Stop & Shop Ad Feeds the Public a Bunch of Baloney

April 23, 2019

During the 10-day strike by roughly 31,000 Stop & Shop workers the past couple of weeks, the supermarket chain ran a series of ads like this one in the Boston dailies.

 

Last Friday the five locals of the United Food and Commercial Workers responded with this clearly superior ad in the Boston Globe.

 

 

The UFCW won not only the ad battle, but the contract skirmish as well, as Globe reporter Katie Johnston details on Page One of today’s edition.

If members of the five union locals approve — voting starts later this week — new part-time workers would get lower pension contributions and would not be guaranteed time-and-a-half pay on Sundays and holidays during their first three years, as other workers are, according to the union. In a workforce largely made up of part-timers, this is not an insignificant change.

But the union succeeded in beating back a raft of other proposals. And if the contract is approved, current workers would get raises and the company would boost pension contributions for full-timers and maintain its current contributions for part-timers. That prompted the president of one of the five union locals to declare a “major victory.”

 

UMass Amherst labor studies professor Tom Juravich agreed, noting that 75% of loyal shoppers stayed away during the strike and the company lost $2 million a day. “That kind of leverage is unprecedented since the golden years of auto and steel,” he told Johnston.

So it was, well, interesting to see this ad also run in today’s Globe.

 

Sorry, fellas. Your customers were neither patient nor understanding. And they definitely did not stick with you.

You got your ads kicked.


Stop & Shop to Boston Herald: Eat Your Heart Out

April 14, 2019

Now that the Teamsters have gone out in sympathy with the nearly 31,000 Stop & Shop workers who went on strike three days ago, management is apparently looking for some sympathy of its own. Thus, this full-page ad in today’s Boston Globe.

 

Here’s their website if you want more of management’s side. One thing they do not address is why they didn’t run the ad in the Boston Herald.

Afraid the readership is too union-friendly and an ad addressed to them would be a waste of money? Or just oblivious to the thirsty local tabloid, like so many others in this town.

Whatever, let’s hope those readers stop shopping at Stop & Shop. For good.


Boston Globe Story a Free Ad for Fenway Advertiser

April 6, 2019

From our Boston GlobeSox desk

A sharp-eyed Two-Daily Town reader posted this on Facebook last night.

Wow, the Boston Globe has a story about a Red Sox commercial partner — a casino, no less — entering into a deal to put an ad on the left field wall (I refuse to call the edifice by its brand name.) And it comes with a picture of the new logo. Imagine that. How ever did the team owners convince the region’s dominant media outlet to run a piece on what is essentially a marketing deal that enriches the owners but means nothing to fans. Boy, that’s some pull, huh? ( The Globe, by the way, most recently ran an editorial opposing expanding casino gambling, a move that would hamper the Sox newest partner.  Hmm, wonder if [the] hard reading staff at “It’s Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town” took notice.)

 

Sure enough, this piece was sitting up like tee-ball on the Globe’s website.

Red Sox and MGM Resorts officials reveal additions at Fenway Park

The Green Monster has a new logo, just in time for the Red Sox home opener.

A large advertisement featuring MGM Resorts’ roaring lion trademark was unveiled at Fenway Park Friday, courtesy of a new partnership between the team and the casino giant.

“This is hallowed ground,” said Jim Murren, chief executive officer of MGM Resorts International. “The fact that Fenway Sports is willing to work with us is humbling.”

 

Yeesh.

The story also flacks “an array of new concession snacks, renovations to the press box and player clubhouses, and augmented-reality capabilities for the MLB Ballpark app, which will allow fans to roam the stadium with their phones, scan certain objects, and see them come to life.”

Two things to note:

1) Nowhere in that piece – or in the print version – is it disclosed that the Boston Globe is owned by Red Sox owner John Henry.

2) The piece was written by a Globe correspondent – not a staffer – who is presumably blameless in this matter and so will go unnamed.

But the correspondent’s editors – they’ve got some ‘splaining to do, no?