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Please Go Away Market Basket Theatre
I'm still trying to understand the concept of people getting excited / passionate about their supermarket.
Apples = Apples no matter where you go. Diet Coke is Diet Coke no matter where you go. The meat at Shaw's is horrible, while at Roche Bros. it is great.
With the exception of the Chelsea store and possibly the exceptions of the downtown Haverhill store and a store in Lowell, everyone drives to a Market Basket, so if people are protesting billionaires fighting over billions, they also have the time to drive the extra 3 miles to Hannaford, Shaw's, Stop & Shop, Roche Bros., Whole Foods, etc.
It's about lower prices not
It's about lower prices not better quality Diet Coke.
Lots of people walk, take the
Lots of people walk, take the bus or bike to the Somerville store. I walk or bike, not everyone has the money to drive everywhere.
You really have..
You really have no clue don't you.
It's not about low prices, although the customers feel that way. I'm one of them. But the bigger issue is that it's about sticking to big business and not destroying something good all because of greed.
Outside of employee owned retail companies like WinCo and Publix or companies that respect and treat their employees well like Costco and Trader Joes, Market Basket has unheard of benefits and treats their employee very well
Name me a store (outside of the ones above) where..
1. You get profit sharing
2. You get quarterly raises automatically
3. You receive a check when a new store opens
4. You receive healthcare for part time employees
5. A high amount of employee stay for a very long time (i.e. employee retention)
6. Where your CEO has a personal effect on your life (attending weddings, graduations, funerals)
7. You feel like you're apart of something good
8. Customers. employees, and vendors are treated like family
9. That has little debt and pays cash for everything
10. Just generally does everything the right way and isn't afraid to pass that savings on to the customer/community and not for the coffers of some rich man
Yeah because there isn't one. There's a lot more at stake than just lower prices. Arthur T has given his employees a piece of the American Dream, something most employers do not do these days.
I read an article where business schools are taking notes and teaching new business students these business practices. Artie T made a company that works, and works very well. And the protest just show how much they value him and the things he has done for his employees and customers.
If you don't care, then don't read the articles and certainly don't comment. No one is forcing you to pay attention. Just scroll on by.
This blood feud
is much deeper than what you list. From what I have read Artie's side of the family methodically stole the business from the other Artie's side of the family. This Greek tragedy has played out through years and included the disbarring of two prominent lawyers hired by Artie to discredit a presiding Judge who Artie felt was bias toward Artie. I see manipulation, revenge and a bunch of rubes that see themselves as part of a "family" that doesn't seem to act like a family. Off to Stoppy.
Doesn't look like it's
Doesn't look like it's working well. Shelves empty. Workers telling customers not to shop there. All because of the massive sense of entitlement Arthur T bred. And what has Arthur S done that prompted this? Nothing anyone can point to, just the specter of future changes.
No it's working
It's working.. why? because people are NOTICING. The story has been picked up by news outlets across the WORLD. When was the last time you heard employees rallying for a CEO. Like never.
Arthur S prompted this by his pure greed and to 'get back' at his cousin. Arthur S wants to suck all the money out of the company and just sell it, all in spite. This is the prompt. You don't need to know the inner workings to know thats what is going on. Just look at Gooch and Thornton, they are vultures in the retail world. Just look at what Thornton did to Albertson's before it was sold off into parts or how well Radio Shack did under Gooch (he was fired..)
Oh and Entitlements.. are we going on a EBT spiel now? It's not entitlements if you've worked somewhere for decades and expect to get something back. When you STAY with a company for the benefits, it's not entitlements. You work, you get paid and benefits. Its pretty simple, no entitlements here. These are at stake now.
EDIT: one more thing, let's see how YOU'D feel if you worked for a company for 30 years and then it was sold off into parts and your retirement goes byebye. You'd be pissed off too. Your hard work for retirement has gone down the tubes because of pure greed. This happens all to well everyday now in 'big business'. It's very sad. This is what makes Market Basket different.
If nothing happens at the
If nothing happens at the board meeting on Friday, will the employees stop sabotaging the business?
Actually yes
From my sources, the protests will stop and people will go back to work. My source says friday will be the last day of protests.
The point is to send a message to current management that any changes will not be tolerated or they will do this again.
So how does that work?
So how does that work?
