Connecticut
Kevin Rennie: Connecticut persists in embrace of anti-democratic barriers
Hartford Democratic Town Committee members will meet Monday evening to endorse a candidate for mayor and other city offices. Luke Bronin’s decision not to seek reelection propelled a host of candidates into a race that would otherwise have seen Bronin glide to a third term.
Hartford is a one-party town and it belongs to the Democrats. The race for Democratic nomination for mayor will be decided in a Sept. 12 primary, but getting to it provides an embarrassing reminder of Connecticut’s high hurdles to ballot access. The Constitution State persists in its embrace of anti-democratic barriers.
The three top competitors seeking support from the 77 town committee members are Arunan Arulampalam, Eric Coleman and John Fonfara. Each is an insider in his own dispiriting way. One of them will win the town committee’s endorsement, the other two, no matter how many votes each wins, will need to collect a couple of thousand signatures to get on the primary ballot. J. Stan McCauley and city council member Nick Lebron are also expected to collect signatures to qualify for the primary.
GOP, lobbyist donors emerge in Hartford’s tight, three-way Democratic race for mayor
State law requires municipal primary candidates to collect signatures from 5% of the voters who are registered members of their party where they are running. The precise number of registered Democrats in Hartford will be determined Monday, Democratic Registrar of Voters Giselle Feliciano said. There are about 36,000 registered Democrats in Hartford. Each candidate will need approximately 1,800 signatures plus a cushion of a few hundred in anticipation of some signatures being disqualified.
Petitions from Feliciano’s office will be available the day after the convention. Candidates will have until 4 p.m. August 9 to submit their petitions to the registrar. That’s 16 summer days wasting time and money hunting for registered Democrats, confirming their identity and persuading them to sign a petition in these suspicious times.
The system is intended to keep challengers from giving rank and file party members a say in the nominating process. Party leaders often prefer to have these critical decisions made by a handful of close colleagues, not thousands of unpredictable party voters.
Two of the candidates had decades to support dismantling this archaic system that protects party-endorsed candidates from what in other states are routine primary contests. Coleman served in the legislature for nearly 40 years before winning a nomination to the Superior Court less than two months after he won re-election in 2016. Fonfara won his state Senate seat in 1996 after serving in the House for 10 years.
Arulampalam is a former lobbyist who made an unsuccessful bid for state treasurer in 2018, served as a deputy commissioner in the Lamont administration and left it in 2021 to become the head of the Hartford Land Bank. Arulampalam omits his lobbyist gig on his campaign website. With the support of town committee Chair Marc DiBella, Arulampalam appears to have the most votes going into Monday’s convention.
Arulampalam’s campaign website asks voters to join him in believing in Hartford. What he wants to do as mayor — treat people with respect, bring music into schools and do something about out-of-state landlords — feels like a purposeful mystery to avoid controversy. Fonfara highlights the funding he’s brought to Hartford as an influential legislator, but complains it is still not enough. Coleman’s most specific proposals are to put Hartford into the utility company business and raise the number of Hartford police officers to 500 or 600.
Not one of the three leading candidates has been willing to follow Bronin’s lead in calling on Gov. Ned Lamont to get state employees back to work in Hartford. Without economic activity in the capital city even the most modest aspiration will not be transformed into action.
The candidates have been quiet on the Metropolitan District Commission’s manifold failures in operating the sewage and storm water systems in the city’s North End neighborhood. This month’s torrential rains flooded local homes and businesses—again. A plan to finance improvements was announced with fanfare earlier this summer—and Fonfara was included in the rollout. The program will take time to launch and so residents continue to be tormented by human waste water entering and destroying their homes and possessions.
Hartford’s large delegation on the MDC board, including Chair William DiBella, a Fonfara booster and father of Marc DiBella, the city Democratic chief who supports Arulampalam, has not been an effective advocate for suffering residents.
A candidate for mayor who wants to make life better in Hartford would promise to replace those MDC members with the local activists who have shamed state and federal officials to act. If no candidate will make that easy pledge, their vows to take on broader issues have no meaning.
Kevin F. Rennie of South Windsor is a lawyer and a former Republican state senator and representative.
Connecticut
Black Rock Turnpike Restaurant For Sale In Fairfield
The exact location of the restaurant was not disclosed for confidentiality reasons, listing agent Sam Galatas writes, adding that interested buyers will have to sign a non-disclosure agreement and show proof of financial capacity before purchasing the site.
“This is a great opportunity to own an open-kitchen restaurant that offers an important presence on Black Rock Turnpike in Fairfield, CT,” Galatas writes. “This prime location has high visibility, curb appeal, surrounded by tons of commercial businesses, schools, office buildings and medical buildings, plus a very vibrant residential community.”
Connecticut
Once the only game in town, Stop & Shop’s dominance is under siege. CT is ‘hyper competitive market’
Stop & Shop supermarkets — the grocer where three generations of Connecticut shoppers filled their carts — remains the most popular place to pick up produce, meat and dairy in the state, but that dominance is under siege.
