Protests greet shoppers at Wal-Marts nationwide

PORTLAND, Ore. — Wal-Mart workers and supporters marched in protest at a number of stores nationwide Thursday and Friday, blasting the wages, benefits and treatment of employees of the world's largest retailer.

The efforts seemed to do little to keep shoppers away, though — Wal-Mart said it was its best Black Friday ever.

In Paramount, Calif., authorities arrested a small group of protesters Friday outside a Wal-Mart. Elizabeth Brennan of Warehouse Workers United said nine people, including three Wal-Mart employees, were arrested shortly after 12 noon for blocking the street outside the store in Paramount. At one point, however, more than 1,000 people blocked traffic outside the store, Sheriff's Capt. Mike Parker told KNBC-TV.

In Lakewood, Colo., shoppers hesitated as they passed dozens of protesters outside a Wal-Mart but entered without incident. Some protesters held signs playing off of the retailing giant's corporate slogan, "Live better," accusing the company of corporate greed and underpaying its workers.

"This is the way you get a fair shake. You've got to fight for it. You've always had to," said protester Charlie May, of the Industrial Workers of the World labor organization.

A union-backed group called OUR Walmart has said that it is holding an estimated 1,000 protests in 46 states. The exact number is unclear. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has refuted that estimate, saying the figure is grossly exaggerated and that the protests involved few of its own employees.

A number of demonstrations and walk-outs occurred last week at stores but were scheduled to culminate on one of the year's busiest shopping days. The size and impact of the protests varied greatly by site. OUR Walmart, made up of current and former Wal-Mart employees, was formed in 2010 to press the company for better working conditions. Wal-Mart has criticized the group for relying largely on other unions and non-employees to make up the ranks protesting outside its stores.

The retailer also filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board last week against the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. The company said that the demonstrations organized by OUR Walmart threatened to disrupt its business and intimidate customers and associates.

Wal-Mart estimated that fewer than 50 associates participated in Thursday and Friday's protests nationwide. Company spokesman Dan Fogleman said that the number of associates who missed their shifts during the two days of events is 60 percent lower than last year.

"It was proven last night - and again today - that the OUR Walmart group doesn't speak for the 1.3 million Walmart associates," the company said in a statement.

The union group estimated that "hundreds" of employees participated nationwide.

Victoria Martinez, 29, marched in front of the store in Paramount on Black Friday. The Wal-Mart photo department employee worked her shift on Thanksgiving but skipped work on Friday to "speak out". She said the company shows a lack of respect for employees, noting that she faced retaliation by local managers after speaking out about problems during an open discussion sponsored by the head office.

"I believe that when I started at this company, it was great," said Martinez, who's worked for Wal-Mart for seven years. "They've taken away everything that is great. "

Wal-Mart for many years has faced intense scrutiny over its wage and benefit policies and treatment of its workers. Fogleman says that the company provides some of the best jobs in the retail industry and that its wages and benefits typically meet or exceed those of competitors. The retailer maintains that it has many long-term employees and that its turnover rate is below the industry average.

The company, based in Bentonville, Ark., operates 10,400 stores in 27 countries.

© Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Mark Thompson testifies at London probe into BBC

LONDON — New York Times [NYT] Co. CEO Mark Thompson has testified before a committee in London investigating a scandal at his former employer, the BBC, a Times spokesman said Friday.

Thompson gave testimony Friday to the inquiry, which is looking into the BBC's decision to shelve an investigation into child sex abuse allegations against late presenter Jimmy Savile, the Times' senior vice president of corporate communications Robert Christie said.

Christie said he could not discuss the contents of Thompson's testimony, only saying that Thompson, 55, was expected to return to New York by Monday.

The inquiry is probing why and how the BBC ended a planned sex abuse investigation into Savile, a popular children's TV presenter and DJ who died last year at age 84.

Thompson, who was director general of the BBC until his resignation earlier this year, faces questions about the broadcaster's handling of the Savile allegations because the decision to drop the investigation took place while he was in charge of the company.

Nick Pollard, who chairs the inquiry, said Friday the committee had looked at thousands of documents and has so far conducted 12 interviews, with more planned. He said the large amount of evidence meant that the committee would need another month to finish its report.

© Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Brisk shopping, but no madness in Hub today

Foot traffic was steady, but not crazy, this morning at the Shops at Prudential Center, making the holiday seem no different than a typical shopping day.

Terri Lee, 40, a teacher from Back Bay, who was shopping there, said she avoided big box stores on Black Friday.

"I don't really like the crowds and the chaos," she said.

Lee added she will spend "about the same" amount of money this year compared to last year, for seven people, with one big-ticket item being an exercise bike for her boyfriend.

