Market Basket Customers to Arthur S: Take Your Cash and Go

[graywarrior]

From the Concord NH Patch

(snip)
The customer group has also issued the following statement to the Market Basket board of directors:

"You can threaten your employees all you want to, and refuse to see the truth. But believe me those rose colored glasses will break if you continue to bleed cash the way you are on a daily basis. You can belittle, torment, scare and fire every employee in that company. But you have NOTHING without us."


http://patch.com/new-hampshire/concord/market-basket-customers-arthur-s-take-your-cash-and-go#.U9qhm_ldVt4

[sheshe2]

1. That link is priceless!

Make sure to take Felicia and Jim with you on your way, they have already destroyed two companies, are you really ready to watch what your father helped build collapse because of this and run the Demoulas name through the mud? Because that is what YOU ALL are doing right now.

I just have a question for you, Felicia and Jim. Sales are down well over 90% in some stores. The lack of business isn’t caused by an obliterated produce department. It isn’t caused by the meat department that is starting to empty out. The holes left from out of codes in the dairy aisle are not the scapegoat here.

Grocery aisles that are on their last legs are also not the reason for the loss of revenue. Here’s a little secret, you two brilliant co-CEOs.

The customer is to thank for this immediate and earth-shattering decline in sales.

Thanks for the update, gray. Kudos to the employees and the customers for standing strong.

[hedgehog]

11. I've been following this story - what other businesses are Felicia and Jim associated with?

[Sentath]

15. I collected a few examples over here.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5280152

It isn't a resume I'd want to have to polish.

[Luminous Animal]

2. Link to the donation page set up by customers FOR the workers

http://www.gofundme.com/cdm2kk They are up to $10K.

Any amount will help.

[graywarrior]

3. Thanks!

[MADem]

4. That page is for the customer ad in the newspaper. The excess goes to the warehouse workers

and the already-fired workers, not the ones who are out and not yet fired.

It's basically to fund an ad telling the existing MB leadership that the CUSTOMERS aren't going to come back, even if they fire everyone, which is what they have said they are doing (and they are planning on hiring new help, too--there was an ad in the paper saying MB was hiring today).

Save ARTIE T CUSTOMER AD

There has been a lot of speculation in the media that we, the loyal Market Basket customers have been boycotting due to associate protests. This fund is to set the record straight! To raise the funds to take a full page ad out in the Lowell Sun to let the BOD know we are 100% behind Market Basket associates, reinstating Artie T, and will not shop at Market Basket until he's back.
We are the customers of Market Basket! We cannot be fired, we QUIT!
All funds raised that go over the cost of the ad will be donated to the warehouse workers and fired associates.

There is a trucker's/warehouse workers fund that is halfway towards their goal:
http://www.gofundme.com/bzt0qk


Latest from the workers:

F&G released a statement through their PR firm O’Neill and Assoc that associates have until Monday to come back to work without penalty or be replace permanently, where have we heard this before. They are planning a job fair to replace, not only the people at the warehouse, drivers and office personnel but also Store Directors and Asst Managers. This latest group is an interesting turn since zero Store Directors or Asst Managers have walked off the job. The fact that their stores are empty of products is not their fault they haven’t been getting deliveries. When the warehouse associates and drivers walked out almost two weeks ago F&G immediately replaced the drivers with temp drivers and temp selectors in the warehouse. So why haven’t the loads been getting to the stores? Because these temporary drivers and selectors can’t hold a candle to our drivers and selectors. Our grocery warehouse alone pumps out a million cases of product a week and yet these temps can barely manage 15 deliveries a day compared to the 120 deliveries a day that is average for our dedicated workers.

This latest statement shows the disconnect with F&G, they are under the impression that if they get the stores full of product the customers will come back in droves. They either haven’t been listening to you, our beloved customers or they don’t care. They have underestimated us at every turn and now they are underestimating the strength of your boycott. To us, that is insulting, we fully understand how important our customers are to our business and we also understand the sacrifice this is having on your finances. Please continue your boycott until ATD is back in charge and we promise to get up and running in no time and to show our gratitude for your continued loyalty.

http://wearemarketbasket.com/templates/blog/

There's also a lot of info on the fb page:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Save-Market-Basket/136649323208808?fref=nf

[bluedigger]

7. Everybody in the area should go apply, and then just not show up.

Screw 'em!

[MADem]

9. They should fill out employee applications and write, under qualifications, that

they are customers who will never patronize that joint again until the workers are satisfied!

"Take this job and shove it--I ain't even shoppin' here no more!"

I get the impression that "management" is a crew of nitwits. Their best bet is to sell to Artie T. and let the workers get back to work.

[graywarrior]

5. Raised in 5 hours

$10,865

[BobbyBoring]

6. I wish people would do this with Walmart.

I refuse to set foot in one. Imagine if millions more refused to shop there until they paid a living wage!

A big tip of the hat to the MB activists!

[MADem]

10. Walmart would need a charismatic CEO-manager who engendered loyalty in the workers for this to be

a comparable situation.

The workers at MB are not unionized. They are (or were) content with their jobs because they pay well, offer promotions, have perks like bonuses and educational benefits, good vacations, and the management LISTENS to them and treats them fairly. The tone of the company was set by this guy, Arthur T. Demoulas, who was, by all accounts, a good guy who really believed in the "treat workers well/get great returns" business model.

The new bosses, who got the guy who was overseeing the operation OUT, wanted to sell to some consortium, and in the interim had started to raise prices and cut benefits.

Walmart doesn't have that "leader who treats them well." The whole reason the MB employees went out is because they HAD it good, and now they don't-- the new crew wants to reduce their benefits, convert them to part-time, take away their bonuses, raise prices at the store, etc.

[valerief]

8. I'm amazed at how empty the parking lot is at a nearby MB. I used to alternate

shopping between MB and Hannaford's. Now, it's 100% Hannaford's for me. I feel bad for people who don't have transportation and MB is their nearest supermarket.

[MADem]

12. I went to Stop and Pee and spent under fifty bucks.

It would have been two to three times that had I been spending at MB.

If this isn't resolved soon I'll head for the commissary...! I don't like giving my dough to Stop and Shop.

[valerief]

13. I used to always shop at Chop and Slop when I lived in Quinky, but none are nearby now.

I didn't realized they'd gone downhill.

[MADem]

16. They were bought out by one of those conglomerates.

Years ago they were good, like an A and P (late, lamented), small, good prices, basic. Then they went "upscale" when bought out by a multinational. The fruit and veg got hard or rotten--all lousy; and the prices went through the roof. Same thing happened to Giant in the mid-Atlantic states; they were bought out by Royal Ahold (aka Royal A-Holes), hq'd in the Netherlands. Prices UP...Quality DOWN!

I don't want to see that happen to "Demoulas" (which is what they called it when I started shopping there!)...

[canoeist52]

14. We split our shopping between our local farmer's markets and Hannaford.

MA has so many new local markets now. We try to keep some percentage of our buying local.

http://massnrc.org/farmlocator/map.aspx?Type=Farmers%20Markets