You spend a week sabotaging your company and asking your customers not to patronize said company unless certain, specific demands are met.
A week goes by - the company doesn't meet any of those specific demands, the employees go back to work - and the customers are supposed to just shrug and go back to the company they were told by those same workers to boycott, even though the status quo that triggered the boycott request hasn't changed?
I also don't see the end game
I also don't see the end game. In a traditional union boycott hasn't the union saved up funds that can be dispersed to the striking workers? The non-union MB workers are just screwed out of lost wages, right?
I had read
that they're still getting paid. Clocking into work, then going out and protesting.
If true...
That seems wrong.
I thought I read they didn't
I thought I read they didn't clock in, but they got paid anyways. The direct deposit people, at least (so probably automatic system - or maybe just HR are also striking and thus not bothering/foreseeing to stop the automation). If I read that right (I read that yesterday and late at night), that's probably going to have to be fixed or somebody out of the thousands now aware is going to take advantage of that.
way-way-wait....
Employees are clocking in, then going to hold signs and protest, instead of working?
I thought Market Basket DIDN'T have unions?!
Even right-wingers I know who
Even right-wingers I know who do cross picket lines without a second though will not cross Market Basket picket lines because they respect the workers and they like the way Market Basket has operated for the past 3 decades.
Cross the picket line to do
Cross the picket line to do what? The stores are empty. It's easy to boycott an empty store.
I guess you don't get it-
I guess you don't get it--Artie T didn't start the boycott--the employees did--and customers stopped shopping there on their own (I am one--no one told me not to--I just did--as did others--because we are sick of corporate greed). Why did the employees walk out--because they know Artie T and how good he is to his people and Arthur S--it's all about money and a fool who knows nothing, because he never worked a day in his life--so he had to hire not one, but two CEO's--one of whom shut down a lot of Staples then went onto to do the same at Radio Shack and a witch of a woman, who did in the companies she worked for. It came out she wanted to close at least 20 stores and they also wanted to put in self-check out registers--I for one would never use one--I use checks--can't use those at self-check outs and Artie wanted people waiting on people--get it now.
Debt?
You say this a lot, but do we really know this? Or is it some internet legend?
Also, the debt situation could change a lot if Arthur T does indeed buy out the remaining shares. The business is estimated to be worth $3 to $3.5 billion and the other side isn't prone to giving him a hometown discount. ~$1.7 billion in debt will change the business model.
I hope it works out. MB is a good supermarket and a good local business.
I have sources
I have sources. I cannot reveal how I know. I just know people.
Sorry, but...
Uhhh, I don't think a meat cutter has intimate knowledge of the MB financials.
You don't
You don't know me off this site. You have no idea who I know.
Are you
Arthur T????
Debt free a year ago
Here's something credible from about a year ago - link:
Regardless of MB's current
Regardless of MB's current debt situation, there is no way Arthur T can buy this stock without taking on significant debt. This is going to potentially be a multi-billion dollar transaction. Published estimates have put there value between $4 and $5 billion. Nobody has that kind of liquidity.
I also recalled multiple
I also recalled multiple articles from Boston Globe and etc during and before this saga that notes how MB has grown and has no debt. I remember last's year incident where the board voted for a big payout, the news article kept pointing out MB has no debt.
Unless all those articles are wrong (or my memory is that bad), it gives hint how MB managed to go so far as it did. There are benefits to buying real estate and operating on only cash. Even though it seems everyone seem to do things with debt these days.
*cough*
*cough*
Thank you for the facts and your opinions.
Now that you rolled out your case for one side of the family I appreciate it and understand it better.
By the way, since Market Basket is such a nice company to their employees, can we let them build in Boston since they are non-union?
Probably not
Market Basket likes to own the buildings their stores reside in, along with the strip malls that contain their stores. It's unlikely it will ever be built in Boston due to start up costs, unless a SWEET real estate deal is to be found (which at going rates for commercial real estate in Boston seems unlikely)
Taking a stab at it
I don't know about this specific list of benefits (some more esoteric than others), but I do know that Wegmans frequently ranks near the top if not at the top in both employee satisfaction as well as best employer ratings every year.
Somerville Market Basket
Lots of people bike to this -- they recently had to add a second bike rack on the west side of the store. Also plenty of people walk to it, take the #87 bus, take taxis, etc.
