Credit card agreements may stall Boston taxi app

Boston's options for a unified taxi dispatch and payment smartphone app could be limited because of exclusive contracts cab companies have signed with two credit card processing companies, according to industry insiders.

Boston cab companies have signed contracts with one of two com­panies — Verifone or CMT — which require drivers to only use that service to process credit card transactions.

"It complicates things if you have a contract in your vehicle to be used for credit card processing and the vehicle isn't using it," said Chris English, chairman of the city's Taxi Advisory Committee.

The Herald reported yesterday that dispatch companies are banding to come up with a single smartphone app all taxis could use to better compete with rivals such as Uber and Lyft and make it easier for people to hail cabs. Any app that the city or the taxi industry puts in place that allows people to pay for a ride would need to take into account those contracts with Verifone and CMT.

"If you stop using their credit card machine ... then they don't get a percentage and they start to lose," said Capt. Jim Gaughan of the Boston Police Hackney Unit. "If they start losing their percentage, there's going to be a problem."

CMT and Verifone also provide the equipment Boston police use to track and monitor taxi trips and fares.

Both companies have created apps and mobile payment systems — Verifone has an app that's being used in New York City and will launch soon in Philadelphia. Neither CMT nor Verifone responded to multiple requests for comment.

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Jerry Remy’s locations thrive...outside Fenway ’hood

The namesake Boston restaurant of Red Sox Nation president and NESN color analyst Jerry Remy abruptly closed Tuesday — a month before baseball season opens — but other­ locations appear to be thriving.

Jerry Remy's Sports Bar & Grill debuted in the shadow of Fenway Park in March 2010 after a $5 million build-out and later added a large roof deck.

The Fenway location is co-owned by Remy and John O'Rourke. Remy declined comment yesterday, and O'Rourke did not return calls.

The other Remy's restaurants in Boston's Seaport District, at Logan International Airport and in Fall River, have different owners­ and operate under licensing agreements. They remained open yesterday, and all three owners said they're doing well.

"I was just told they closed the (Boston) restaurant and would revamp it for two weeks to modernize," said Anthony Cordeiro, co-owner of Remy's in Fall River.

NESV Real Estate LLC, a sister company of the Red Sox, owns the Boylston Street property where the Fenway Remy's is located and is its landlord.

"Our understanding is that the current operators have ceased operations," Red Sox spokesman Kevin Gregg said, "and we cannot speculate on their plans or future uses of the site."

But the restaurant's website, Facebook and Twitter accounts gave no indication that the restaurant had closed, and the website was still allowing customers to make reservations.

Neither Remy nor O'Rourke were restaurateurs. Their managing partner, John Mascia, had the restaurant experience but left in August.

The eatery, Mascia said, was challenged by a decline in business in the Red Sox off-season. Even veteran chef/restaurateur Michael Schlow failed to make a go of it in the Fenway, where his Barrio Cantina closed in 2014 after replacing his Happy's Bar + Kitchen, which opened in 2012.

August was also when Cordeiro and co-owner Larry Couto took over day-to-day operations of the Fall River Remy's, in which the former Sox second-baseman and O'Rourke still are partners, Cordeiro said.

"Let's just say it was time for us to control our own future," he said. "It's in our building, and we have our vision, and we plan on keeping Jerry Remy's in Fall River."

Jon Cronin, of the Cronin Group LLC, was an original investor in the Fenway Remy's and has 100 percent ownership of the Remy's in the Seaport District, which he says is thriving.

"Business is up 10 percent year-over-year," Cronin said. "Even with this bad winter, we've had great business."

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Primark plans Boston opening in September

European fashion retailer Primark is prepping for a September opening of its four-floor Boston store in Downtown Crossing — its first U.S. location — and plans to open its U.S. headquarters in the city.

The Dublin chain will have 70,000 square feet of modern, "cosmopolitan" selling space for its private-label clothing, footwear and home decor in the refurbished Filene's building.

"We're a value and volume business … affordable fashion at great quality," said Breege O'Donoghue, group director of business development, who was in Boston yesterday.

Primark still is working on its U.S. pricing, said O'Donoghue, who bought her powder-blue suit jacket, graphic print pants and T-shirt from Primark for the equivalent of about $60.

The chain brings in new merchandise every day, and its U.S. distribution center in Pennsylvania will start operations this summer.

"We'll listen to the customers, and we'll adapt if it's needed," said Primark U.S. president Jose Luis Martinez de Larramendi.

A subsidiary of London's Associated British Foods, Primark is based in Dublin, where it started in 1969 and operates as Penneys. It has 287 stores in nine countries.

