The Market Basket Rebellion

[KhirasHY]

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/...leTab_Article_

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/...mMK/story.html

Here's the TL;DR version:

Market Basket is a series of supermarkets in the northeastern US, and is one of the oldest major businesses that is still family owned. For years, there has been a bitter familial dispute between two sides of the family about who should control the business, and for years, Arthur T. Demoulas was the CEO. He was well known for giving employees higher wages, profit sharing options, and good benefits, and was pretty well loved by his staff. He was able to stay CEO by one person from his cousin's side of the family (his cousin is Arthur S. Demoulas) who voted differently from her side of the family for years. Recently, she finally voted against ATD, and he was removed as CEO and fired.

Queue the current situation, as almost all of the employees at the store levels have rebelled, demanding his reinstatement. Several lifelong employees were summarily fired (which has more or less martyred them), truckers are refusing to deliver stock, and many of the stores have bare shelves as a result. The entire thing has more or less turned into a fiasco. The sales of items they DO have in stock have plummeted, as many customers are going to other chains to support the protest.

I normally don't get political on forums (it never ends well), but it does make me grin quite a bit to notice that, for once, it's been made more or less clear that a lot more control really exists at the level of the line employees than people believe. A lot of execs are continually out of touch with the reality that, without those people, their company folds. It will be interesting to see how this all unfolds.

[mrsdeb]

The Gloucester Clam has a great (warning: language NSFW!) two-part explanation of the Market Basket backstory, starting here:

http://gloucesterclam.com/2014/07/21...tory-of-crazy/

What kills me is, how often do you see the rank and file going out on a limb to support a CEO? I have friends who work at MB who say Artie T is an awesome boss - visits all the stores, knows everyone by name, lends a hand - they've never seen hide nor hair of Arthur S, nor the two new "co-CEOs".

Anyway, we're boycotting here in NH.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Nice to see the employees supporting a head honcho who genuinely cares about treating them fairly, but IMO their support probably means jack shit.

This is a family dispute; both sides probably have too much pride to let the other win. So it will collapse and each side will blame the other. Sad.

FFS, the good guy was even driven out of his own country club.

It would be nice to see this turn into a teachable moment on treating employees well, but that's just too much long-term thinking.

[sms001]

Interesting reads, thank you.

[taxguykarl]

Wow, what a farce.

[KhirasHY]

I think we've moved a bit beyond farce. It's more a travesty of a sham of a mockery. A traveshamockery.

As an update, Arthur T's side of the family (he's the former CEO, to avoid confusion) is making offers to buy the company from the other side of the family, which would more or less put a stop to the problem since he would be back in control.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/...e_Trending_Top

[carryonnow]

I work for a family owned chain. I need to be clear IT IS NOT MARKET BASKET. My greatest fear is that one family member will stage a mutiny against another family and hijack the board.

As customers we had no choice but to go to the competition....service wasn't as good, products were more pricey, and the discounts WITH loyalty card were still not as good as the EDLP's at Market Basket. Like many customers, I hope this works out...but, my business mind says that this is gonna get wicked nasty before there is a resolution.

[wolfie]

I think we've moved a bit beyond farce.

Actually, it's definitely a farce. In French, "farce" means stuffing, and customers are telling the side of the family that took over to stuff it.

[KhirasHY]

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/...e_Trending_Top

The newest update, basically seems like a deflection from the Arthur S. camp, but I did notice that they are still making the same mistake that they have been making in all their public statements (of which there have been few): they are blaming the store workers for causing this.

The Board acknowledges that it has heard from many stakeholders. The negative behavior of certain current and former associates is at variance with the Company’s culture of putting the needs of the Market Basket customers first. It is now clear that it is in the interests of all members of the Market Basket community for normal business operations to resume immediately.

A couple analysts have already noted in some of the other stories that this has been one of their biggest mistakes so far, basically pitting themselves against the workers who are keeping their stores closed. Unfortunately for them, that's not a fight they are going to win, since those workers have all the power at the moment by keeping the stores from doing any business. It's just one more example of that "corporate disconnect" causing problems, they don't seem to have any idea that turning this thing into a direct fight hasn't been working out well for them thus far.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I'm wondering if this isn't exactly what Arthur S and his supporters want--for the company to go out of business just so that Arthur T doesn't win.

[NecessaryCatharsis]

Or for all the 'spoiled' workers who are used to things like a living wage and benefits to quit so they can 'restructure' and hire on at McD's wages and hours and spend less on payroll, thereby 'make more money'. Perfect idea if your a corporate ninny who doesn't see how long term, well trained, happy employees make for more customers and higher customer satisfaction.

[Dreamstalker]

Didn't Arthur S. want to sell MB to a bigger chain? I read that someplace.

[KhirasHY]

Not sure on that one...haven't seen it in any of the stories I've read, but I may have just missed it.

[Dave1982]

I've been following this with keen interest. In fact, I'm working just down the street from MB's perishables warehouse atm. I drove by it to see if there was any activity and there wasn't.

The only people currently "winning" in this debacle are the competing stores. MB's employees have had their hours cut, the company itself is losing money hand over fist, and the custoemrs that are being forced to shop elsewhere are having to pay more because no one else - on the whole - even approaches the good deals that MB has.

The Boston Globe released selected transcripts from MB's board meetings and it's every bit the soap opera you'd expect if you have any idea the history of the Demoulas family feud. Hatfeilds vs McCoys couldn't be a more apt analogy. The petty bickering is absurd.

You know, back when I worked for them (a dark period of my life that I only rarely talked about on the boards) I once nearly took out a guy with a shopping cart because he was standing too close to the rows of carts and wasn't paying attention. My boss later told me that the guy I nearly creamed was Arthur T DeMoulas (who no one had warned me was in the building, even though this was before he was CEO)

Part of me can't help but wonder what sort of butterfly effect it might've had on current events if I'd hurt or killed him then.

[taxguykarl]

An update.