I'd bet that a large majority of Somerville residents shop here, and a fair number of people come over from Cambridge too.
You bet?
Check out the number of gypsy cabs going back and forth from the Somerville MB. Most of them are going to Charlestown because most of the people who live in the three sets of projects there can't afford to shop at the Whole Foods that replaced Johnny's Foodmaster.
Think of the impact it would have on low income families in New England if MB went under and Whole Foods went into all of those vacant stores.
Used to go to a Johnnies near me.
It wasn't the best, but that had a few things better than Shaws or S&S. Turned into a WF. Popped in once, haven't been back since.
Cool story, bro.
Cool story, bro.
Agreed! I live in the city
Agreed! I live in the city and have honestly never even seen a market basket. The way people talk about it, you'd think the food was free.
I guess it's super cheap though? I'm pretty poor and do my shopping at Shaws/Star and occasionally Whole Foods, and I manage quite well.
Switching to Market Basket is
Switching to Market Basket is like getting a raise.
Well maybe they'll open one
Well maybe they'll open one in the city and I can join this following. Until then, I'll stick with what's nearby. Somerville is a little far for groceries.
Yes, it is super cheap
Yes, it is super cheap compared to city supermarkets. My husband is from California and had never heard of Market Basket and he hates grocery shopping. However, I brought him to the MB in Newburyport on our way back from Plum Island and he loved it... weird, but true. We save about $20 each time we stock up on things like peanut butter, crackers, cheese, pasta, Annie's Mac N Cheese, shelf-stable type items, TP, PT, etc.
Go read something else if it
Go read something else if it doesn't interest/concern you.
So....?
I live in the MW area, and so I drive daily. I've got all of the above within 10 minutes of me, but every week, I drive 25-30 minutes to MB. Why?
Because all of the above listed stores are grossly overpriced (though, I will admit, the quality of Roche Bros is excellent).
You are simplifying the roll
You are simplifying the roll that these stores play in communities that host them and beyond. At the end of the day a can of coke is a can of coke, I will agree to that. The issue is that there are employees that get that can of coke to you, there are employees that sell it to you, stock it etc. Those employees make a reasonable wage when compared to other stores and get really good benefits. Yet the prices somehow remain low, the owners still make a fortune and the employees get compensated. Market Basket was very similar to Walmart except that everyone was benefiting in the equation.
The stores employ 25K people across the region, that is as big as a city. In Chelsea alone there are 900 jobs connected to that store, in addition to the other stores in the plaze. In Revere they have been waiting for a store to open to revitalize a shopping plaza that has seen rough times and they have been put off by the drama at the board.
My Great Aunt gives me a list that she culls from the ad she gets from Market Basket. She can not leave the house so she depends on the store to have the low prices and either myself or my mother does her shopping for her. Even though she does not leave her apartment she still can not fathom shopping anywhere else.
Boston and New England has accepted Market Basket into our daily routines, along with Dunkin Donuts and a few other deeply New England businesses. That makes this drama personal for all of us. They were so successful for all these years because we let them into our homes, into our communities, into our lives. Their success rides on that personal connection, they would be hypocrites to turn around tell us all to but out of their business.
On a side note, with 25k employees it is easy to see how this became such a big deal. Even if customers with no direct connection were cool with what is happening you would still have a huge number of directly impacted people. If each employee affects just 10 people that is 250,000 people. If each impacts 100 people you have now hit a quarter of a million people. The new management must own a calculator, even if customers agreed with the new management they were still going to have over a million people very upset with them.
It is also a rebuke and rebuttal of the MBA Greed model
..where it matters most. Groceries.
A friend of mine supports a family of four working the stock market and his results got much better recently when he decided to poke around and see if there are plays involving what he calls 'Traditional ' models because he is sick of the stress that comes with working the MBA dickbag side.
An example would be the old boring regional bank that sticks to its home loan knitting and pays dividends. He's a demon for research and found a nice basket of them and it worked.
It's as if you have to seek out the places that never bought into the 80s model.
And then there are the intangibles. Large corporations probably spend more than the entire bickering family is worth on imbecilic marketing gimmicks in the hope that they can ever finesse that kind of customer loyalty.
The various supermarket chains who wasted everyone's time on that shit are now hurting, half crushed by this Traditionalist competitor.
