Last Chance to Submit your
Holiday Sales Predictions

The holiday season is fast approaching and your association is looked to each year to predict the year's holiday sales.  We need your feedback in order to properly create our prediction.  

If you haven't already responded, please click here to answer a few questions about what you expect from this year's holiday season. Thank you in advance for your feedback.

Mayor Kim Driscoll, City of Salem and Democratic Nominee for Lt. Governor
 to Provide Keynote Speech at RAMAE Luncheon

RAM’s 104th Annual Meeting will be held on Thursday, November 10th, at Lombardo’s in Randolph.  The Board of Directors meeting begins promptly at 9:00 AM, and all RAM members are welcome to attend.  Immediately following the board meeting, members are encouraged to stay and join us at the annual RAM Awards of Excellence (RAMAE) luncheon at noon, where we will recognize six outstanding local businesses in retail in 2022. Mayor Kim Driscoll from the City of Salem and Democratic Nominee for Lt. Governor will be our Keynote speaker at the luncheon.

The RAMAE’s were created more than 20 years ago as a way to shine a light on the hidden jewels of the retail industry here in Massachusetts. These awards are a means to recognize those innovators that are doing it the right way for their customers, and to also hold them up as beacons for others to follow. Our 2022 winners are leading the way in our industry in these increasingly challenging times.
 
Awards will be handed out in the following categories: Advertising and Promotion, Community Service, Restaurant of the Year, Retailer of the Year and Retail Hall of Fame.

All RAM members are invited to attend.  Registration is required, although both meetings are free to attend.
 

Agenda & Registration

What are the RAMAES?

If you have any questions about the events or the survey, please contact Andi Shea at [email protected].

 Reminder:  Updates to Waste Bans Effective TODAY

Bans expanded to mattresses, clothing & food waste (1/2 ton)

All members are reminded that effective TODAY, November 1, the state has expanded its waste bans to include a ban on the disposal of mattresses and textiles, and has lowered the threshold for compliance with the state’s existing commercial organics/food waste ban to generators of more than ½ ton per week.  The waste bans are implemented and enforced by the MA Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP). 
 
Beginning in October 2014, MA adopted regulations to ban the disposal of commercial organics/food waste, requiring any entity that disposed of at least one ton of organic waste per week to donate or re-purpose the useable food, or dispose of via anaerobic digestion (AD), composting or as animal feed.  The updated regulation now lowers that threshold so that it applies to entities that generate one-half (1⁄2) ton or more of organic waste for disposal per week.  The previous threshold likely exempted most restaurants, convenience stores, and small markets, who may now be impacted under the lower threshold. 

 
For additional info from MassDEP see:

• Lowering the threshold on commercial organic/food waste to facilities generating more than one-half ton of these materials per week; and
• Adding mattresses and textiles to the list of materials banned from disposal or transport for disposal in Massachusetts.