The Epic Saga of Market Basket

[jducoeur]

h/t to folks over in DSLJ for the pointers to the two-part account in the Gloucester Clam about the incredibly messed-up history of the past century of the Demoulas family, and why Market Basket currently doesn't have any produce on the shelves. Here are part one, and part two.

It's worth reading, but here's the summary, as best I understand it: the once-"bad" side of the family wound up producing an unusually decent CEO, who has just been ousted by the formerly-screwed side of the family (who appear to resent the fact that he has been putting employees' interests over their recently-won profits). The employees are quite seriously up in arms, and the result is, ironically, that the most dramatic labor action in recent local memory is happening in a non-union shop...

Comments

[talvinm.livejournal.com]

Sounds somewhat like Wal-Mart in miniature. When I was a Wal-Mart Associate, I worked with people who had met and worked alongside Sam Walton "back in the day". "Mr. Sam" walked in during Christmas Rush one year, found the lady in Sporting Goods dealing with a blitz all alone because the other person had called in sick. Mr. Sam jumped behind the counter with her and started serving customers. Because she shouldn't have to face that alone.

You'd be hard-pressed to find an Assistant Manager who would dirty their hands like that nowadays.

Preserving Corporate Culture of that sort is, sadly, very difficult. When people who have never stocked a shelf or served a customer decide prices and policies, a once-beautiful thing will start to rot.