Arthur T's may rise and fall but the idea that not sucking makes you more munniez will be a welcome change for all.
Not Sucking
This whole thing of articles noting that MB "buy, not lease real estate", pays things in cash, never borrow money, paying workers well with benefits, relying on lowest price possible all sounds like something that I do recall conservatives decry was common in the 1950's. Many others could chime they are wearing nostalgia glasses and etc. But my point is that MB does seems to be the embodiment of that depiction - true or false.
Regardless of that veracity, MB does seem to be antithesis to the stereotypical practices of companies today (or perhaps always been). It is so common, it is just presume to be the reflection of "you get what you pay for". If you want some combination of quality, service, decently paid workers, and other things, you go to Whole Foods and pay the Whole Foods price (or at least in image, I don't know how much their workers are actually paid).
The fact MB does seems to fly in the face of that. Is making us either question how they are making money... or perhaps businesses can be profitable without following the "suck as much as possible as long we don't lose more customers to the savings"
It may one day be viewed as a ridiculous fad aberration
..in biz grad schools.
What if biz school since boomers has just boiled down to ways of figuring out adulterants or incremental cheats?
And then inventing this kind of secular wizard fluff called marketing to gull the bedazzled into hosing themselves.
It is like a 4 decade long gamble that smoke and mirrors wedded to ruthless bean counting and cheating at every turn will be more 'profitable' than just nailing the best price and shutting up.
That's what biz schools have become, the presumed best minds devoted to meticulous horseshit and flim flam based on the chimera that it is some kind of short cut to the gold paved streets.
The traditionalist just dismisses that shit and figures out how to deliver the Teddy peanut butter at 3 bucks a jar.
And if the public gets wise you're toast.
What if they were just generously going along with this 40 year avalanche of spurious dog and pony shows because they were fat and happy?
And now that they are lean and stressed they are looking for unmistakable tangible value.
Your basic Asian market out west worked the same way. These small family and clan based things delivered quality at 1/4 to 1/3 less than the asshole corporate giants.
I'm talking about things slightly bigger than McKinnons in Somerville, (another traditionalist).
And yet they were making money hand over fist with a growing base of customers well beyond the Southeast Asian world they mainly aimed to serve.
Wholesale food is not that expensive, especially the basics.
What if a 40 year veneer of slick vicious bullshit is finally starting to crumble and no one comes to the dog and pony show anymore?
That would be nice. I have
That would be nice. I have heard that this phenomena is an American thing. I heard discussions that European and Japanese companies don't follow this (and if I was to make a shallow comparison, the descriptions of these companies again sounds like 1950's and 1960's corporate America that conservatives hawk back to).
But I don't know. For all I know, the business schools will study this incident, but still attempt to fit it to what they been teaching for the past 40 years rather rewrite their lessons (perhaps teaching to cultivate an image rather than real actions or just focusing on the family fight).
On the positive side of recent business stuff. While I admire the "traditional" practices but doubt its correctness by watching so few follow it (and thus also question if it was ever that commonly practiced), I don't mind more recent fads of things like social media. I question the value of Twitter able to provide justifiable service, but I wouldn't mind of MB pick up those things.
"Traditional" is mainly an ethos
..that can fit anything. The technic of our time hasn't made ethics obsolete or merit and earning loyalty.
It's the playbook for sustainable best practices and is generally accepted everywhere.
It just takes discipline and leadership and a readiness to cherish the fact that you aren't the most important thing on the block.
NeoBiz is just this obsession that there are short cuts. Offshore the labor until the hauling costs wipe out the savings and so on or your customers can't buy stuff cause their jobs went to where the cheap labor is.
Doing shit right doesn't require an MBA. It might be helpful but not essential. Jobs majored in Calligraphy or some such thing. International relations or whatever at Reed.
This is really at the heart of the bullshit credential foist that makes vampires bat caves of what were once noble things.. Higher Ed Temples.
Gates and Jobs made a credential of stuff they really did, however large their teams eventually became.
But all the hapless dildos who are in debt up to their eyeballs to get one of these stupid fawking credentials desperately need to believe it was worth it so they make shit up and eke a living from layering useless complexity where it serves no purpose and adds no value.
