Great prices, great selection, and good quality. They are driving competitors out of business.
Posted on 08/29/2024 6:13:55 AM PDT by billorites
TEWKSBURY, Mass. — Wednesday marks the 10th anniversary of Arthur T. Demoulas’ triumphant comeback to lead the Tewksbury-based Market Basket supermarket chain.
In June 2014, Arthur T. was fired by a board controlled by Arthur S. Demoulas, his cousin and rival. After being sacked, store workers staged a walkout in support of Arthur T. that lasted six weeks.
To protest, hundreds of warehouse workers and drivers refused to deliver fresh produce, leaving shelves depleted. Not only did the workers stick together, but customers soon followed by boycotting the stores in solidarity.
Customers began to shop elsewhere because they couldn’t find fresh food at Market Basket, while others stayed away in a show of support for workers and Arthur T. The usually crowded stores turned into ghost towns, with only a trickle of customers coming in.
The Market Basket workforce showed fierce loyalty to Arthur T. because he was beloved for offering generous benefits including a profit-sharing plan. He also frequently stopped to talk to his workers, remembering birthdays, and attending funerals of employees’ relatives.
After weeks of pressure from suppliers suffering lost revenue, and the governors of Massachusetts and New Hampshire getting involved in work negotiations, the company announced that an agreement had been reached for Arthur T. to pay $1.6 billion for the 50.5 percent share of the company owned by Arthur S. and other family members.
In memory of the milestone, Market Basket on Tuesday shared videos of longtime employees reflecting on the 2014 movement and praising the supermarket chain’s faithful customers for playing a crucial role in helping save the company.
“The significance of the 2014 movement is that it just goes to show you, if you take care of the customer, the customer will take care of you,” said Valerie Polito, Market Basket’s current director of advertising who has put in 34 years of service.
I've had students who worked for Market Basket and to describe the employees as 'fiercely loyal' is an understatement.
It’s the only place where you can get a full carriage of goods for decent money.
“In June 2014, Arthur T. was fired by a board controlled by Arthur S. Demoulas, his cousin and rival. After being sacked, store workers staged a walkout in support of Arthur T. that lasted six weeks.”
Well, they couldn’t have two Arthurs. Arthur T. should have changed his name to T-Bone.
I believe this is the same way the H&H Bagel strike was settled.
Yep, Market Basket in Chelsea was my go to for grocery shopping .
Great stores, we go out of our way to go to one. They don’t required one of those keychain tags to get discounts either.
-SB
+ no self check out and they always have baggers.
You can go in on a Friday night and it looks like they have the high school stocking shelves.
their story of commitment and solidarity always brings tears to my eyes. We got our first one up here and I had to visit to see these committed employees for myself.
Almost like each aisle has its own employee manager.
Market Basket conspicuously hires people who otherwise might not be able to find employment.
Great prices, great selection, and good quality. They are driving competitors out of business.
At the time when Arthur T. was fired Market Basket had about one billion dollars in cash on hand. Arthur S. wanted sell off all the stores and divvie up all the cash among the family members and spend the rest of his life at leisure. Arthur T. was aggressively expanding, and “burning through” all the cash. But every new store he opened had filled up parking lots and lines at all 20+ cashiers.
Arthur T. also took care of the employees. Arthur S. wanted to treat them like crap, and pull all their benefits and cut wages so that the stores would appear more lucrative to Wall Street “investors”. We in the area are really lucky to have Mahkit Baskit available.
My pleasure!
We had a Market Basket in the Seattle area back in the 1960’s but it probably was a different company.
MB is the best full-service supermarket in New England.
As recently as the 1980’s what is now Mahkit Baskit was DaMoula’s, a small local chain. I doubt that there is any link to that company. We have a “nice” Roche Brothers store, a small local chain, in our town, but BM has opened three nearby competitors. It must be hard for them. Roche Brothers is probably a notch better quality, but two notches higher prices.
MB is sort of like Wal*Mart, but quite pleasant. Not in the least like Whole Food. MB has all you favorite brands, no real snob food, but great variety, and good quality, but not boutique goods.
Quite the contrary. It was family owned then and it's family owned now.
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