Ron Newman (
ron_newman) wrote in
davis_square2014-07-22 11:19 pm
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The Somerville Market Basket
The Somerville Market Basket this afternoon was a pretty sad place -- employees outside telling shoppers not to shop there; signs all over the store inside urging us to write to various e-mail addresses for the CEOs and independent members of the board of directors; produce shelves nearly empty except for bananas; dairy cooler aisle starting to visibly thin out in products like yogurt and cottage cheese.
The packaged goods in the middle of the store still looked reasonably well-stocked, and the bread aisle was quite full.
I left without buying anything, even though I needed orange juice and they still had that. I'm not going to shop in a store when the employees are asking me not to.
The packaged goods in the middle of the store still looked reasonably well-stocked, and the bread aisle was quite full.
I left without buying anything, even though I needed orange juice and they still had that. I'm not going to shop in a store when the employees are asking me not to.
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Market Basket is my go to store for groceries even though I live much closer to the Stop & Shop at Mystic and McGrath. Market Basket certainly has its' quirks and is far from perfect, but I must say I really like the place. Many of my neighbors refuse to shop there, but the place has grown on me a lot and it is one of the few actual brands that I make an effort to support. The prices at Market Basket are unbeatable compared to other local grocers and the employees generally seem knowledgable and happy. They do also tend to carry a wider selection of ethnic foods and interesting meat cuts/seafood than other local grocery stores as well.
I feel bad for the long time workers at the stores and also I am concerned that the Market Basket that I know and love today, will soon no longer be recognizable. I used to work at Foodmaster many years ago and not that I enjoyed working there all that much, I was still sad to see the chain chopped up and sold off to the highest bidder. I know most here won't agree with me, but I much preferred the old dingy carpeted Foodmaster on Beacon to the shiny new Whole Foods that exists there today. Not everybody wants or can afford organic/grass-fed/free-range etc., some people just want good quality fresh food at a reasonable price. Market Basket filled that niche very well as evidenced by all the people shopping at the Somerville store, even commuting there by taxi from neighboring towns.
The Demoulas family certainly has a lot of drama going on in the background, but I hope the employees and the customers do not have to pay the price if they can not come to some kind of satisfactory agreement about running the stores going forward.
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It's also fascinating to me to see this story starting to get national attention. I've got Facebook friends posting about it who live at the other end of the country -- they don't know the whole backstory, they've never been to a Market Basket in their lives, but they just read an article about it and found it an interesting labor-relations story.
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