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When we talk about holiday shopping we're usually referring to gifts. But as anyone who's ever hosted the family Christmas party knows, holding shopping can also mean food shopping.

And this year in New Hampshire, there are more options for that kind of shopping than perhaps ever before.

Kathleen Callahan reports for the New Hampshire Business Review; she recently wrote about the growing number of competition among stores that sell food. She joins All Things Considered host Brady Carlson to talk about what she found.

note: the original title of this story stated that nearly half of New Hampshire grocery shopping was done in nontraditional stores. The study in the NHBR report refers to national shopping, not just New Hampshire. We have modified the title to correct the error.

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Some employers are willing to try anything to incentivize employees to work harder and increase productivity. But what exactly are employees looking for in a job these days, aside from the pay?  Business NH Magazine's annual competition identifies the top ten best New Hampshire companies to work for and what makes them so great. Matthew Mowry is editor for Business NH Magazine and he joins us to talk about who came out on top.

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Black Friday has long been a post-holiday shopping tradition for many Americans. During the last several years, customers have found their favorite stores opening ever-earlier in anticipation of growing demand. This time around, employees are fighting back against the early hours.

Emanuella Grinberg, writer with CNN.com’s Living Section, joins us to talk about her article “Retail Employees Fight Black Friday Creep.” 

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More aging adults are stepping out on a limb and starting their own businesses, says a report from the Kauffman Foundation. In New Hampshire, the Small Business Association and AARP are working together to make sure these so-called “encore entrepreneurs” have the tools they need.

The recession had hit by the time Joyce Goodwin finished her temporary position as director of a school in Hudson. She was 54, and couldn’t find another job.  

My age was prohibitive in some of the jobs that may have been available. When you’re looking at someone younger, in their 30s or so, that’s not really a hard choice.

Goodwin’s experience was in early education management. She says she had no other choice really.  So – she started her own business. An early education center, called “Granite Start.” On Wednesday’s Forum on the Future, at St. Anselm’s in Manchester, Goodwin shared her story. Mary Collins was in the audience. Collins is the state director of the Small Business Development Center, an organization at UNH, which coordinates with state and federal government to provide resources to entrepreneurs. She says since the recession, she’s seen more people in Goodwin’s position.

We have people that, out of need, have been downsized out of corporate America, and are looking to do something with a business they may have on the side, or to start a new business.

Finding capital, Collins says, is usually the hard part. Panelists and audience members at the forum agreed that the private sector and state government need to do more to make capital available to older folks who are new to entrepreneurship. After all, this is a demographic that comes with decades of experience, robust social networks, and few distractions in the way of family.

Paul Bemis worked as a senior executive at computer companies like HP and Apollo Computing, before striking out on his own in Concord, NH. His niche market was too small to attract investment capital, so he funded his startup – Applied Math Modeling, Inc., -- by himself. He says he invested everything he had earned in upper management:

I was comfortable, nice home, second home, cars, new cars, kids in college, expense account, you know, nice, and then all of a sudden you take all of that, put it on number three, spin the wheel, and the downside risk is all of that is gone.

For the first time in his life, Bemis says, he had to grapple with self-doubt. Not to mention the social pressure.

That transition is difficult. Because you interact with your peers, whether it's at the soccer field, kids functions, they’re all doing well, got the nice car, this and that, and the material component becomes very obvious, and you have to be willing to swallow your pride.

Most of the time, older people are expected to protect whatever wealth they have, not risk it on a business venture.   But as New Hampshire’s population grows grayer, changing that paradigm could go a long way in keeping the state’s economy strong. 

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Personalized, addressable ads are finally hitting our televisions. Ad Age's Brian Steinberg explains how they're doing something that seems a little too Minority Report to be true.

And, some feedback about a listener about our coverage of the non-coverage of the Paralympics.

Correction:  During the feedback segment, we mistakenly relayed Paralympian Victoria Arlen's medal count.  Arlen was awarded three silvers and a gold - not three silvers and a bronze.  Our apologies, and congratulations Victoria!

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StateImpact's Amanda Loder discusses the economic proposals of main Democratic gubernatorial contenders Jackie Cilley and Maggie Hassan with Morning Edition host Rick Ganley.

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StateImpact's Amanda Loder discusses the economic proposals of Republican gubernatorial contenders Ovide Lamontagne and Kevin Smith with Morning Edition host Rick Ganley.