"I'm pretty generous every year," she said. "I like to shop. I like to give gifts. That's a present for me too when people open my gift and like it, which they do. I have savings. I have all that stuff, but it's important to kind of live in the moment and enjoy now."

Lee said she preferred shopping in Back Bay because stores had the same deals as big box ones, but less traffic.

"Black Friday really doesn't happen in Back Bay. That's the beauty of living in Back Bay. People in the suburban areas tend to go to the big box stores; some of those places that are here and run the sales and promotions don't have the crowds," she said. "A lot of people in this neighborhood go away for the holidays so they're out of town so they're probably in Wrentham right now. My turkey was here, my shopping was here. We kind of discovered that last year when we were walking down Newbury Street — there were all the same sales and there were much less crowds. We like the flow and the zen of the Back Bay."

Alex Cone, 31, an educational software seller from Brookline, said in the past he's gone to Best Buy and other big box stores on Black Friday, but chose not to do that this year.

"In the past I've gone to Best Buy and some of the other big box stores, but I saw 50 percent off at Express and I decided to do that this year," he said. "I'm going to keep shopping. I looked specifically for a couple of things for myself and a couple of friends and I'm going to continue shopping."

Cone, who's shopping for himself, family members and a couple of friends, added he hopes not to spend more money this year than last year.

"I keep an eye on my money, but we'll see at the end of the day how much I pay," he said.

David and Catherine George of the United Kingdom were in town shopping for the holidays. They will do their shopping today at Urban Outfitters in Faneuil Hall, Saks Fifth Avenue, Banana Republic, American Eagle, Jos. A. Bank and Lord & Taylor.

The Georges were last in town to do shopping four years ago and the experience "seemed slightly more frenetic" back then, David George said.

"It's very quiet. There's not many people about, which is nice," he said, adding "American Eagle has done well today" from his family buying items there.

The Georges also said discounts in America prevail over those in the United Kingdom.

"American Eagle was 40 percent off. None of the stores at home will do that," Catherine George said.

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The Ticker

Manufacturing in Mass. redux

Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Greg Bialecki will join Lt. Gov. Tim Murray to address the first-year accomplishments of the Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative, as well as new goals moving forward on Tuesday.

Dow tops 13,000

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 172.79 points, or 1.4 percent, to close at 13,009.68, the first time since Election Day the Dow has closed above 13,000. The stock market rose sharply as shoppers braved the annual post-Thanksgiving rush, while traders were encouraged by positive economic news from Germany and China.

Buildings bought

Private real estate investment firm Divco-West, which has offices in San Francisco and Boston, has purchased four office buildings, totaling 373,000 square feet, in Boston's Fort Port Channel area. The converted warehouse buildings previously owned by Boston Wharf Co. were acquired for DivcoWest Fund III, an $870 million fund raised last year. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

TODAY

L Small Business Administration chief Karen Mills attends a "Small Business Saturday" event and tree-lighting ceremony at Adams Park in Roslindale.

L Needham Bank has named Paul M. Totino of Dedham as executive vice president of commercial lending and finance.

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Built for entertaining, just blocks from BU

This gracious, renovated Colonial in the Cottage Farm area of Brookline near Boston University is made for grand-scale entertaining, with its large reception hall off of which is a series of elegant connected rooms and a showpiece grand staircase.

Built in 1890, the seven-bedroom house at 131 Carlton St. has 6,305 square feet of space and is filled with restored woodwork and paneled wainscoting, large windows and glass doors out to patios.

The beige stucco exterior has white trim and black shutters, hip and gable roofs, dormers and a colonnaded front entrance. The 11,000-square-foot lot has a large yard enclosed by a metal fence, screened by bushes and containing many old trees as well as a brick driveway.

The home, which has a renovated kitchen, bathrooms and master bedroom suite and original hardwood floors, is on the market for $2,795,000. The current owners also added new lighting, re-carpeted the hallways and stairways and repainted the entire interior.

You enter into a large reception hall with a grand staircase, a restored wood beam ceiling and coat closets on either side. To the left is a library with lots of windows, built-ins and a fireplace. Adjacent is a sunken mahogany-paneled study/office.

To the right is a large living room with two walls of windows, a fireplace and glass doors out to a bluestone-floored side porch. Off the living room is a track-lit sunroom with brick flooring.

To the left of the sunroom, and accessible from the reception hall through French doors, is a large formal dining room with a large built-in hutch and fireplace. There are glass doors from this room out to a bluestone patio.

The house's renovated kitchen can be entered through a butler's pantry redone in 2007 with new cabinets and built-in hutch, granite counters and a wine cooler.

