No Snow, No Snow Business: Slow Start to Winter at Least Allows for Maintenance and Repairs
Enfield — On a gray, overcast afternoon last week Whaleback Mountain was bare. Rocks poked out of the mud, the water of Stony Brook at the mountain’s base rushed with the torrent of a spring thaw. Ski chairlifts dangled motionless from their lines. “I’ve been in the ski business since my youth in the late ’50s and early ’60s. I’ve seen some pretty lean years,” said Gerd Riess, mountain manager at Whaleback. He recalled “one year back...
Hacking the Human Diet
San Francisco — The third floor of the American Industrial Center in San Francisco’s Dogpatch district is food central. It houses confectioners, cupcake bakers, pastry makers and catering companies. Everyone is making or packaging food. Even the two youngish guys who look more like chemists than chefs are, technically, making food. A new kind of food. Tucked away in the humidity-controlled, air-conditioned nook of the building, Alex...
Consumer Confidential: Millionaire CEOs Should Support a Living Wage for Fast-Food Workers
Business leaders have every right to voice concerns about a $15-an-hour minimum wage. Anything that could cut into profits is a legitimate worry for companies. But the spectacle of millionaire CEOs opposing a living wage for their workers serves only to highlight the obscene income gap between those at the top and everyone else whose contributions help keep the corporate wheels turning. Sally Smith, chief executive of the restaurant...
Making the Connections
I spend a fair number of hours this time of year going around in circles. I don’t necessarily mean in this space, though that may be the case, but rather on the riding mower trying to show the lawn who’s boss. The routine, while not without its challenges, has become, well, routine, and as such allows the mind the luxury of wandering and, perhaps, of making connections. Joan Goldstein, Vermont’s new commissioner of economic...