Why can't they make prices
Why can't they make prices even lower by keeping everything else the same except employee benefits? I doubt consumers would care much for the plight of the workers in that instance.
I think that is roughly what
I think that is roughly what the workers are afraid off. No side is ever a guarantee, but Artie T has a history to keep the status quo. The Artie S side is via their hires and look at how most business behave are probably thinking roughly what you just thought.
Slash the benefits as low as legally to reduce overhead cost. I'll go further they probably won't use it to lower the prices, but pocket it. The workers may protest, but it seems most run on the assumption they'll learn to live with it.
Theoretically, they could pull that off with consumers sitting idle. But it seems if Artie S intended to do that, he messed up and now consumers are joined with the employees.
I think consumers are joined
I think consumers are joined with low prices.
Not all consumers
I don't shop at Wal-Mart because of its abusive labor practices. The largest employer in the world doesn't pay a living wage, and we as businesses, consumers and taxpayers pay the price in other ways that certainly exceed the savings we reap on cheap Chinese crap. The way taxpayers subsidize Wal-Mart's profits effectively makes it the biggest welfare bum on the block.
I think you are a minority so
I think you are a minority so far as boycotting a place over labor practices. I can see consumers avoiding Walmart because they'd be buying knock-off Chinese crap. With supermarkets we aren't talking about knock-offs, we are talking about Diet Coke.
I wouldn't walk into one
I wouldn't walk into one myself, if they were giving the stuff away free !
I won't
shop at Wal*Mart either.Too many issues.. between labor issues, sub par pay, cheap crap they sell made in slave labor factories over seas. Then of course the hatred for the Walton Family in general.
That and I've watched Wal*Mart have not-so-cool business practices. One of which is how they avoid paying taxes by moving stores across town lines and leaving old stores abandoned and empty so no other competitor can move in. Go to the South, you'll see empty Wal*Marts dot the landscape.
There's a long laundry list of crap Wal*Mart does.. enough to make me never want to step my foot in there.
Too bad Sam Walton isn't still around. I some how think he and Arthur T would get along very well. They both had the same style management and mission. It wasn't until Sam Walton died when Wal*Mart turned into this greedy, self serving, human sucking organization that it is today.
There a couple other reason
There a couple other reason consumers can be worried even if Diet Coke is Diet Coke and generally not interested in getting involved over labor practices.
1. While Diet Coke can stay the same. The produce and meat may become less quality as they go cheaper on them. Thus we can an Wal Mart Scenario for MB, it might not be Chinese Made crap and the cost to buy the head of lettuce is the same. But it might not be as fresh anymore.
2. "Whole Foods-ification" - There are rumors (and links to pictures circulated on Reddit and message boards). They intend to emulate them - organic stuff and everything. Theoretically, they can be more profitable due to the higher margins, though it is questionable they can attract such a new demographic and it will be spurning almost an entire customer base away. Thus, we a MB that have better "quality" and etc, but much greater price.
3. "Stop & Shop/Shaw-ification"** - There are many people discussion and fearful of this scenario. Court documents have show indication to sell. It is possible we can see the scenario that occurred with Stop and Shop and etc. New company moves with typical practices and no connection to the region (or the country), will do the "keep everything the same, but raise prices". Thus, we get a MB that does have roughly same quality, but pay much more.
**There's an irony to Shaws. From what I heard, they are reforming in the direction MB. From their lowest point and getting bought out, the first thing the new owners did was reverse service direction with hiring more workers. Of course they got rid of the loyalty cards that apparently only annoyed people. And they have been offering stuff at cheaper prices now. It would be ironic if MB gets bought out and pick up Shaw's downturn practices of minimal staff and mediocre pricing. And Shaw's becomes the new MB some time in the future if trends continue long enough.
So consumers can worry. Quality of goods is less detectable than Wal Mart, but remember consumers are quite aware of modern business practices. One of the modern practices don't advise MB to sell their stuff that low (theoretically, and probably quite likely, they can increase profits quite a bit by raising prices as the increased margins would offset loss of customers).
As others have said, quality
As others have said, quality isn't the issue, it's cost. MB provides way better prices than other stores- at least that's what I've seen the few times I've been in one. The closest one to my house is either the Raynham or WB one, so I don't shop there often.
If it's hard for you to understand that some people really need to save money everywhere they possibly can, well...lucky you!
