When it comes to Vineyard history, up-Island mariner and antiquarian bookseller Virginia Jones pulls no punches. Since 2014, she has spent her days holding court at her Menemsha bookstore.
In a garage-top office near the Tisbury School, as a small group of tradesmen prepared their morning coffee, Alan P. Fortes reflected on a lifetime in the plumbing business.
The Department of Homeland Security announced sweeping changes to its H-2B seasonal worker visa program include nearly doubling the cap on visas in 2023.
Small business owners offered many variations on a single theme: it is hard to build a business in a seasonal economy where expenses are rising and labor supply dwindling, even when demand is as strong as ever.
When John E. Phillips opened his store in 1928, penny nails were four cents a handful, a pound of putty was about a dime and every face that passed through the door was a familiar one.
The future is uncertain for the last main street hardware store on Martha’s Vineyard. The building that houses Phillips Hardware on Circuit avenue in Oak Bluffs was listed for sale by the owners on March 15, with an asking price of $2.9 million.
When Brook Katzen moved to the Vineyard two years ago, it was not with the specific intention to buy a miniature golf course, a year-round restaurant, a taco truck, a retail building, an ice cream chain, and now a gourmet market.