Quincy, Mass-based Stop & Shop’s recent announcement that it will shutter as of now an undisclosed number of “underperforming” stores — some likely in Connecticut where it operates nearly 90 outlets and is working to grow its online business — comes as it faces intensifying competition on all fronts and at a time of price inflation.
Low-price grocery juggernauts such as Walmart Supercenters and Aldi have expanded rapidly in Connecticut in the last decade. Those competitors are forcing Stop & Shop to examine its pricing, which some experts say is as much as 14% higher.
On the other end, pushes by upscale grocers such as Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s are putting pressure on Stop & Shop to up its game on quality. Experts say Stop & Shop took a hit when it began phasing out in-store butchers in favor of pre-packaged meat.
“You’ve got a hyper competitive market in our little state,” said Wayne Pesce, president of the Connecticut Food Association, a state trade organization. “All these plates are shifting and Stop & Stop who’s got the most to protect, right?”
Pesce, whose trade group promotes food retailing in Connecticut, said there is no letup in sight.
Norwalk-based boutique grocer Stew Leonard’s has firmly established its brand in Newington and is now setting its sights on New Haven County. Wegman’s of New York, with outlets throughout the Northeast, is now building its first store in Norwalk that is expected to open next year.
All the jockeying by grocers in Connecticut is likely to have an upside for consumers in both price and food quality, Pesce said.
“You have competitors investing in the market,” Pesce said. “That is happening, and that is good for consumers.”
‘That’s not enough’
Stop & Shop was founded in Massachusetts more than a century ago, opening its first Connecticut store in 1941. Today, Stop & Shop now has nearly 400 stores in five states. Along with other U.S. grocers such as Food Lion and Hannaford, Stop & Shop is owned by Dutch retail and wholesale giant Ahold Delhaize.
JJ Fleeman, chief executive of Ahold Delhaize’s U.S. operations, told investors last month that Stop & Shop has made significant strides in enhancing loyalty programs, which extend rewards, discounts, or other special incentives to keep customers coming back to shop. In addition, steps have been taken to build its digital customer base.
“But that’s not enough, and it’s not where we want or need to be,” Fleeman said, according to a video of the investor meeting. “As Stop & Shop embarks on its next phase, we will be decisive and take deliberate and appropriate actions to ensure a stable future for the brand.”
In addition to pricing and a “focus on quality, fresh products and well-stocked shelves,” Fleeman said there will be an emphasis “on fantastic service in each of its stores.”
While Stop & Shop has invested in remodeling 190 stores, it will make “difficult decisions” to close locations so the grocer can “create a healthy store base for the long term and grow the brand.”
In a separate statement, Stop & Shop said Connecticut remains a priority for the grocer, and it plans to continue investing in store upgrades in the state.
The initiatives come at a critical time for Stop & Shop, at least in Connecticut, where the grocer has been a familiar anchor at shopping centers for 40 years.
In 2003, Stop & Shop had a market share of 40.4% in the Hartford area, according to New York-based Strategic Resource Group, a retail industry consultant. That market share had eroded to 26.8% as of 2023.
Over the same period, Walmart Supercenters, which offer full-service grocery, went from virtually no market share in 2003 in the Hartford area to 12.9% last year. Across Connecticut, 26 Walmart Supercenters opened in that time period, Strategic Resource Group said.
ShopRite, another low-cost competitor, said it has opened two new Connecticut stores in Cromwell and Vernon and has remodeled seven stores in the last five years. This week, two remodeled stores in Stamford will mark grand re-openings.
ShopRite stores and its sister grocer Price Rite are part of a cooperative in which independent family-run businesses operate stores. All together, the cooperative, Keasby, N.J.-based Wakefern added 27 stores in Connecticut since 2003, boosting its market share in the Hartford area from 2.7% to 11.1%
Emails seeking comment from Walmart, Big Y, Costco, BJ’s Wholesale Club and Aldi weren’t returned.
David Cadden, a professor emeritus of entrepreneurship and strategy at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, said there has been a dramatic shift in how consumers buy their groceries, at least on the cost-saving end of the shopping spectrum.
“The key thing is people are much more willing to become less brand loyal to particular retail outlets and begin to take a look for the best bargain and the best value that they can find at different locations,” Cadden said.
The option of calling in orders can “minimize the annoyance of going to different locations,” Cadden said.
‘Get back to business basics’
Stop & Shop long had a reputation for investing in quality and service, some experts say, but that has shifted in recent years. Perhaps the most notable example is the decision to move to pre-packaged meats, phasing out meat cut to order in the store.
The purchase of meat, particularly in the U.S., is central to weekly shopping trips, not only to consumers but grocery stores.
“Meat is the keystone in the bridge of the shopping basket to get the average customer instead of spending $35 to $40 per average transaction to spend $75 to $95,” Burt Flickinger, managing director of Strategic Resource Group, said. “And in many cases, numbers far exceed $100 per transaction.”
Stop & Shop didn’t appear to see that coming, Flickinger said.
“That shifted the customers over to Big Y, some of the ShopRites, but the lion’s share of the customers went fleeing to Costco,” Flickinger said.