Shareholders on other side of
"Shareholders on other side of the family - descendants of George Demoulas, Telemachus' brother - include Arthur S., a Boston resident, along with Diana Merriam of Boxford, Fotene Demoulas of Boston, Rafaela Evans of London, David Gilpatric of Winchester and a Delaware-based trust."
That side of the family owns 2,500 shares.
Sweet T needs 51 shares to control, who is going to come to their senses here. Dont think Cousin S will, he will go down with the ship. Maybe the Del. trust has some common sense.Let the greed begin !
Come to think about it, we
Come to think about it, we the whole thing technically may not even need to buy out. Remember, Arthur S got the 51% in the 90's and only now this happened. Like a Supreme Court case, what recently happen is someone that once voted for Arthur T switched to Arthur S. The power balance is currently 4-3 towards Arthur S. If one person switch to vote to Arthur T, it could means new actions favorable to him again without any buyout. With all of this pressure, perhaps that person will change her mind back (I heard it was a she, but no names have been given on any article or comments I read). Or perhaps one of the others would break.
So this was all about
So this was all about lowering the price for a buyout?
New regime considers selling anyway
Some court papers indicate the current regime at MB wants to cash out. I'm guessing that Arthur T. thinks it might as well be him to buy out the chain. Perhaps employees want to join in as owners too if T. doesn't have the cash or would carry too much debt. As trustees of various trusts, Arthur S. and co are required to consider offers.
So what?
Do the wealthy stop having the right to do with their property as they want just because? If you wanted to "cash out" and sell your home or something, how would you feel if your neighbors got together and prevented it?
My neighbors?
You mean the neighbors who make their living in my home? Or the ones who fund my home by stopping by every week or so and giving me money? Or maybe you mean the neighbors who already own almost half of my home.
It's hard to tell just what point you are trying to make.
Look it's very simple
Francis' point is crystal clear:
The rich can do whatever the fuck they want, and the rest of us can get fucked.
Why is this hard to understand? It's the New American Dream, baby.
Don't like it? Go on American Idol and make something of yourself.
Not hard to understand
Just hard to accept, particularly when it's propped up with meaningless analogy.
It trends that way
..but they can be amenable to public pressures at times, like when one of their rail runs blows up a town or something.
The breathless coverage of it all is cool.
I can see a great scenario in which "S" cuts the deal and moves symbolically away from his humble roots in a provincial backwater on the Merrimack to become a major player in a bigger provincial backwater on the Charles.
He won't be tethered to figuring biz strategy for a grubby detail oriented thing like supermarket operations but will be able to soar in the rarefied heights of giant glass luxury monuments to gird our fair skyline with his new partner, that Chiofaro fellow.
A new and even more splendid Dubai will rise between Revere and Winthrop with an artificial resort island shaped like a lobster with a building suggesting an upright Cod as its centerpiece.
What an elegant fantasy
I think it's probably very close to what Art S envisions.
I don't see anyone here suggesting that Market Basket
management has no right to make the moves it is making. It all looks perfectly legal to me.
If you want to side with a few millionaires making themselves incrementally richer at the expense of tens of thousands of loyal employees and a much larger number of customers, knock yourself out. I know plenty of poor and middle-class people who perversely, adamantly defend the rights of the greedy rich to be as greedy as possible, clearly not understanding how much smaller their chances of ever entering that class have become over the last 30 years. I find that really weird, but it's your call.
Me, I'm rooting for the millionaire who decided it was more important to take care of his workers just a little bit. Arthur T. is a vanishingly rare example of a modern American executive who isn't entirely motivated by greed. It's remarkable, and to some of us, refreshing.
Also, those of us who actually shop at Market Baskets can only look at Arthur S.'s obvious bleed-it-dry strategy and recognize that the MB experience we knew (great customer service from happy, longtime employees), low prices and high quality is almost certain to sharply decline.
It's aspirational superstition..
.. that grips the low information cohorts.
They seem to think if they root really really hard for the neofeudalists who happily piss on them that some magical transformation will put them in the big house.
It suggests some kind of arrested development entrenched by the powerful impact of our childish love of something for nothing.
It's generally harmless until it influences voting patterns that hose the rest of us.
