Posted on 07/26/2014 9:51:59 AM PDT by SamAdams76
A New England supermarket chain embroiled in a labor dispute provides a boon for its competitors—or does it?
One week after a company-wide employee dispute slammed the breaks on food deliveries, the shelves are looking pretty barren inside most of New England’s 70 or so Market Basket stores. Rather than shuffle past picket lines to contend with empty meat cases and dwindling produce bins, many of the region’s customers have been taking their business elsewhere.
Exactly how many customers have been going elsewhere is a question that’s begging to be answered, though of some of the area’s competing grocers are remaining rather tight-lipped on the matter.
Judi Palmer, spokeswoman for Stop & Shop’s New England division, declined to share specifics as to how the Market Basket situation was affecting the chain.
She noted, however, that Market Basket is “a main competitor” with a good portion of Stop & Shop stores scattered around Massachusetts. The chain no longer has stores in New Hampshire or Maine, but the Quincy, Mass.-based chain has more than 380 stores in New England. “Right now, we’re so just focusing on giving all our customers a great shopping experience,” Palmer said this week.
Jessica Stevens, spokeswoman for Target TGT , likewise declined to comment on the Market Basket strife or whether an increase in demand led to stocking shortages in the region. There are nearly 40 Target locations in Massachusetts and nine in New Hampshire, according to the company website. The chain carries a variety of perishable and nonperishable grocery items.
Officials from other competing grocery chains, including Hannaford Supermarkets and Wal-Mart WMT , did not respond to calls or emails sent this week.
But Jeffrey Gulko, spokesman for Shaw’s Supermarkets, said the past week has been a busy one for staff working in the company’s Massachusetts and New Hampshire locations.
“We’ve definitely seen an uptick in our sales, as well as the number of customers coming into those stores,” Gulko said on Friday. Company officials said the “most noticeable jump in sales” was this past Monday and Tuesday.
Shaw’s Supermarkets employs 18,500 workers around New England. The company has two distribution centers: one in Maine and one in Massachusetts.
“The sheer number of shipments being made to stores in those areas have definitely increased last week,” Gulko said, noting that the company has been successful in refilling shelves to meet consumer demands.
The national implications of the Market Basket upheaval remain uncertain.
“So far we haven’t heard much from any of the (competing) retailers in that area,” Laura Strange, spokeswoman for the Virginia-based National Grocers Association said on Friday.
In late June Market Basket’s board of directors set off an unanticipated chain reaction when they terminated beloved CEO Arthur T. Demoulas, replacing him with Co-CEOs: former Knowledge Universe CEO Felicia Thornton and former Radio Shack CEO James Gooch. Market Basket employees demonstrated their outrage this week by ceasing store deliveries, encouraging store boycotts and rallying en masse in shopping plazas.
The company has over 40 stores in Massachusetts, nearly 30 in New Hampshire and one in Maine. About 25,000 workers are employed with Market Basket.
On July 23, Demoulas made an offer to buy out his rivalling family members for an undisclosed sum in an effort to gain control of the company again.
“We care deeply about Market Basket and all our associates and we want to work together to return the company to its successful model for serving our loyal customers,” Demoulas said in a written statement issued the following day.
The company’s board was scheduled to meet Friday, though there’s no word yet as to whether or not Demoulas’ offer would be accepted. Meanwhile, upwards of 10,000 workers, many of them boarding buses from their respective Market Basket stores, attended a massive rally in Tewksbury, Mass. on Friday morning, backing up traffic for miles.
According to The Griffin Report of Food Marketing, the company is valued at $3.5 billion. Market Basket’s company revenues reportedly exceeded $4.6 billion last year.
And even odder is that it is a company run business and it is a cousins fight. One or more cousins attained majority status and fired the cousin who was CEO and who may have previously had majority status. Basically one cousin doesn’t like how the other was running the business and pulled rank and pushed the other out. Now the employees have taken side of the cousin who was dimissed.
A different approach than other supermarkets, kinda the old fashion way where you could actually retire as a butcher and have done pretty decent.
Not only that. But MB never had a company website until the past few weeks! A fan of the store actually set up a fan website and posted the ads and coupons and hours! Talk about loyalty. The guy actually makes so much money from the website via advertising and such he quit his job and does it full time.
So one side of the family knows how to treat employees well and probably live within their means, while the other side of the family are the “wantmores”, probably dems too. would be interesting to know if one side of this family is gop and the other dem.
When the shelves are empty, you take the shelves.
The guy actually makes so much money from the website via advertising and such he quit his job and does it full time.
Sam, you might consider adding something to the title so that
it doesn’t appear to be a prepper’s thread (no offense to preppers) like PRIVATE UNIONS WORK or something.. especially if the BOD sells to Artie T. next Monday.
lol
Next time you reply, point out that you have reading comprehension issues.
would be interesting to know if one side of this family is gop and the other dem.
Being MA, they’re probably all forced to donate to RATS but this act of ‘rebellion’ has other grocers saying ‘no comment’ as you see in the first paragraph of the article.
All of the grocers quoted had nothing worthwhile to say, which means private unionization is something they could easily see happen to their own operations... which terrifies them.
After all, your grocery store is only metal siding on metal structure on a slab with expensive refrigeration and point-of-sale systems. What happens IN the store is when shoppers try to buy from shelves that the employees stock and maintain... it’s the oldest business in the world (that requires clothing).
This is a societal compact that is being sealed, that no Union kleptocracy can coerce or co-opt. The outcome of this will be the model to take the sociopaths and grifters and overall jerks out of the grocery equation.
Well that’s pretty much how this is going to turn out.
I am loyal Market Basket customer. All registers usually open. Great prices and great customer service too. I truly hope they get their CEO back very SOON!!!! shopped elsewhere this week. Paid more. I’m sure once CEO is back and things return to normal all the regular loyal customers will return.
I am loyal Market Basket customer. All registers usually open. Great prices and great customer service too. I truly hope they get their CEO back very SOON!!!! shopped elsewhere this week. Paid more. I’m sure once CEO is back and things return to normal all the regular loyal customers will return.
In the 1950’s and 1960’s, there was a supermarket chain in Southern California called Market Basket. Each store featured a large square tower that resembled the woven side of a basket.
That’s because they see so many of the EBT and SNAP crowd (daugher is an employee). Familiarity breeds contempt, and conservatism.
I have seen pictures of the customers taping the receipts from other stores to the front doors of Market basket, to show they are taking their business elsewhere.
Apparently they didn’t take your advice. Because standing firm and watching a business slowly shrivel and die is SUCH good business advice.
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