Retail

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston alleges Makola Market, a food store on Main Street in Webster Square in Worcester, continually violated food safety laws in selling meat that lacked federal inspection.

Polar Beverages has become a major player in the ballooning seltzer market as an underdog: a Worcester manufacturer family owned since its start in the 1880s. While Polar has ridden the wave of seltzer's soaring popularity, it's now facing a harder battle than ever against the carbonated beverage industry's giants.

The Bay State has brought back the popular rebate program for the purchase of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. Electric car buyers can get up to $2,500 when they purchase of an all-electric vehicle as part of the state's strategy to put more low-emission vehicles on the road.

The Massachusetts minimum wage will increase from $12 to $12.75 per hour beginning on Wednesday. In 2018, lawmakers set the minimum wage to increase annually until it reaches $15 per hour in 2023.

A cannabis retailer has paid $2 million for DeBois Auto Body, an automotive repair and auto body garage operating for more than 60 years in Worcester.

BJ’s Wholesale Club, a Westborough operator of membership warehouse clubs, on Thursday named Christopher Baldwin executive chairman and promoted Lee Delaney to succeed Baldwin as CEO.

The first Central Massachusetts location of the California-based burger chain BurgerIM will open at a new retail plaza on Worcester's Gold Star Boulevard.

More retail stores are on the horizon, and their success will depend on being able to find enough shops to carve out a niche in an industry always increasingly dominated by Amazon and other giants.

As long as Central Massachusetts' economic growth continues, food and drink businesses will follow.

They’re called deaths of despair – suicide and addiction, including alcoholism and opioids. They’re taking a major toll in Massachusetts and nationwide, and public health officials and lawmakers will continue their fights against these problems in 2020.