The CEO and public figurehead of Market Basket, one of the region’s most popular grocery store chains, has been put on administrative leave, rekindling memories of a different intra-family squabble in 2014 that shook the company to its core.
Arthur T. Demoulas, as well as several other top employees, are being investigated for what the executive committee of the grocery chain’s board of directors is calling “credible allegations” that he was planning “a disruption of the business and operations of Market Basket with a work stoppage.”
The company’s board alleges that “Demoulas has also resisted an appropriate succession plan for Market Basket, asserting that he has the unilateral right to appoint his children to succeed him without any consideration of the view of the board or the majority owners of Market Basket.”
A spokesperson for Arthur T. Demoulas didn’t immediately respond to NHPR’s request for comment but told the Boston Globe that the board’s actions were a “farcical cover for a hostile takeover.”
Operations at the company’s 90 stores will not be immediately affected by the actions, the board said, including wages and benefits for employees, as well as the company’s profit-sharing plan.
The board warned that any employee work stoppage would significantly harm the company’s operations and the lives of both employees and customers who rely on the low-cost grocer.
In 2014, a long-simmering fight between Arthur T. Demoulas and Arthur S. Demoulas, his cousin, devolved into a company-wide boycott and employee walkouts. Employees, delivery drivers and customers largely sided with Arthur T., who had a reputation as friendly to workers. Shelves in many Market Basket stores went empty as trucks wouldn’t unload and customers shopped elsewhere.
After negotiations that included the governors of both Massachusetts and New Hampshire, Arthur T. eventually retained a minority ownership stake, ending the power struggle. The company remains privately owned.
It isn’t clear if this latest family drama will again spill outside of the board room.
On Thursday afternoon, the majority of customers at Portsmouth store on Woodbury Avenue were unaware of the latest family flare up. But Sharon Goodwin said that she boycotted in 2014, and if asked to, would do so again in support of Demoulas.
"He’s been an excellent boss from what I heard from all the employee," she said as she loaded groceries into her trunk.
But two parking spots over, Jenna Anzelmo said she had no interest in shopping elsewhere.
"I’m not going to Hannaford. It's so expensive," she said. "Come on — people aren’t going to stop shopping here."
On Reddit and other social media sites, there are already calls for empty shopping carts until Demoulas is reinstated.
“I'm boycotting, starting now,” said a commenter on Reddit who uses the name Buddaycousin. “I can get everything I need at Costco and Aldi. It's an inconvenience, but its the right thing to do.”
(Editor's note: this story was updated at 4:45pm Thursday.)
