
jail, said James C. Cain, president of the ex-prisoners’
group.
Contact business reporter Martin Luttrell
by e-mail at mluttrell@telegram.com.
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