The best thing about the last hell recession was the toll it took on these simpletons as if they finally got to that 'No Santa Claus" epiphany.
Probably tied to giant lottery jackpots
Millions and millions of non-rich people are convinced that they will someday win one of those super jackpots -- and they want to make sure now that they won't have to pay too much in taxes when they do finally win.
Hmm
Looks like someone was recently watching Last Week Tonight With John Oliver ...
That notion is a lot older than HBO
and Comedy Central. Updike famously said, "Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires." One doesn't have to be on that extreme left end of the political spectrum to appreciate the sentiment.
The GOP and its affiliates like Fox News have long made hay out of convincing poor white people that their problems are due not to exploitative billionaires rigging the economic and political system in their own favor, but to immigrants and poor people of color.
The increasingly desperate illusion of the possibility of upward mobility for the poor and middle class is a very useful mirage for the rich to promote.
No cable....
... just an old fashioned Radio Shack anrtenna. So --- no HBO for us.
All I know is on the MB FB page
there are many photos of Arthur S at the family functions (weddings, christenings) of his employees and not a single one of Arthur S.
Well,
Arthur T was the CEO, Arthur S didn't have much to do with the day to day running of the company did he? I'm guessing employees wouldn't just invite S. to their wedding simply because his last name was Demoulas.
francis1776
Market Basket to legal action to stop a Whole Foods, which the residents badly wanted so they could get better quality produce, from opening up in Westford. So now there are two MB's in Westford within spitting distance of one another. MB has a lot of money and a lot of pull in Massachusetts. Quite a few people in town were PO'd not to have the opportunity for an alternative in town. MB bigwigs do impact communities. They're not just minding their own business. People have a right to make their voices heard. Or I suppose you could just stick your head in the sand if you prefer.
Also Chelmsford
Where the Stop & Shop inexplicably decided to move from the center of town (within walking distance of a large elderly-housing complex) to directly across the street from an existing Market Basket. MB unsuccessfully sued to stop S&S from building there. Until the current turmoil erupted, the MB parking lot was always full, while the S&S lot was always half empty.
no Market Basket circular in Globe Direct this week?
The Globe Direct in my Thursday Globe (home-delivered, Somerville) does not contain a Market Basket flyer. If you are in Basket territory and you actually look at Globe Direct, can you tell us if you got one?
for once
I didn't receive my Globe Direct baggies yesterday.. (I get three of them). Although I've been on vacation so I have not cut my lawn. They could be behind the bushes.
No MB flyer...
...in our Andover version of the Globe Direct ad bundle (comes in the mail). Just Stop & Shop (since Shaw's is gone around there).
No MB fliers in the home
No MB fliers in the home delivered Boston Globe, either.
No
Even though I've never set foot in a Market Basket (there are none that close to me) I notice that there is a Market Basket flyer in the Thursday Globe. There wasn't one today.
Cousin S must be beside
Cousin S must be beside himself with all this interference with his portfolio. He will be spite city in his dealing with Cousin T , Sweet T if you will , and will be trying to extract some satisfaction. He might already have a price from , say Cerebus ,and now the posturing will begin. MB is being dismantled financially , and debt and greed will prevail. I don't think Cousin S cares to stay in the grocery business and fight, but if he does , look for C & S to take over his supply logistics and restock the stores . If they don't at least restock and try to conduct a business, the value diminishes rapidly for both Cousins. Not everybody drinks the MB koolaid.
Footnote , I just saw a tweet from today at 12:10 pm that says JB Hunt trucking , escorted by security , rolling product. They are the house carrier for C & S Wholesale Grocers. Don't know if they are running out of MB warehouse or their own.
Here is what I don't get -
Here is what I don't get - why didn't Arthur T try to buy out the other side last year? He had to have known that this was going to come up again, and that it was likely he would be on the losing side in the next vote. Why not do it then?
Well , he just lost control
Well , he just lost control and got fired in June , as I have seen reported. Also reported is that the new crew has offers from outside parties to purchase MB, beside the T cousin's current offer. So maybe he didn't want to start the process until the status quo was disturbed, one way or another. With all the pented-up drama here , T knew it would get ugly. And costly !
I believe the new bosses hired by Arthur S...
... are specialists at corporate dismantling rather than corporate maintenance and growth (and not especiallysuccessful ones, at that).