Stability isn’t a word that often pops up when the subject is retail or restaurant businesses. They rise and fall on short-lived trends, customers’ whims, labor and supply chain costs, and other hard-to-control (or predict) factors. Like one person’s fixation on tariffs, for example. National chains come and go like limited TV series (so long, […]
Category: Business Beat
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Will the Plymouth MBTA station ever reopen?
When the Plymouth Independent site went live on Nov. 21 of last year, the first batch of stories included one by Fred Thys about the status of the MBTA commuter rail station at Cordage Park. The headline read: “You still can’t get there from here.” More than a year later – and three and a […]
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Mini golf or a flea market at Benny’s Plaza? No, but here are some ideas that might work.
Editor’s note: Unlike our news stories, this column also includes the author’s opinions. “Change” is the word of the year in Plymouth. Maybe the word of the decade. Plymouth is changing. Plymouth has changed. It’s changed too much or too little. It’s changed for the worse, for the better. Embrace it, rail against it, help […]
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Readers roar about motorcycle noise
By this time in August, you can feel fall creeping around the corner. “Out of office” messages peak along with back-to-school retail fever. The news typically slows to a trickle for a few weeks. I figured it was a good time to assemble some semi-random observations – more than nine months after the Plymouth Independent […]
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Never mind outdoor music, what about loud motorcycles?
Plenty has been posted on social media lately about live music in downtown Plymouth. Hundreds of commenters have reacted to reporter Fred Thys’s July 25 story about a testy exchange between Select Board member Charlie Bletzer and Erin Murphy, who owns the Su Casa restaurant on Main Street. The back-and-forth dragged out over two meetings, […]
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Fond memories of Benny’s remain, even as its plaza becomes blighted
Everyone loved Benny’s. But not enough to keep the retro-style department store from going dark seven years ago. The family-owned, Rhode Island-based chain closed all 31 Benny’s in 2017, including its Plymouth location off Court Street. The Bromberg family, which had owned it since 1924, cited “the changing face of retailing today and the dominance […]
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From Asian hot pot to upscale Mexican, here’s what’s happening downtown
I’ve been looking for an opening to write this column. Now I’ve got a few of them to mention. A bunch of businesses have recently opened in the downtown area, or are on track to do so soon. They’re welcome additions to the town’s commercial tax base, which needs all the help it can get […]
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Relief for visitors to Pilgrim Memorial State Park: bathrooms are back
Update: Good news for people in need along the waterfront. As of Monday, the closed public restrooms referenced in this column were back in service, complete with shiny new floors. Now if only I could get the same kind of action when it comes to the Water Street sewer relocation project. This column could use […]
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A rite of spring that leaves many people feeling wronged: Paid parking
It’s almost time for the annual spring unveiling: that special day when the covers come off parking meters and pay stations downtown and along the waterfront. The seasonal reprieve from paid parking – which began Dec. 1 – expires on April 1. That means you’ll have to fork over $2 an hour to park in […]
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A (dollar) sign of Plymouth’s growth: More banks
When notorious crook Willie Sutton was asked why he robbed banks, he supposedly replied, “Because that’s where the money is.” Sutton, who died in 1980, denied saying it, but who knows whether he was telling the truth? The guy was a thief. Similarly, when readers ask me why banks continue to open brick-and-mortar branches in […]