The large eat-in, recessed-lit kitchen, also done over in 2007, has granite counters, a green-concrete island breakfast bar with pendant lights, and high-end appliances including Thermador wall ovens. There's a sunny eat-in area with a fireplace and window seats as well as glass doors leading out to the patio.

Behind the kitchen is a recently added a half bath with glass mosaic tile.

The showpiece newly carpeted grand staircase features a multilevel landing with a set of bay windows and window seats. Up a few steps there's a laundry room with a full-size washer and dryer and a sink.

There are three bedrooms off a carpeted hallway, including a master suite with a large hardwood-floored bedroom with a seating area and a fireplace. The redone en-suite master bathroom with white Carrara marble floors and walls has a walk-in shower, double marble-topped vanities and a whirlpool tub. A large, redone carpeted master closet features walls of built-in wardrobes and storage areas.

The second and third bedrooms also have hardwood floors and roomy closets and are served by a full bath with white ceramic tile floors and a white subway-tiled tub and shower.

There are four additional bedrooms on the third floor, all with original hardwood floors and closets, along with another white-ceramic tile full bathroom.

There's an additional 450 square feet of space in the partially finished basement, a second laundry room and a full bathroom.

The home is conveniently located about two blocks over the Mass Pike to Boston University's main campus and nor far from the BU Bridge to Cambridge.

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Pay limits tore at TARP bailout

The executive pay limits that came with the bank bailouts of the 2008-2009 financial crisis may have had the unintended benefit of reducing the bailouts' scope, a new study has found.

A report in the Journal of Banking, Finance and Accounting finds that the pay provisions discouraged some banks from participating in the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which ultimately paid out $400 billion of the $700 billion the government budgeted to shore up the U.S. financial system.

"We do know that some high-profile bankers complained that the pay restrictions were onerous. (But) our study suggests that TARP may have been better designed than bankers would have you believe," said Mary Ellen Carter, a Boston College professor of accounting and one of the study's authors. "The restrictions gave financial incentives for bank executives to think carefully about participating and, if they did participate, to get out from underneath the program as quickly as possible."

The researchers studied 263 publicly traded banks that were approved for TARP and found that 35 rejected the funds and that this decision was related to higher levels of CEO pay. However, these banks fared just as well as banks that took TARP money.

So the pay restrictions may have deterred banks that didn't really need the money from taking it, Carter said.

Banks that did take TARP funds saw higher executive turnover than their peers, she said, but the performance of those banks also didn't suffer.

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Revved up over Jaguar XJ

The 2013 Jaguar XJ with a 3-liter, V6 engine was a tough sell — at first.

My initial reaction was that the smaller engine would diminish the prestige of the luxury sedan that I'd always known to have an abundance of brawn under the hood.

However, when I laid eyes on the elegant sedan painted up in "British Racing" green with a bold mesh chrome grille, my reaction was anything but dissatisfaction.

While the XJ's exterior dazzles, the interior takes luxury to another level. Well-appointed leather with conspicuous stitching adorned the interior surfaces. Dark walnut wood paneling contrasted the cashew-colored seats.

Our test model included an optional $1,400 comfort package with a front-seat massage feature that is truly a "you gotta check this out" feature. The massage function has three levels of intensity. In addition, the front seats electronically adjust in 12 different ways. Both the front and rear seats were heated and ventilated as part of an optional four-zone climate control system.

The XJ's supercharged V6 engine produces 340 horsepower and is mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission. The combination gives the luxury sedan the performance personality of a V8 with the benefit of respectable gas mileage. The XJ's EPA gas mileage rating is 18 city/28 highway. But for those who can't live without the extra two cylinders, the XJ has three other V8 engine options ranging in horsepower from 385 to 510.

The XJ also has an idle-reducing feature that shuts the engine down when the sedan comes to a stop and restarts in less time than it takes the driver's foot to move from the brake pedal to the accelerator. The default feature, which is showing up on many other manufacturers' 2013 models, increases fuel efficiency in urban driving situations. Drivers unaware of the feature might be fooled into thinking their new car just stalled out. Although I eventually got used to the feature, it's easy to override.

Our test XJ had three driving modes: normal, dynamic and winter. The normal mode delivers a comfortable and leisurely character. Switching to dynamic mode and shifting through the eight speeds using the steering wheel transformed the sedan's character to aggressive and responsive. Regardless of mode or conditions, the sedan was smooth in braking and in handling and felt like a much smaller car as the XJ held its line through corners.

