Rhode Island
Hasbro Makes It Official: 587 RI Jobs Pack for Boston—Proof a $1 Riverfront Lot Is No Substitute for a Competitive State
What happened
Hasbro, the century-old Pawtucket toy and game maker behind Monopoly, Nerf, Play-Doh and Mr. Potato Head, has filed a federal WARN Act notice with the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training. The notice, dated Oct. 8, says 587 positions in Rhode Island will be affected effective Dec. 24 as the company closes its Pawtucket site and moves to its new headquarters at 400 Summer St. in Boston’s Seaport District. According to the Globe, Hasbro’s chief people officer wrote that every affected employee was offered the chance to keep their job at the Boston location starting Jan. 4, 2027. Ocean State Media reported that the filing says the company has not yet confirmed how many employees will make the move.
A Hasbro spokesperson told the Globe the filing is “a formal notice of our move to Boston” and “not a new announcement or layoff notice,” noting that employees were told of the move on Sept. 1, 2025. Pawtucket Mayor Don Grebien said it is “deeply disappointing that the company continues to remain silent and unresponsive” to outreach from city and state officials. The state Labor and Training director told Ocean State Media his agency plans a job fair next month for Hasbro workers.
Original reporting
Read the underlying sources:
Boston Globe — Nearly 600 jobs to leave RI as Hasbro makes move to Boston (Oct. 13, 2026)
Rhode Island Current — Hasbro to move to Boston Seaport by end of 2026 (Sept. 8, 2025)
Virtue Forge commentary
First, the free-enterprise point: Hasbro is a private company and has every right to put its headquarters wherever it thinks it will compete best. Nobody owes a mayor a meeting about how a business uses its own property. The useful question isn’t why Hasbro left. It’s why Rhode Island keeps losing the argument.
Look at how the two states competed. Massachusetts spent more than a year courting the company and backed it with $14 million in tax credits. Rhode Island scrambled late with a $1 land deal and a pitch that never reached a legislative vote. Both approaches are versions of the same bad game: governments picking favored companies and bidding taxpayer money for them. Rhode Island lost because it played late and small, not because it refused to play. The real fix isn’t a bigger giveaway next time. It’s a state where taxes, permitting, energy costs and the overall cost of doing business are competitive enough that every employer gets a good deal, not just the famous ones with a headquarters to dangle.
The political reaction says plenty. When the move was announced, Gov. Dan McKee said it “does not impede Rhode Island’s growth or economic success.” Losing the state’s best-known corporate name, and hundreds of good-paying jobs, should prompt some humility instead of talking points. House Minority Leader Mike Chippendale put the better lesson bluntly at the time: “We must stop chasing corporations with taxpayer-funded giveaways, focus on correcting what is driving this exodus, and improve our business climate for those that have invested in our state.”
What to watch: how many Hasbro employees actually move to Boston, what happens to the Pawtucket Newport Avenue property, and whether the next governor and General Assembly treat this as a reason for structural reform or just another round of incentive deals.