"We believe in Boston," said O'Donoghue, noting the large share of students and Irish connections. "We know the level of interest and awareness in Primark is not high in this area. We'll work on that."

Primark will hire about 500 employees for the Boston store and already is training some senior American hires in Ireland and elsewhere in Europe.

It plans to open 10 stores in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut by the end of 2016.

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Pilot course teaches leadership for a patient-centered model

A pilot program to put certified nursing assistants in leadership positions is helping to move 
Hebrew SeniorLife's nursing-home culture away from an institutional feel to a model where residents get more choice and freedom in their day-to-day 
activities.

With the support of a $300,000 grant from 
the Boston Foundation, Hebrew SeniorLife and its 
educational partner JVS have been training CNAs to become what they call senior resident assistants, leading teams to help transform the medical model — with its strict schedules 
— into patient-centered care.

The six-month training senior RA program, held for eight hours each Friday, teaches a variety of skills, including how to work with residents and families, documenting care on computer systems, leadership, time- and stress-management skills and orientation of new CNAs.

"You learn how to better manage yourself and your team on the job," said Gerry Guerier, a 20-year 
CNA who took the program. "It teaches us to listen better in order to understand and resolve problems."

The 32 CNAs chosen for the senior RA program are among the best at Hebrew SeniorLife's Roslindale and
Dedham campuses, said Doris Bertram-Morin, dir- ector of professional dev-elopment.

"They are natural leaders who have earned the respect of all the staff," Bertram-Morin said. "In fact, by observing and reporting what they see to nurses, the senior RAs have become extensions to nurses and that is a huge asset."

Tammy Retalic, chief nursing officer at Hebrew SeniorLife in Roslindale, said senior CNAs are a critical component in changing the way nursing homes work.

"We're trying to make a big cultural change away from the medical model, and senior RAs are the ones helping to create more home-like environments for the residents," Retalic said.

Teams of four to five CNAs work with five to six residents, helping with activities of daily living. But instead of requiring set times for meals or bathing, senior RAs have learned to take a flexible approach to scheduling, based on resident preferences.

"We learn their life stories, their likes and dislikes and give residents a choice about creating their own life," said senior RA Nancy Jeanniton, who has been a CNA for eight years and works at Hebrew SeniorLife's NewBridge on the Charles in Dedham. "It's a big change from the old nursing home institutional style. It's their home. And we do whatever we can to be flexible and offer them more freedom."

"With the training, I feel confident speaking up and doing what needs to be done for the residents. And we are the role models for demonstrating best practices."

The biggest new responsibility for senior RAs is that they are now the main liaison between nursing-home residents and their families.

"It used to be that when families asked about residents, you'd direct them to the charge nurse," said Anne Allison, a senior RA who's been a CNA at 
Hebrew SeniorLife in Dedham for 10 years. "Now, the senior RAs talk to the families about residents and it makes everything feel more personal and home-like. You get to know the entire family."

During the recent blizzard, Allison said a resident begged her to stay in her place at NewBridge on the Charles, which she did for two days.

Senior RA Prince Kuffour, a CNA who has worked with dementia 
patients for six years on the Roslindale campus, says the program has helped him and his co-workers better manage the stress of the job.

"It's very challenging working with dementia patients," Kuffour said. "The training helped me learn skills such as being able to pull back during stressful situations. It's helped me and others on my team better protect patients."

He said it's better for CNAs to have their own leadership structure in reporting to charge nurses and operations leaders.

"We are the first line of contact with residents," Kuffour said. "But now we feel interwoven with everyone else providing care."

Another benefit for 
Hebrew SeniorLife is that offering their best CNAs more training ­— and an 
increase in wages ­— helps retain them, which keeps the continuity of care in place. And senior RA training is also a ladder up the career path for CNAs who aspire to eventually become LPNs or RNs.

Once the training is over, senior RAs also have some ongoing support. Through the Boston Foundation's SkillWorks initiative, a 
career coach is assigned to meet with each senior RA once a week.

"We brainstorm on what to do if things aren't working out with a resident or team co-worker," said the RA program career coach, Mary Jo Kiepper of JVS. "I help bring out their leadership and problem-solving skills."

With the success of the Hebrew SeniorLife pilot RA program, several community colleges, among them Mass Bay, Middlesex Community and Quinsingamond, will start to offer a similar senior CNA certificate training program.

"The RA training has given me an opportunity to develop my career," said Guerier. "And it's helped me build better relationships with residents and provide a better quality of care."