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In most downtowns across America, there are a handful of staple successful businesses: the pizza place, the hardware store, the movie theater.  

Then there are the niche stores that never seem to last long, the kind that make you wonder, can someone make a living selling just that?

In downtown Concord, N.H., that store might be Flagworks Over America.  And as its name implies, it sells only flags.

Patrick: “That’s a 48-star cotton flag that belonged to my wife’s grandfather, and it use to fly over in the Chicago area out in front of their house…”

That’s Patrick Page, the owner of Flagworks Over America describing his favorite flag. It’s in his office, hanging behind his desk and it’s definitely not for sale. Patrick loves flags, but it wasn’t always his career. He started out in real estate.  Then, he moved into a new place, and realized something was missing.

Patrick: We moved into a house and we needed a flag for that house, so I went to H.A. Holt on Main street, they’re no longer there, I went in and bought a flag and put it on my house and fell in love with the idea of selling flags. Did a bunch of research, did a test market, starting selling flags out of the trunk of my car, and I says I can do this, so I started selling flags out of my real estate office.”

The real estate office started to accumulate too many flags, so Patrick began looking for a space to sell them.

Patrick: "My friend says I need a business with a window..."

And that’s exactly what he has. Flagworks is located on Main Street in downtown Concord. The casual window shopper can peer in to see racks upon racks of multi-colored flags, ranging from national flags from every country in the world, to a flag embroidered with carrots.  But the store isn’t limited to just flags… there are also shelves of cowboy boots because…

Patrick: “Most American cowboys believe in America.”

The majority of Patrick’s business happens when you expect it would; around Memorial day and the Fourth of July. But some of the store’s busiest holidays are surprising…

 Patrick: Father’s Day is in there. We sell a lot of flagpoles for Father’s Day because that’s when the wife get’s him the flagpole that he’s always wanted… it seems more men want the American Flag flying… not to be chauvinist, but that’s just seems to be what I’ve noticed:

Although holidays support most of the business, Flagworks also sells indoor flags for classrooms, open and closed flags for storefronts, and custom flags made to order...some of which have flown high on the public’s radar….

Patrick: We  always like to say the one going back to Bruce Springsteen we did the back drop for Bruce Springsteen… It was about 20 x 30  if I remember… For Born In The USA… and then we also did the one for Boston Pops that drops down, it’s still our flag, I saw it this year…”

But Flagworks does draw a line when it comes to custom flags..Patrick tells me that he’s turned down requests, including one for a swastika. But still, some of the more popular flags he sells do some with baggage…

Patrick: There’s a confederate flag. It’s still a very big seller. You know a lot of people have a lot of different feelings towards this particular flag, but to me it’s american history.  Whether its good history or bad history, It’s still American history… Obviously we have the Gadsen now, it’s almost lost its meaning now… It stands for the tea partiers

Zach: What’s it say?

Patrick: Don’t tread on me.

In other words, for people like Patrick, Flags are more than a symbol. And if most of us only notice them during a Fourth of July parade, we might be missing out on their complexity, their signal of personal expression…a way to let the world know your solidarity with an idea, a country, or, in the case of that carrot flag, a vegetable.

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The popular website glassdoor has thousands of people posting their salaries, reviews of their companies, and other juicy corporate tidbits online for all to see. Does this mark the end of salary secrecy? And what do companies think about it?

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No matter what the economy throws our way, the wedding industry churns on, now topping seventy billion dollars a year. Here's the story of one photographer vying for a slice of that cake by building his own version of the latest wedding trend…a “new-timey” photobooth.

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With so many Americans out of work and so many companies claiming they can’t fill vacant positions, many have blamed a so-called 'skills gap'. But business professor Peter Cappelli says this is just blaming the unemployed victim, and in fact, many companies are responsible for this bind. He says they're relying on automated, unreliable applicant tracking systems and refusing to train perfectly acceptable candidates.  We'll look at this debate.

Guests

• Peter Cappelli: George W. Taylor Professor of Management at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and Director of Wharton's Center for Human Resources. He's the author of "Why Good People Can't Get Jobs: The Skills Gap and What Companies Can Do About It"

Click here to read "The Big Jobs Myth" from The Atlantic, which quotes our guest on the skills gap.

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