I found it easy to get wrapped up and even a little overwhelmed by the luxury features packed into the 2013 XJ. What intrigued me most about the XJ was what Jaguar was able to accomplish with its six-cylinder engine: a powerful, yet reasonably fuel-efficient luxury sedan.

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Addicted to Black Friday

Despite economic worries and Thursday night openings in neighboring states, consumers rewarded Massachusetts retailers and malls for opening earlier than ever yesterday, showing that Black Friday shopping has become as much of a tradition as turkey on Thanksgiving.

And elsewhere across the country — without the Bay State's blue laws to keep the holiday sacrosanct — crowds rushing the stores on Thanksgiving is becoming as common as gridiron tilts for millions, said the National Retail Federation, which expects holiday sales to climb 4.1 percent to $586 billion this year.

"I had no intention of buying a TV, but when I saw the deal it was too good to pass up," said Steve Abellard of Quincy, strapping a 60-inch Vizio to the top of his car early yesterday morning, along with his brother, who also purchased a TV.

Black Friday got off to a busy start at the Wrentham Village Premium Outlets, where a traditional 12:01 a.m. opening, which overcame a challenge by town police this year, had traffic backed up for miles as usual. The trend was self-gifting, with many standing in lines for hours to buy a coveted item for themselves.

"This year the discounts are better than last year," said Ravish Jain, 28, a software engineer from Rhode Island who was shopping for a PlayStation 3 at the Sony store and was among the first in line.

Black Friday shopping is a family tradition for Jeanne Dennis and her daughter — and it started in the womb. Dennis had a Nov. 29 due date for the now 31-year-old Heather Braccialarghe. "That was Thanksgiving weekend, and I was at Filene's Basement," she said. "Fortunately, she was two weeks late."

The two were among the throngs mid-morning yesterday at the Burlington Mall, which had lines at every entrance for its first-ever 12:30 a.m. opening. They were on their fourth stop, after a 5 a.m. start from Mashpee to shop at Braintree's South Shore Plaza, and Kohl's and Crate & Barrel in Burlington.

But Carlos Rodrigues opted to return home after arriving at midnight at Target in Dorchester's South Bay Center, where the line snaked around the corner.

"It was too crazy," he said, after returning in the afternoon. "I gave up quickly. Any deals the first people in line are going to get — not everybody."

Walmart boasted of its best Black Friday ever and downplayed demonstrations and planned employee walkouts at its stores in support of a campaign led by a United Food and Commercial Workers International Union-tied group.

"We are aware of a few dozen protests at our stores," spokesman David Tovar said yesterday. "The number of associates that have missed their scheduled shift today is more than 60 percent less than ... last year."

But groups of two to 30 demonstrated at all 48 Walmarts in Massachusetts yesterday, said Russ Davis of Massachusetts Jobs with Justice. "It's preposterous," he said of Walmart's response.

At Walmart in Quincy, throngs of shoppers jammed the aisles just after the 1 a.m. opening and carts were filled with big-ticket items.

Foot traffic was a bit more muted in downtown Boston later in the morning.

West Roxbury's Gina Huber and Patrick McDonough started shopping at 7:30 a.m., visiting Copley Place and the Shops at Prudential Center. Given the sluggish economy, they didn't plan to go overboard on big-ticket items this year.

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Western Mass. country store turned into co-op

CUMMINGTON — A popular country store and gathering place in western Massachusetts has been bought by its loyal customers and turned into a cooperative.

The Old Creamery Grocery in Cummington has been bought by 550 member-owners for $1.3 million. They include locals as well as people from as far away as California who own homes in the area.

Board of directors' President Kimberly Longey tells The Berkshire Eagle the price tag includes the property, the inventory, and a renovation and expansion project.

The co-op plans to expand existing store space by 20 percent, improve the parking area and grounds, and add an outdoor dining area and ice cream window.

The Old Creamery will remain open during renovations. All 26 employees will stay on.

The Creamery opened in 1886 as a dairy farmer's processing plant.

© Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Greek protesters march against mining projects

THESSALONIKI, Greece — About 3,000 protesters have marched in the northern Greek city in protest against what they claim are environment-threatening gold mining projects.

Riot police barred the protesters' intended route to the Canadian Consulate on Saturday, but no incidents were reported.

Canadian company Eldorado Gold Corp. is involved in four gold mining projects, all in northern Greece. Three of them are at the planning stage. The fourth, and biggest, in the Halkidiki peninsula, had been pursued a decade ago by another Canadian company, TVX, but was cancelled.

Opponents of the projects include owners of houses rented to tourists, environmentalists and leftist activists opposed to any foreign investment. Local communities have been bitterly divided, with many residents hoping to benefit from the more than 1,000 jobs that the investors say would be created.

© Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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