The Somerville Market Basket

[ron_newman]

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.

Comments

[somerfriend.livejournal.com]

Different world views. To me if an employee doesn't like the direction the company is going, the moral course of action is to find a job elsewhere and give 2 weeks notice. I've had to do that a few times in my life and once I was laid off and it wasn't fun. But to actively sabotage a company doesn't seem just to me.

I'm sympathetic any time someone's job, friendship or marriage doesn't work out the way it used to, but I wouldn't support them lashing out at the other entity under these types of circumstances.

[grapefruiteater.livejournal.com]

So everyone at Market Basket should give notice and stop working there? Because this is more than just a bad supervisor in one part of the company—it's signs that the entire company is moving in a direction that many people, and not just employees, find objectionable. Market Basket has been a good place to work, and it's unrealistic to expect that many people to just go find new jobs. And what are customers supposed to do? In Somerville there are other places to shop, but in the Merrimack Valley and large parts of New Hampshire in particular, MB is the major player. In Haverhill, for example, there are no other supermarkets, so if Market Basket is no longer an option or it becomes very expensive under the new management team, then a lot of people are up a creek.

[somerfriend.livejournal.com]

No not all employees, just the ones who don't like the changes that come and find a better opportunity. If the owners of Market Basket are so stupid as to lower wages or change things in the future to the point that a large percentage of employees started quitting, they would be forced to reverse course quickly or watch their company die. There is no social contract that once an organization has provided something generous, they must do it forever. That's how I feel, I understand most posters on this board feel such a social contract does exist. If I owned a company in this environment I'd feel nervous about offering generous benefits for fear of being vilified if they were ever withdrawn.

If customers don't like the company's compensation package to employees or prices, they are free to make the choice to drive farther or have groceries delivered. No one is forcing residents of Merrimack Valley to do so.

[bobobb.livejournal.com]

I think this situation is a little different from that. My understanding of the situation is two-fold, first that the employees considered Arthur T to be a friend, as well as a good employer, and second that they foresee Arthur S et al. wanting to asset strip Market Basket leaving them without work anyway. This second part seems to be related to the distribution of the 300 million dollars to the family members, leaving the company to buy on credit, which it sounds like is a different model that would require other structural changes and put the company at greater risk. I'm guessing that they are thinking that they will be jobless in a year anyway, so might as well stick up for Mr. T.

There are other complications as well, regarding the family history, the new CEO's (and one of the CEO's relationship to Radio Shack's demise - though it's not clear he was really responsible for that) and also the new CEO's early actions at the Indian Ridge Country Club attempting to fire management that was loyal to A.T. (http://www.boston.com/business/news/2014/06/27/market-basket-turmoil-hits-country-club/T54ZVEaSovA1jYbeiwgN9H/story.html) - which may be another reason why the MB folks figure they have nothing to lose.

The story is pretty rich (no pun intended), and I think, a little more complex then just "if you don't like your job, quit."

[cos]

That's an unnecessarily nihilistic and reductionist view. You reject out of hand the possibility of a company being anything other than simple bunch of purely transactional relationships that nobody ever cares about or should care about, just get what they want if it'll give it to them. Most people don't think that way, and I'm so very very glad of that. A world where the view you're expressing were dominant would be a significantly worse one that I am happy I don't live in. When people can care about something and cooperate to protect or guide it, whether it's a company or a city or a nonprofit or a club or a family or any other kind of entity, that's on balance a good thing. If you don't care about it you can ignore it, but actually thinking badly of people for doing so and criticizing them for it on principle, feels to me deeply world-damaging as a point of view.

Leaving a company when you don't like which direction it's turning is a legitimate choice and may often be a reasonable one, but there's nothing "moral" about labeling that the only valid choice. On the contrary, I think condemning people for not making that choice is what is immoral.