Today in Globe Business

Super 88 grocery chain is being sold

Super 88, Boston’s homegrown Asian supermarket chain, is being sold to a New York company, Hong Kong Supermarkets Inc., ending months of speculation about the future of the firm.

Hong Kong Supermarkets officials declined to disclose the sale price because it had not been finalized, but Hong Kong Supermarkets’ comptroller Richard Tang said the news would be official any day now.

To read the full story, please click here.
------------------------------------------------------
TECH LAB: Kodak inkjet wins on cost, not on quality

Four years ago I learned a foolproof way to save a fortune on inkjet printers - don’t use them.

I bought a cheap black-and-white laser printer from Dell. It has cranked out hundreds of pages, yet its original toner cartridge is still half-full. Then again, I don’t print many pictures of flowers, puppies, and drooling babies. So I’m not the target market for those Eastman Kodak infomercials where the company touts its ESP color inkjet printers.

Consumers love their inkjets, which can add a splash of color to a child’s homework assignment or crank out sharp glossy prints of vacation photos. But inkjets burn through ink at a frightful rate, and replacement cartridges can cost $15 to $40 each, per color. Fully “re-inking’’ some printers can cost almost as much as buying a new one.

To read the full story, please click here.
------------------------------------------------------
Followers of a mystical religion were taken in by Madoff scheme

There’s another religious group that was taken in by Bernard Madoff, one that’s less well known than the Jewish community he so widely infiltrated: the Sufis.

A number of Sufis, who practice a mystical form of Islam, and Sufi groups on both US coasts entrusted millions of dollars to a California lawyer, Richard M. Glantz, who is a member of the Sufi community. He in turn placed their money with Madoff. The connection: Glantz, raised in a Jewish family, is the son of a New York accountant who had placed $88 million in client funds with Madoff.

“We’re devastated,’’ said Saphira Linden, a Jamaica Plain Sufi teacher and drama therapist who recalls learning of her Madoff losses when her son called her while she was driving home from the hairdresser on Dec. 11. Linden, 66, runs a drama program out of her home, in cooperation with Lesley University. She lost her Omega Theater program’s $76,000 endowment to Madoff, as well as her personal savings.

To read the full story, please click here.
------------------------------------------------------
Clunkers deals net $65 million in the Bay State

The federal Cash for Clunkers program revved up about $65 million worth of car sales for Massachusetts auto dealers, according to a new report.

Nationally, the three-week program that ended Monday night resulted in the sale of 700,000 new cars with rebate applications worth $2.8 billion, according to a report released yesterday by the US Department of Transportation. The popular $3 billion program, which offered drivers a $3,500 to $4,500 discount on a new car in exchange for an older, less fuel-efficient vehicle, gave a much-needed boost to automakers.

“From a sales perspective, it has been phenomenal,’’ said Robert O’Koniewski, executive vice president of the Massachusetts State Automobile Dealers Association, which represents 441 dealers in the state.

To read the full story, please click here.
------------------------------------------------------