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Shake Shack escalates burger battle

Opening a restaurant in a city still dealing with lingering snow piles may not be great timing, but yesterday's Boston debut of Shake Shack on Newbury Street, while devoid of its famous long lines, fired 
another shot across the bow in the battle against burger giants.

"People still love burgers, shakes and fries, but they don't want to eat fast food anymore," said Randy Garutti, CEO of the cult-favorite New York City-based burger chain, in town for the Newbury opening, as well as Sunday's launch at Legacy Place in Dedham. They're the third and fourth Greater Boston outlets for the "fast casual" eatery. The others are in Chestnut Hill and Harvard Square.

The back-to-back openings come at a time of dramatic changes in the American fast-food market. Major international chains such as McDonald's still dwarf newcomer national outlets such as Shake Shack, Five Guys and BurgerFi, not to mention local entries such as Tasty Burger, UBurger and Wahlburgers.

But these nouveau burger joints, slightly more upscale with generally higher prices, are thriving while the big boys are rapidly losing market share. McDonald's Corp. CEO Don Thompson stepped down this week after just three years on the job, defined mostly by declining American sales. The fast-food giant reported a sales drop of 2.1 percent last year, the biggest decline since 2001.

"We like to think we're a very democratic place," Garutti said. "You can come here on a date, bring your kids, meet your buddies for a beer or even watch the game."

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Gasoline prices creep up

Massachusetts gas prices climbed 10 cents in the past week and are likely to keep going up before leveling off this spring or summer — but they are likely to stay below the $3 mark, analysts say.

The average price for a gallon of regular gas yesterday was $2.37, according to gasbuddy.com, and will continue to rise for the next month or two as refineries do maintenance, said Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst at gasbuddy.com.

"A portion of those refineries have to temporarily go offline, which limits the amount of gas they're producing," DeHaan said. "Less gas being supplied equals higher prices."

Gas stations also are beginning to transition to the cleaner-burning, more expensive kind of gas mandated in the spring and summer under the 1993 Clean Air Act, he said. Massachusetts prices are still lower, however, than the national average of $2.43 for a gallon of regular gasoline.

Even prices here, however, could increase by another 20 to 35 cents in the weeks ahead, he said, although it's unlikely that they'll go as high as $3 per gallon because the price of crude oil is about $50 per barrel, compared with $103 per barrel a year ago.

"That's why prices this summer should be relatively cheap," DeHaan said. "The Saudis last fall began undercutting the price of oil to regain market share due to the rise in U.S. oil production, so the price of crude suddenly plummeted."

"Much of the increase in the national average is because prices in the West Coast and Great Lakes have rebounded significantly in the last month, pulling the national average up, while Boston prices remain soft," DeHaan said. "The staggering winter season you've had has muted gasoline demand, and increases haven't hit as quickly because the level of gasoline inventories remains healthy there."

Meanwhile, consumer spending bounced back in January after taking into account sharply lower gas and energy prices, the Commerce Department said yesterday. Overall spending actually fell for the second straight month, the first time that's happened since the Great Recession. But economists said the decline was misleading because it was caused by the steep decline in energy prices. When adjusted for inflation, which has been low as oil prices have plunged, consumer spending actually rose 0.3 percent in January.

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Booting Up: Restaurant app has promise

The global restaurant industry hasn't seen innovation since the Diners Club charge card was born in 1950. Now, a kid from Worcester is among those trying to change that.

Bentley College grad Nick Belsito founded BeeLine (beelinenow.com), a dining concierge mobile app that aims to secure hard-to-get reservations for reliable, well-heeled customers and supply restaurants with an individual profile on those diners — whether they like their wine decanted, prefer a specific drink, etc.

BeeLine recently launched in Boston and San Francisco, one of a handful of new apps aiming to put a fresh twist on restaurant reservations and disrupt the long-stagnant business of wining and dining.

"As your private concierge, we form relationships so you don't have to," said Belsito, 28, formerly a financial analyst at Raytheon.

Belsito's team, funded by a group of individual angel investors in Boston and Silicon Valley, claims that its services are a win-win for customers and restaurants alike: BeeLine users spend 30 percent more than the average patron and have a 99 percent arrival rate. That, said Belsito, helps solve a giant problem for restaurants, which lose hundreds of thousands of dollars each year holding tables for no-shows. For nightclubs and lounges, that no-show rate is usually worse, which is why Belsito's decision to integrate nightlife reservations is so savvy. Belsito says his calculations put the industry's combined losses due to no-shows at up to $27 billion annually.

"This is a very large and hot market," Belsito said. "There are other competitors out there such as OpenTable, which is frustrating to use as a consumer because they are often sold out during prime time."

