Personal Narrative: Demoulas Super Market Basket

Demoulas Super Market Inc. or Market Basket, is a family owned chain grocery store based out of Massachusetts with stores also located in New Hampshire and Maine. I had the opportunity when I turned 14 to work in the checkout bagging groceries. I worked all throughout high school and worked my way up into an assistant manager position right before I turned 18. With raises every 6 months and bonuses coming in left and right, I knew it was a good gig.

Everyone talked about our CEO Mr. Arthur T. Demoulas. I was fortunate enough to meet him the first year I worked there. It was Christmas Eve and I was outside getting all the shopping carts and bringing them inside. He walked up to me, shook my hand, told me who he was, and continued to thank me for my job well done. Being so young and not fully understanding his importance I took the small encounter for granted.

Little did I know how powerful and well liked he was. Its things like that that make him so admired. He could have been with his family for the holiday night but instead he was standing in the freezing cold shaking my hand.
It is very hard to understand and follow all the events that led up to the firing of Arthur T. Demoulas and everything past that. It has been a long time running family feud. On June 25th, 2014 Arthur T. Demoulas “was ousted as chief executive of the company by a rival faction of his family, which controlled 50.5% of the firm” BBC News reported. The new CEO, Arthur S. Demoulas and two new co-chief executives, James Gooch and Felicia Thornton were appointed. William Marsden and Joe Rockwell, executives at Market Basket, along with seven others were fired for attempting to get Arthur T. Demoulas reinstated.
At this point every store received a fax from headquarters stating the above information. The boycotting and striking was almost instant. At every register we had a petition that people could sign requesting that Arthur T. Demoulas be reinstated as CEO. By noon of the first day the petitions were put out we had roughly over 1,000 signatures. Every time a petition sheet got full we would put it in a pile and switch it out with a blank one. At the end of the week we would send the fully signed front and back petitions to headquarters in Massachusetts. All the stores did this. Can you imagine the amount of papers that were on Arthur S. Demoulas desk? We thought for sure that this would be enough to get our beloved CEO back but, unfortunately it wasn’t.
On July 18th, employees and customers from all over New England rally and demand our CEO back. This first rally really kicked things off. There were so many people there. We craved the media’s attention so we could get our point across. It was truly an amazing thing to witness. The store I worked for rent school buses and brought employees down to Massachusetts for the rally. The more people that showed up the more attention we would receive. Well, over 1,300 loyal employees and customers came to support Market Basket.
The next day as I was pulling into the parking lot something quite wasn’t right.

Or should I say something was missing? Besides three or four cars the parking lot was empty. I was in shock. Even we are closed the parking lot is more full than it was at that moment. As I parked made my way to the store entrance I could see some of my managers and fellow employees standing outside with signs. “Don’t Feed Corporate Greed” and “Market Basket Strong” were plastered all over the place. Walking into the store was kind of scary. It was a ghost town. There was no one at the checkout and only one customer service women in the courtesy booth. She looked at me smiled and said “It’s going to be a busy day” in an extremely sarcastic voice. I chuckled, smiled back, and proceeded to log myself in. My manager came inside and asked if I wanted to protest. I was skeptical at first because I wasn’t quite sure if he was kidding or not. He enthusiastically handed me a large blank piece of poster paper and a marker. “Write something but keep it appropriate” he said. “This is a peaceful protest Tommy and we want to keep it that

way.”
I had mixed feelings about standing outside protesting. Am I aloud to do this while I’m on the clock? What if someone disagrees with what we are doing and decided to take it out on me? Is this really that important to me?
Customers were so supportive of us. People would bring us popsicles, water bottles, chips and cookies, even home baked items. It was truly amazing to step back and watch customers and employees, complete strangers to each other, unite for one reason and one reason only. Arthur T. Demoulas brought us together. It became more than a protest. Everyday there was at least three people standing outside the doors to the store. Some die hard customers would even come and hold signs with us. I met so many different people, connected with employees I might not have talked to before, and over all felt like I was being pulled into this close nit community.
While it was great to come to work and not actually do work, I knew this couldn’t last forever. Every week my hours were being cut back slowly but surely. Corporate had to act fast or the company they wanted so badly was finically going to go down the drain more than it already had been since the protests started. Onlabor.org reports “...Market Basket had lost up to $10 million per day. At least two of its stores fell behind on their August lease payments due to declining revenue. According to one estimate, sales were down 95% during the protests.”
On July 21st, Arthur T. Demoulas releases his first statement since being fired stating “This is the first time I have commented publicly on the recent events at Market Basket. The success of Market Basket is the result of two things: a business model that works and the execution of it by a dedicated and impassioned team of associates. Their fierce loyalty to the company and its customers has always been deeply valued. In the final analysis, this is not about me. It is about the people who have proven their dedication over many years and should not have lost their jobs because of it. I urge that they be reinstated in the best interest of the company and our customers.”
Out of everything that he has lost, company and family wise, the only thing he wants is the fired executives to get their jobs back. What a selfless act. Nearly two days after Arthur T. Demoulas releases his first statement to the media, according to TheGuardian “Arthur T’s side of the family announces that they are willing to buy the other half of the company from the Arthur S faction of the Demoulas family.” This was the biggest sign of relief for everyone. It was finally coming to an end. Little did we now it was going to be almost a month more of heartbreak and let downs.
The next month was rough. All part time employees got all their hours cut. More rallies were held and everyday was a new story about what was happening with the bid to buy the store. On August 27th, a deal was reached to sell the 50.5% stake of the company to Arthur T. Demoulas for a total of $1.5 billion. The eight fired executives were reinstated and all part timers returned to work. Faith was restored. Within days the shelves were all restocked and almost all of our customers came back. It was the only thing people talked about for the next two months.
Being a part of this “movement” was amazing. I was making history. I protested for the greater good and succeeded. We made national news. People were telling me that what we did will be talked about in business and economic classes. I made a difference.
There was a down fall though. Striking against and boycotting Market Basket really took its toll on the company. We single handedly destroyed our company. Arthur T. Demoulas bought a failing company. That’s how the bank was going to look at it. We stopped working, told customers not to shop here, and just boycotted the entire company. Employees lose their jobs, the company loses money, and it’s bad for the business. No CEO wants their company on the news because their employees are on strike. Everyone gets hurt when strikes are formed.
With striking comes a lot of advantages though. Striking for the right reasons, lower wages or changing retirement plans, can really benefit the employees. You must stand together and fight for what is right. Strikes can get out of hand very quickly but if you keep the protest peaceful you are sure to get the positive attention you need.
Market Basket employees and customers banded together to reinstate their former CEO Arthur T. Demoulas. Arthur T. Demoulas really expanded Market Basket and correctly ran the successful business. Arthur T. Demoulas really looked out and took care of his employees. With constant bonuses and raises, he really admired them just as much as they admired him.