The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • B5

SATURDAY, JUNE 18, 2011 The Boston Globe B5 Business Firms make joint offer for RFs and Sam's Club. Mike Tesler, a partner at Retail Concepts, a Norwell consulting firm, said BJ's has been comfortable trailing the bigger companies in a relatively fixed wholesale market. Tesler said Leonard Green has a track record of making successful investments in retailers, so its interest in BJ's could benefit the chain and customers. "The infusion of some new ideas and new categories of merchandise, or new ways of doing things, might be helpful for the company," Tesler said. Two private equity companies look to buy wholesale chain ByTarynLuna GLOBE CORRESPONDENT Four months after saying it might put itself up for sale, BJ's Wholesale Club Inc.

may have a buyer. Two private equity firms have joined to make an offer to purchase BJ's for an undisclosed sum. In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing yesterday, Leonard Green Partners LP and CVC Capital Partners said that they want to buy the wholesale retail chain. In February, BJ's said it was considering selling the company after an earlier announcement that it would close five stores and cut about 500 jobs and hired Morgan Stanley to offer advice on a possible deal. A few weeks earlier, Leonard Green, a California firm that controls a 9.3 percent stake in BJ's, was believed to be readying a hostile bid if BJ's did not move forward with a sale.

Leonard Green, which is invested in major companies such as Sports Authority Inc. and Whole Foods Market, entered into a confidentiality agree- LOCAL BUYOUTS Read about recent local mergers and acquisitions at www.boston.combusiness. ment with BJ's in March to evaluate a possible acquisition. CVC declined to comment on the SEC filing. BJ's and Leonard Green did not return calls seeking comment.

Analysts have said taking the company private would allow BJ's to expand beyond the Northeast and Southeast, where it has about 185 stores. Nationwide, it is the third-largest wholesale club retailer, after the much larger Costco Wholesale Taryn Luna can be reached at tlunaglobe.com. Buyouts offered to Herald workers Step taken after proposal was made to redevelop site Daily Briefing Staples introducing tech destination store Office supply giant Staples Inc. is rolling out a new store format that showcases its technology products such as laptops, tablet computers, and e-readers. One motive of the redesign is to convey the message to consumers that Framingham-based Staples isn't just about printer cartridges and paper clips, but is also a "technology destination" where a home-office customer can snap up such items as the BlackBerry PlayBook and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, the company said.

These stores are staffed by certified EasyTech associates, who can help customers determine which technology products are right for them. A Staples store in Shrewsbury is the latest to receive the technology center overhaul, the company said. GLOBE STAFF Target workers voting on union membership NEW YORK Target maybe known for its cheap-chic apparel, but workers at one New York store say the company is just plain cheap. Target says it pays its workers competitively. But late last night, about 250 workers at a Target store in Long Island were to vote on whether to join the country's largest retail union.

This is the first union vote Target has faced in two decades, and if workers vote "yes," the store will be the first of the company's 1,700 to bring in organized labor. The vote could have a ripple effect in the US retail industry as the economy recovers from the worst recession since the 1930s. At a time when jobs are scarce, the retail industry is expected to be one of the strongest sectors for job growth during this decade. But the hours and pay for jobs selling clothes, computers, and other goods have been declining in recent years. At the same time, the industry has faced decreasing union membership, which can limit workers' ability to fight for better wages.

Chris Tilly who directs the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, says a win for the union however unlikely would be significant. "It would not be the end of the story," he says. "They're testing the waters." ASSOCIATED PRESS Best Buy expands cloud music service to US LONDON Best Buy the world's largest consumer electronics retailer, is expanding a UK online music platform to the United States to challenge Amazon Inc. and Apple Inc. in so-called cloud-based offerings, the technology supplier said.

Best Buy's US Music Cloud service, powered by Catch Media is available for mobile devices such as Research In Motion BlackBerry smartphone and those using Android technology, Catch Media chief executive Yaacov Ben-Yaacov said yesterday. The platform, marketed as My Music Anywhere in the United Kingdom, is designed to allow users to stream content they have purchased to a computer, mobile phone, or tablet, eliminating the need to transfer and store computer files, Beverly Hills, Catch Media said. BLOOMBERG NEWS DAVID L. RYANGLOBE STAFF "It was a dead space, a missing tooth on Newbury Street," Boston city Councilor Michael P. Ross says.

For rent: tiny slice of tony Newbury Cash-strapped looks to let a slab of sidewalk By Kaivan Mangouri GLOBE CORRESPONDENT ByBethHealy GLOBE STAFF The Boston Herald yesterday offered employees voluntary buyout packages to trim staff and cut costs. The offer was made to all the newspaper's staff and managers, according to an e-mail sent to members of the Herald's newsroom union. Guild members are being offered two weeks of salary for every year of service. Workers taking the buyout package would have until July 1 to make a decision, and any staff reductions would come next month, the Herald reported on its website. "The staffing adjustments we're making are a result of revenue pressure all newspapers are experiencing.

