75 years and going strong

NASHUA – Some business owners might cringe a bit when they hear how Marty McLaughlin starts a typical day at the office: Reviewing the latest batch of customer-satisfaction surveys. But McLaughlin, the third-generation owner of enduring residential and corporate moving firm McLaughlin Transportation Systems, has long made it his business to make sure customers’ responses get his day off to a pleasant start. Doing everything in its power to please often-anxious clients – moving is the second most stressful life event, behind death and ahead of divorce, McLaughlin said – is far more than a slogan at the Nashua-based firm, which just turned 75 years old. The state’s sole Mayflower agent couldn’t be any more local: It was founded in Nashua by a Nashua native, and has been headquartered in Nashua ever since. “It’s pretty simple. We give a great move for a very competitive price,” McLaughlin said last week in his second-floor office at 20 Progress Ave., the firm’s home since his father, the late John H. McLaughlin, bought the building from Gerald Nash and Sam Tamposi in 1965. While the business has evolved, and occasionally shifted gears, since telephone lineman John W.