The restaurant reservation system is ripe for disruption, and OpenTable — the biggest online reservation system — has missed a golden opportunity to lead the way. It simply took an offline system and brought it online, with very few incentives for spending and dining in off-peak hours.

With BeeLine, which does offer those incentives, pricing ranges from free with perks (like a surprise item from the chef) to a $5 premium for prime-time access. Still, the new app faces some competition, with startups such as Reserve and Table 8 both circling the same space with varied business models.

I suspect in the next year or two you'll see more startups follow suit: Some will allow restaurants to bid on certain VIP patrons, automate incentives for new customers or give discounts to patrons willing to keep their meals short and not linger at a table all night.

Uber has launched an interesting experiment in surge pricing, but perhaps it is restaurants that could use that model best. With apologies to fans of salad and appetizers, why shouldn't someone who spends big on fancy food get to skip to the front of the line?

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Inspector Gadget: Dance with our robot overlords

WowWee MiP ($89.99 & up, various retailers)

What do you get for the person who has everything? Fun dancing robots! As opposed to actually helpful robots like Roomba or the upcoming Jibo family assistant, just-for-fun robots can be a good way to get kids interested in robotics. Enter the WowWee MiP, billed as a fun little toy that does tricks and even balances objects on a little tray.

The good: Powered by 4 AA batteries, this cute toy is a fun way to wile away the hours. He dances, makes gestures and can even hold another MiP.

The bad: MiP is like a toddler: don't let him near the stairs, and be prepared for an occasional fall.

The bottom line: Anything that can balance a cup of coffee and bring it to me is just plain cool. Now, if only MiP could shovel snow …

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Bookbub reads E-buyers well

Every day, more than 5 million people in three countries get an email about discounted e-books from Boston-based startup BookBub — emails that drove more than 10 million ebook sales last year.

"They're the biggest success story that no one knows about," said David Beisel, a partner at NextView Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm in Boston and an investor in the company.

Founded three years ago, BookBub hit the 5 million member mark last week, up from 4 million in late December.

"Readers need great ways to discover books and have curation among those books," said Josh Schanker, BookBub president and co-founder. "There are so many options out there, and I think that's why this is really resonating. It's been a great way for both readers to discover books and for publishers to get their books discovered."

Bookbub's editorial team sifts through hundreds of books a day to find the best ones for the best price, Schanker said.

Roughly 20 percent of members click on a deal every day, he said.

To keep pace with that growth, BookBub has doubled its staff since April, and plans to add another 10 to 20 employees this year.

"Ten years ago, you walked into Borders or Barnes and Noble and they had the table out front, and that helped you discover books. You could do this browsing in a physical setting, and of course those books seemed curated to you," Beisel said. "Even though it's a simple email newsletter ... it's replacing that function of that table in the bookstore that is no longer there."

A seemingly simple business, a lot goes on behind the scenes, Schanker said. Nearly every member gets a personalized list of deals every day, based on location, book tastes and
e-bookstore preferences.

The company is also using the data it has collected from book sales to better curate books in the future.

"We know books about World War II do incredibly well, and that our audience really likes that even across our categories," Schanker said. "And having a dog on the cover of a book actually seems to send sales even higher."

The company raised
$3.8 million in venture financing in April, money that is being used to expand its content and make the website a destination for booklovers, not just for those looking for a deal.

Schanker said the core business — e-book deals — is profitable.

"We've heard from members that they're looking for ways to discover great books," Schanker said, "whether they're through deals or otherwise, so we're building a lot of things."

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The Ticker

Rosie's Bakery closes all shops

Rosie's Bakery, an Inman Square, Cambridge, institution for 38 years, with other locations including Chestnut Hill and South Station, closed its doors yesterday, saying in a notice posted on its doors that the supplier that baked its specialty desserts had gone out of business and would be too expensive to replace.

TOMORROW

• Commerce Department releases personal income and spending for January.
• Institute for Supply Management releases its manufacturing index for February.
• Commerce Department releases construction spending for January.

WEDNESDAY

• Institute for Supply Management releases its service sector index for February.
• Federal Reserve releases Beige Book.

THURSDAY

• Labor Department releases weekly jobless claims.
• Labor Department releases fourth-quarter productivity data.
• Freddie Mac, the mortgage company, releases weekly mortgage rates.
• Commerce Department releases factory orders for January.

FRIDAY

• Labor Department releases employment data for February.
• Commerce Department releases international trade data for January.
• Federal Reserve releases consumer credit data for January.
• Cambridge-based Genocea Biosciences, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, has announced that Michael Higgins has joined the company's board of directors.

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