Telegram & Gazette reporterLisa Eckelbecker and T&G Digital Content EditorNoah R. Bombard hit Worcester area stores to talk to some of the lucky — and sometimes bleary eyed — customers who were first in line to snatch up Apple’s latest gizmo.
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A Best Buy worker greeted folks lined up for iPads about 8 a.m. & told them the store has “plenty” of iPads.
Across town at the AT&T store, district manager Scott Gousse said their store had yet to get its display model, but had an undisclosed amount of iPads ready for buyers today.
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No customers for iPad yet at Park Ave AT&T store in Worcester, but “we’ve got a lot of phone calls” said Scott Gousse, district manager.
Amy Hubert, who talked to us earlier about her plan to pick up a new 64 gigabyte iPad, opens up her new purchase and talks to us about why she loves the iPad.
Move over you smooching, love-sick saps. Here are some stories of good lovin’ gone bad – very bad.
By Charlene Arsenault and Noah R Bombard
Everyone’s got a story. And they’re not all surrounded by boxes of heart-shaped chocolates and diamond rings. And they don’t all have happy endings. Love is a many-splendored thing when it hits you just right. But let’s face it — sometimes, love just stinks.
To protect the innocent — and the downright dirty-rotten guilty — the names in the following sordid tales will remain anonymous. Worcester Magazine did verify the authors of each of these submissions, however. If the story bears a stark resemblance to something in your own life, be quiet about it — it might be just a coincidence.
The iconic salesman who adorned America’s oldest continually bottled soda for decades disappeared from the label in 2007 when the brand was purchased by Cornucopia Beverages of Bedford, N.H.
After four years, it was time to bring him back, says brand manager Justin Conroy.
Stores in Northern New England have already begun carrying the new Moxie Man labels, and stores in Southern New England will soon follow.
The young man with the white coat and finger pointing at you who customers grew up with has been slightly updated – he’s got a website on him now (drinkmoxie.com).
The new Moxie can. (Photo by Rick Marden)
But with the eyeliner-wearing Moxie Man with his steely gaze back on the scene, some Northern New Englanders have begun complaining the soft drink has lost some of its legendary bite. I’ve had three friends in Maine complain over the past two weeks that something wacky is going on with Moxie. So, I called the one man with the distinctive taste buds to know the difference.
“It’s not what it used to be,” says Frank Anicetti, owner of Kennebec’s store in Lisbon Falls, Maine.
Anicetti should know. Aside from being a lifelong Moxie drinker and peddler of Moxie paraphernalia galore (a Moxie necktie anyone?), he organizes the annual Moxie Festival in Lisbon Falls that drew more than 50,000 fans last summer.
Anicetti says he usually drinks Diet Moxie as it has more of that original “bite” that fans love. When he twisted open a bottle recently, though, he was not pleased.
“The one I had yesterday was more like a fruit drink,” he said.
Conroy refutes any formula change, however, saying the company has made no changes to the concentrate that is shipped to bottlers and used to make Moxie.
Formula changes are a sore subject for Moxie fans. Longtime drinkers may recall the blunder the company made in the 1960s when it completely revamped Moxie as a fruit beverage. Sales reportedly plummeted and something close to the original drink was quickly brought back.
“We’re always mindful of past mistakes,” Conroy says.
Conroy says depending on the water source a bottler uses and the individual batch preparation, there can be some minor fluctuations in flavor from one soda to another. Locally, Moxie is bottled by the Polar Beverage Corp. here in Worcester.
“That’s true,” Anicetti says. “The Moxie we drink up here tastes a little different than what you get in Massachusetts.”
Has Cornucopia pulled a fast one on Moxie loyalists or did folks in parts of Maine just get a botched batch of Moxie? If only the Moxie Man could speak.
Three months after closing 63 “underperforming” restaurants as part of a voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Friendly’s closed an additional 37 stores Sunday after being unable to renegotiate leases with property owners. With that move, that iconic ice cream place your parents took you to as a kid significantly scaled back its presence on the local eatery scene.
Is it a sign of the end for Friendly’s or simply a restructuring that could leave the slimmed-down fast food chain financially sound? It’s anybody’s guess. But first, the more important question on the minds of Friendly’s fans in Central Massachusetts — what’s left?
Taking a look Central Mass. in the Worcester/Leominster region there are eight restaurants left.
Those still open:
Leominster — 482 North Main Street. 978-537-9787
Gardner — 18 Pearson Boulevard. 978-630-1821
Holden — 1060 Main Street. 508-829-2991
Worcester — 966 Grafton Street. 508-798-3298
Sudbury — 457 Boston Post Road. 978-443-2033
Auburn — 697 Southbridge Street. 508-832-3102
Webster — 129 East Main Street. 508-943-8533
Milford — 17 Medway Road. 508-473-7398
From a map view, that’s not horrible. There may not be several Friendly’s within a 10 min. drive of your door as there once was, but there’s still a smattering of them left spread out in the region. With the closure of the additional 37, Friendly’s says it has now emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. That means the future is theirs to either grow, survive or die.
It definitely has a chance to survive. When the chain closed the Monument Square location in Leominster my son and I used to go to we drifted over to the one left on North Main Street. It was packed. We’ve been back twice since. Each time there’s been a wait for a seat. Despite a growing reputation for what many see as poor customer service and quality control, Friendly’s has a decades-old brand with sentimental attachments. With fewer stores left, those that are left are pulling in customers from a wider area. Sure, the economy is tough, but plenty of chains are doing well. With massive debt no longer looming over the chain, the Supermelt is squarely in Friendly’s court.
The media landscape in Worcester has a new player — and it’s likely to shake up the landscape a bit.
GoLocal24, a company that’s been running GoLocalProv.com for the past year and a half is expanding to Worcester. It’s scheduled to launch a Worcester site soon and is putting serious resources into it. This is no journalist-wanna-be blog. It appears the site will have three full-time editorial writers in addition to a small crew putting together video news pieces. GoLocal has some serious investment dollars going into it and will be competing aggressively for ad dollars in the Worcester market. The new venture will set up shop in the old Worcester Research Bureau office next to Mechanics Hall. The site will also feature the talents of former Boston news anchor Natalie Jacobson.
