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Tue. Sep. 25, 2012 Who drinks the most coffee? Survey from Dunkin’ Donuts & CareerBuilder seeks to find out Scientists drink more coffee than school teachers, and food-service workers down the most joe of all. That’s one take-away from a new survey commissioned by Dunkin’ Donuts, the Canton-based coffee-and-baked-goods chain, and CareerBuilder, a job-search website. The survey was released as National Coffee Day (Sept. 29) draws nigh, and one objective is to determine the coffee consumption habits of various professions and how the “daily grind” fits into the workplace (to filch a felicitous phrase from the Dunkin’/CareerBuilder press release).	Advertisement
State Street Global Markets: Investor confidence index falls in September A global investor confidence index maintained by State Street Global Markets has dropped in September. As investors in North America and Asia shied away from risk, the global index fell from August’s revised reading of 91.0 to 86.9, said State Street Global Markets, the investment research and trading arm of State Street Corp., a Boston-based financial services company.
Staples Inc. plans to close stores as part of turnaround effort Staples Inc. on Tuesday announced plans to turn around its retail business by closing US and international stores, reducing the size of existing shops, restructuring its international business, and shaking up leadership. The Framingham-based office supply chain said it planned to trim its retail square footage in North America by about 15 percent by the end of 2015; that plan includes shutting 30 stores and downsizing or relocating another 30 locations during fiscal year 2012.
Axcelis lands support contract valued at $30m Axcelis Technologies Inc., a Beverly company that provides products and services for the semiconductor industry, said Tuesday that it has signed a five-year support contract valued at $30 million. The company’s press release identified the other party in the contract only as “one of the world’s leading semiconductor manufacturers.” According to Axcelis, this contract is part of a growing industry trend to outsource the management of manufacturing equipment.
Massachusetts single-family home sales rose 20 percent in August, the Warren Group says Sales of both Massachusetts single-family homes and condominiums rose in August - the seventh straight month both property types have posted a year-over-year increase and more evidence that a housing market recovery is underway, the Warren Group reported Tuesday morning. Last month, 5,118 single-family homes were sold in Massachusetts in August, a 20 percent increase from August 2011. This is the second time sales have surpassed the 5,000 mark this year, said the Warren Group, a Boston firm that tracks real estate activity.
Twitter cofounder in Cambridge to recruit at MIT for mobile payments start-up Square Inc. Twitter Inc. cofounder Jack Dorsey came to Cambridge on Monday to recruit a few Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduates for his mobile payments company called Square Inc. The two-year-old start-up is already one of the early leaders in the fast-growing “mobile wallet” marketplace, which includes tech giants such as Apple Inc. and Google Inc. and local companies like Scvngr and Roam Data Inc., to let consumers pay with their smartphones instead of using cash or credit cards.
Dewey Square, with Boston office, to become part of global communications firm Hill+Knowlton Dewey Square Group, a communications company with Boston roots, is becoming part of Hill+Knowlton Strategies of New York as part of a corporate reorganization.
Watch out, Angry Birds. President Obama masks could be big this Halloween, iParty says In the all-important Halloween-costume poll, it’s shaping up to be President Obama in a landslide, according to iParty Corp., a Dedham-based chain of party-goods stores that counts Halloween as its most important sales season. In many years, popular movies can influence costume choices for trick-or-treaters. Spider-man has had a Halloween heyday, and Batman too. But given the proximity of Election Day to Oct. 31, recent presidential campaigns often play a role when adults think about which celebrity they want to impersonate on Halloween.
Mass. gas prices fall 7 cents a gallon The average price for gas in Massachusetts is $3.839 a gallon in the latest weekly survey from AAA, 7 cents lower than the previous week’s average, AAA Southern New England said Monday. The current national average is $3.80 a gallon. A year ago at this time, the Massachusetts average price was $3.55, AAA Southern New England said. AAA’s weekly surveys focus on self-serve regular unleaded gas.
Charley’s on Newbury Street closes, saying it was unable to renew its lease The Charley’s restaurant on Newbury Street in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood closed after its last day of business Sunday, its owner said. The owner, Tavistock Restaurants of California, said it was unsuccessful in negotiating a new lease at 284 Newbury St. and decided to close the location when its previous lease expired. Just over a year ago, Tavistock Restaurants acquired the Back Bay Restaurant Group, whose restaurant name-plates included Abe & Louie’s, Atlantic Fish Co., Joe’s American Bar & Grill, Charley’s, and Coach Grill.
Optics from Boston Micromachines are deployed at the Palomar Observatory Boston Micromachines Corp., a Cambridge company specializing in deformable mirrors, said that one of its products is currently deployed in a telescope at the Palomar Observatory in California. The company said that is Multi-DM product is being used in an autonomous laser adaptive optics instrument called Robo-AO. This combination enables researchers to enhance celestial images that might otherwise be blurred by the earth’s atmosphere.
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