Market Basket and the Grocery Wars
Picture courtesy of CafeMom.com
Market Basket*. It’s a local grocery store chain based here in Massachusetts with 71 stores in the Bay State and New Hampshire. We don’t have one close enough to us here in Shrewsbury, MA but at this point, one cannot live here and not know about Market Basket. It’s been in the local news almost every day since late June when managers and associates walked off the job. That in itself isn’t unusual; what is amazing is that 1) the workers are not unionized and b) they are protesting the ouster of one of the CEOs. This isn’t about wages, working conditions or benefits, it’s about reinstating their boss. I won’t go into all the details about the decades-long fight between two cousins, Arthur T. Demoulas (the ousted CEO) and Arthur S. Demoulas (yep that’s also weird) let alone history of how this company got to this point. You can read all about it by just using good ol’ Google and the Wikipedia entry here.
The last month has been devastating for the company with no stock on the shelves, managers refusing to work, delivery trucks refusing to deliver and the company losing millions of dollars every day this continues. Loyal customers are staying away in solidarity with the MB workers. This brings to mind an M&M’s TV commercial’s tag-line: “What a chocolate mess!”
In today’s Boston Globe there is another article about the MB impasse with quotes from shoppers talking about their experiences at MB’s competition. Apparently these stores are seeing unprecedented crowds and one shopper said that the wait at the deli counter was insufferable. Here in Shrewsbury, we don’t have a Market Basket. What we do have within a 9 mile radius of our house are: four Stop n’ Shops, two Price Choppers, one Wegman’s, one Trader Joe’s, and one Shaw’s. Not exactly a grocery store desert here so those of us without a Market Basket, are just sitting back and watching the fun.
Market Basket has been praised for it’s low prices and according to news reports, the ousted CEO, Arthur T. Demoulas treated the workers with compassion and grace. As someone who watches labor issues closely, this is a rare way for a corporate executive to behave. This strike is amazing just in the fact that workers want their old boss back. That’s it. I don’t have a dog in this fight, but if they love the guy that much, well then I guess I have to place my sympathies with them. Apparently when Pete Townshend wrote “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss” he wasn’t writing about Arthur T, as he is affectionately known by MB associates.
It looks like someone is gonna lose this fight and if something isn’t done soon, it will probably be everyone and that is not a good thing.
*The website is not owned by Market Basket but is an independent website that was set up by a loyal customer.
