18 | SPECIAL REPORT March 2, 2015 | VOL. 51, No. 9
22 | NEWSMAKERS westfaironline.com
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Hershey lawsuits not sweet for specialty stores SELLERS OF EUROPEAN CHOCOLATE IRKED BY COMPANY’S TRADEMARK DISPUTES BY DANIELLE BRODY dbrody@westfairinc.com
A
n American company is winning its battle against European chocolates, at the expense of store owners and their customers in this region. In separate lawsuits filed last year, The Hershey Co. and Hershey Chocolate & Confectionery Corp. tried to stop two distributors, Let’s Buy British Imports LLC and Posh Nosh Imports Inc., from importing and selling candies that the Pennsylvania-based company claims infringe on its trademarks. Store owners that carry the chocolates in Westchester and Fairfield counties are selling the last of their inventory, unable to order more and concerned about
the effect on their business. Mary Slater, owner of Post Road Market in Rye, a deli and Irish goods store, said in the past six weeks she spent $5,000 on a final shipment of chocolate from overseas. Her customers, who usually buy a few bars at a time, are stocking up on boxes of their European favorites while they can. Looking at the shelf of imported chocolates in her store, Slater wondered what she’ll replace the candy with when she runs out. Cadbury alone makes up 60 percent of her candy sales, she said. “People will still come in, but not having the chocolate is going to be pretty hard,” she said. The candy bars targeted by Hershey are the European-made » HERSHEY, page 2
Mary Slater, owner of Post Road Market in Rye, has two of the store’s last Cadbury bars on hold for a customer. Photo by Danielle Brody
Wage hike for tipped workers draws business ire BY JOHN GOLDEN jgolden@westfairinc.com
IN A MOVE OPPOSED BY New York restaurant industry and business groups and backed by the governor and labor union chiefs, the state’s labor commissioner has ordered a raise in the minimum cash wage for tipped hospitality workers to $7.50 per hour. That amounts to a 50 percent increase in the minimum that restaurant servers, one group of
workers affected by the change, must be paid. The substantial increase, first recommended by a minimum wage board appointed last year by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and authorized in a Feb. 24 order by acting Commissioner of Labor Mario J. Musolino, will take effect Dec. 31. The state’s minimum wage for all workers is $8.75 per hour this year and will increase to $9 per hour in 2016, at the same time that hospitality employers will see their tip credits shrink when cal-
culating service workers’ wages and their payrolls increase as the higher cash wage for tipped workers takes effect. The uniform minimum wage for tipped workers will eliminate the state’s system of separate minimum cash wage rates for food service workers, who are paid $5 per hour in 2015; hospitality service employees, currently at $5.65 per hour, and service workers in resort hotels, who receive a minimum $4.90 per hour in wages before tips. Those rates last
increased in 2011, according to the governor’s office. As recommended by the wage board, the labor commissioner also agreed to review whether New York’s system of cash wages and employers’ tip credits should be eliminated. Musolino rejected the wage board’s recommendation that the tip allowance for employers be increased by $1 per hour when the weekly average of cash wages and tips equals or exceeds the state’s » WAGE, page 1