Flickinger said centralizing some meat packaging is all right, but there still has to be the service at the store, the master meat cutter or butcher.
“It seems like they should get back to business basics and fresh foods, starting with meat and produce,” Flickinger said. “And to prices that are more competitive.”
Step forward, step back
Experts warn that cost-cutting through store closings like what Stop & Shop is pursuing can touch off a retailer’s downward spiral, with closings leading to more.
But in Hartford, the prospect of a potential shuttering is raising other concerns. The Stop & Shop on New Park Avenue in the city’s Parkville neighborhood is the sole full-service supermarket in Hartford.
Martha Page, chair of the Hartford Advisory Commission on Food Policy, said the loss of the Stop & Shop would be a critical setback to increasing access to healthful food in a city that long struggled with food insecurity.
“You go a step forward and then a step back,” Page said. “There’s no question about it, if that store closes, that leaves a hole. That not only leaves a gap in the food landscape but it leaves a challenging site, real estate wise.”
The city has long pushed for more food shopping alternatives in Hartford if it is to continue on its redevelopment trajectory. One such effort that is on-going is to bring a grocery store to the city’s North End neighborhoods.
Jennifer Barr Brogan, a Stop & Shop spokeswoman, said the supermarket chain couldn’t provide specific store locations that may be shuttered or a timeline. It is too early in the process, Brogan said, in an email.
“Stop & Shop can confirm that the broader community impact of a store closure will be considered,” Brogan said.
Here is a look at the major Connecticut grocers and how the food retailing landscape is shifting:
1. Stop & Shop
Founded: 1914
Headquarters: Quincy, Mass.
No. of CT stores in ’23: 81
Change from ’03: +12
Hartford area market share in ’23: 26.8%
Hartford market share in ’03: 40.4%
2. Walmart Supercenter
Founded: 1962*
Headquarters: Bentonville, Ariz.
No. of CT stores in ’23: 28
Change from a decade ago: +26
Hartford market share in ’23: 12.9%
Hartford market share in ’03: n/a
*first U.S. supercenter opens in 1988
3. ShopRite/Price Rite
Founded: 1946
Headquarters: Keasbey, N.J.
No. of CT stores in ’23: 39
Change from ’03: +27
Hartford area market share in ’23: 11.1%
Hartford area market share in ’03: 2.7%
4. Big Y
Founded: 1936
Headquarters: Springfield
No. of CT stores in ’23: 37
Change from ’03: +21
Hartford area market share in ’23: 9.4%
Hartford area market share in ’03: 11%
5. Costco
Founded: 1983
Headquarters: Issaquah, Wash.
No. of CT stores in ’23: 9
Change from ’03: +5
Hartford area market share in ’23: 8.5%
Hartford area market share in ’03: 3%
6. BJ’s Wholesale Club
Founded: 1984
Headquarters: Westborough, Mass.
No. of CT stores in ’23: 11
Change from ’03: +6
Hartford area market share in ’23: 4.4%
Hartford area market share in ’03: 1.2%
7. Aldi
Founded: 1961
Headquarters: Essen, Germany
U.S. headquarters: Batavia, IL
No. of CT stores in ’23: 26
Change from ’03: +24
Hartford area market share in ’23: 2%
Hartford area market share in ’03: n/a
SOURCES: Strategic Resource Group, Company websites
Kenneth R. Gosselin can be reached at kgosselin@courant.com.
Connecticut
Venomous snake bites dog at Connecticut state park, prompting risky mountaintop rescue
HAMDEN, Conn. – A dog in Connecticut faced a risky mountaintop rescue after being bitten by a venomous copperhead snake.
The terrain at Sleeping Giant State Park in Hamden was extremely treacherous as firefighters and local animal control officers rushed to the scene Wednesday to provide the dog with urgent medical attention.
A team of six people, including the dog’s owner, worked together to move the injured dog to safety on a stretcher.
“Thank you goes out to the two firefighters who did most of the carrying,” expressed Hamden Animal Control on social media, along with photos of the rescue operation.
NEW STUDY SUGGESTS CERTAIN COLORS YOU WEAR COULD ATTRACT MOSQUITOES TO BITE
A dangerous mountaintop rescue was required for a dog in Connecticut after it was bitten by a venomous copperhead snake at Sleeping Giant State Park in Hamden on Wednesday. (Hamden Animal Control)
The dog received antivenom and is currently under observation at a local animal.
“This is just a reminder to be careful out there, there are northern copperheads at Sleeping Giant,” animal control officers warned. “Their habitat includes rocky hillsides, open woods, as well as edges of swamps and meadows.”
CAN DOGS EAT CICADAS? WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THIS SUMMERTIME INSECT AND MAN’S BEST FRIEND
Connecticut is home to two venomous snake species: the timber rattlesnake and the northern copperhead.
Wildlife officials emphasize that these snakes are not aggressive and will only bite if threatened or handled; if left undisturbed, they do not pose a threat to people.
LINK: Get updates on this story at more at foxweather.com.
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