However, the financial efficiencies we are undertaking, coupled with the really great print and online products we publish every day, will position us well for the future," said Patrick J. Pur-cell, the Herald's publisher, in a statement. The Herald said it has 385 employees. A Herald spokeswoman declined to comment beyond Purcell's statement, including on how many buyouts the paper is seeking. Bill Brotherton, the newsroom chairman for the Guild, wrote in his e-mail to colleagues, "But don't fret, this is nothing like the dire situation we encountered a few years ago, when so many of our union brothers and sisters left or were laid off.

We are not going out of business. This is a belt-tightening move by Pat Purcell and his financial team." Brotherton emphasized that the offer was voluntary: "If you have no interest in applying for a buyout, just toss the letter in the trash." The buyout offer comes a week after a Newton developer proposed HERALD, Page B6 354 Newbury St. However, there are no utilities to the location, and the winning bidder would be responsible for building its own facilities. And, no pushcarts. The lease is part of the MBTA's effort to solve its longstanding financial problems by turning its vast unused real estate holdings into money-making assets.

Typically, though, the transit agency has much larger properties that draw developers eager to build sizable mixed-used developments, such as residential, office, and retail complexes. This one on Newbury, however, is bare On Boston's street of boutique businesses, this might be the ultimate boutique space. Right now the "property" on Newbury Street is just a slab of sidewalk, barely a dozen feet wide 275 square feet in total tucked against the back end of the Hynes MBTA station and a department store. But its owner, the MBTA, believes it has enough commercial J. P.

Licks Best Buy- Hynes Convention Center Station 90) SOURCES: ESRI, TeleAtlas, Google Maps PATRICK GARVINGLOBE STAFF ly big enough to park a truck. But MBTA general manager Rich Davey is unfazed about the limited potential of the site. "Any dollar that I can get is one less dollar I have to charge at the fare box," Davey said. And Ross said there is precedent for developing such an unlikely site: The long-vacant public restroom on the Boston Common will soon house an Earl of Sandwich shop. "We just find these unused spaces and turn them NEWBURY, Page B6 potential that the agency is soliciting proposals from businesses to set up shop there.

"It was a dead space, a missing tooth on Newbury Street," said Boston city Councilor Michael P. Ross, a big booster of putting the concrete slab to more productive use. "There's no access or use for the MBTA we can do better than that." Through its real estate arm, Transit Realty Associates, the MBTA is proposing to lease the site for 1 0 years and wants a minimum rent of $24,750 for the first year. The deadline for bids is July 1 uiBUYa ALY SONGREUTERSFILES 'It's so hard because you have the entire state of Massachusetts looking for a specific NALIKA STEPASIUK, manager of SomervUle's Sports Authority Stores find Bruins gear selling out within hours Sony films pulled from Netflix online service LOS ANGELES Sony movies were pulled from Netflix online streaming service yesterday because of what Netflix said is a "temporary contract issue" between Sony Corp. and its pay TV distributor, Starz.

Netflix notified its members in a blog post yesterday, when movies such as "Easy and "Grown Ups" stopped being available on its "Watch Instantly" service. They are still available to be rented through the mail. Starz said in a statement that "all parties are working diligently to resolve the issue." A person familiar with the matter said Netflix's explosive growth triggered a clause in Sony's deal with Starz that resulted in the stoppage. The person was not authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity. Netflix has said that it ended March with 23.6 million subscribers in the United States and Canada.

The temporary outage comes at a time when Starz is doing its best to show Netflix how much customers appreciate being able to watch movies from its studio partners over the Internet. ASSOCIATED PRESS JOSH REYNOLDS FORTHE BOSTON GLOBE By Kaivan Mangouri GLOBE CORRESPONDENT Fans crowded local retail stores for the second day yesterday to snap up merchandise celebrating the Bruins' Stanley Cup win. The rush for Bruins souvenirs gathered steam in anticipation of today's parade celebrating Wednesday's victory. Some shoppers seeking commemorative T-shirts or hats were turned away as stores scrambled to restock hot items. The top seller: a $30 Stanley Cup Champs Locker Room hat from Reebok, according to a number of retailers.

The Modell's Sporting Goods store in Newton ran out of the hats for the second time in two days yesterday, a sales associate said. Olympia Sports in Boston's Prudential Center sold out its stock of 80 hats yesterday morning; customers waited in line for a noon shipment that replenished the supply. The store had opened at 9 a.m. an hour early and sold about $5,000 in merchandise in the first two hours of the day, according to store employee Jim Kallinich. "It's been pretty consistent since we opened," Kallinich said.

"The hat is by far and away the top-selling item." As for T-shirts, those with the name and number of Bruins goalie SOUVENIRS, Page B6 SWEET VICTORY Lifelong Bruins fan Erin Erler (right) wanted to honor the Stanley Cup winners in her own way. The co-owner of Cakes by Erin in Haverhill made cakes shaped like the Stanley Cup and the Conn Smythe Trophy, which Bruins goalie Tim Thomas received for being the MVP of the NHL playoffs. The Bruins needed seven games to beat the Canucks; Erler needed 54 eggs, 40 fondant maple-leaves, several coats of edible paint, and more than 24 hours of baking and decorating. She was aided by Candice Cote (left)..