Posts Tagged ‘small business’

Voices of Main Street: Mary Giannetti at the Moran Square Diner

Posted: September 6, 2010 by datechguy in baseball, business, local stuff, short films/interviews
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Moran Square Diner The Sunday of Labor day weekend

If you have watched Mike Barnicle on TV you have probably heard him say the phrase “The people at Moran Square Diner” when talking about the average person and what he thinks.

Well the Moran square diner is a real place that has been cooking breakfast and lunch for people for

You don't get more old fashoned than that menu board

over 70 years. It’s named after Fitchburg Native Pat Moran who played 14 seasons in the major leagues. He played on both Chicago Cubs world series teams ( 1907 & 1908 ). but is best remembered for his 1919 World Series victory in 1919 (with some unsolicited help from disgruntled White Sox Players) as manager of the Reds. That’s a shame as the hardball times says Pat Moran might be the most underrated manager in baseball history.

Your breakfast cooked right in front of you

.wife and youngest stopped down for breakfast there today and the family was hard at work dealing with the Sunday rush. If you are looking for fancy this is definitely the wrong place for you, but if you want a good breakfast in a quaint old fashioned dinner cooked to a T this is the place. You will be hard pressed to find a better sausage patty and eggs.

When I told Mary during breakfast that I would write a post about the place she smiled, She was really surprised when I came back 15 minutes later camera in hand.I showed up after breakfast camera in hand.With the Sunday Rush on Chris had absolutely no time to talk to me, but Mary was able to find some time after a little wait. I didn’t mind. I enjoy a watching a master at work. You might not think of short order cooking as an art to master but then again you haven’t tried his breakfast and just watched as he goes through order after order.

Working steady

When you make your living $5-$6 dollars at a time you have very little room to factor in a bad economy so if you want some advice on making it in a diner, I’d listen to what Mary has to say. BTW I was actually surprised to find out that Cousin Mary and her Husband Chris are only the 2nd owners in all of those years. I still think morning Joe should broadcast from here some day

BTW somehow this post got mixed up with a post in defense of Stacy McCain that I put up earlier

Voices of Main Street Ray Tower of Viola’s Fitchburg Tire

Posted: August 15, 2010 by datechguy in local stuff, short films/interviews
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One of a series of occasional posts containing interviews with people from local businesses concerning their area of expertise:

Ray Tower has known Tires for longer than I’ve been alive. He talks about the incredible advances in tire technology in his lifetime and some of the big mistakes that people make where the rubber meets the road:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v34PP8aqCKI

You can find him at Viola’s Fitchburg Tire. Stop by and tell him DaTechGuy sent you.

You mean business might not keep health care? No!

Posted: May 6, 2010 by datechguy in opinion/news
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Here is what appeared on this blog March 24th:

Remember it is a lot cheaper to pay the fine than to actually cover the employee, so who is going to have to pay that cost? Back to Dennis:

Next year you’re going to have to purchase the insurance yourself or pay a large fine and face the possibility of prosecution and imprisonment.

So the end result thousands of dollars spent by people on health insurance that will not be spent on other things, like vacations, or restaurants, or that x-box 360 or COLLEGE or the MORTGAGE.

Well look at what it at Hotair today:

It’s not just the calculus of mandates and penalties that has employers considering the option of dumping health care and paying more in salaries instead. The mandate to keep “children” on plans until the age of 26 has employers seeing a steep cost curve. For Caterpillar alone, the 26-year-old mandate will cost over $20 million a year. Under those conditions, the penalties look pretty good. Add on the “Cadillac tax” on some health plans and the expected jump in medical costs from providers dealing with their own set of mandates, and health insurance looks like a very bad risk.</blockquote

They link to this story that says:

Internal documents recently reviewed by Fortune, originally requested by Congress, show what the bill’s critics predicted, and what its champions dreaded: many large companies are examining a course that was heretofore unthinkable, dumping the health care coverage they provide to their workers in exchange for paying penalty fees to the government.

And if that doesn’t do it check this article:

Section 9006 of the health care bill — just a few lines buried in the 2,409-page document — mandates that beginning in 2012 all companies will have to issue 1099 tax forms not just to contract workers but to any individual or corporation from which they buy more than $600 in goods or services in a tax year.

The stealth change radically alters the nature of 1099s and means businesses will have to issue millions of new tax documents each year.

This is a business killer, a large corporation has the staff already doing this kind of thing but smaller business will be paying the price helping to drive them away. I thought the democrats were against large corporations? Amazing how CNN never figured this out before the vote huh?

Remember America, we (collectively) elected these clowns. You wanted Barack Obama and the democrats you’ve got them. Enjoy!

I’m going to give a caveat to Market Basket for their “Holiday Dinner” poster…

Posted: April 5, 2010 by datechguy in local stuff, opinion/news
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Market Basket supermarkets Friday had a big poster up on the windows offering a fully cooked and prepared “Holiday” dinner for purchase. The poster showed all the fixing of either Ham and Turkey etc.

I was ready to get upset when I took a closer look at the poster and realized that it was something that could be re-used for Thanksgiving and Christmas. It is the same dinner and would certainly be an acceptable choice if you don’t want to cook.

Since the dinner is the same and Market Basket has a bunch of stores that would need multiple copies of these very large posters for each location it would seem to me foolish to make duplicates for different holidays.

So although this is normally a pet peeve for me and others I’ll give them a pass, after all its not like they are a Catholic College or something.

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