DeMoulas Market Basket protest (Boston, Springfield: school, incomes, malls)

[brightdoglover]

I don't get the Market Basket cult.
A friend of mine recently complained that MB organic peppers were $2.49 each. My local chain (Donelan's) was charging $2.99. However, now that a MB is supposed to open near Donelan's soon (a mere four miles from Westford's MB) suddenly Donelan's peppers are ... $2.49. I think they figured something out there.

[bUU]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

The only thing I can do is boycott the store.

Which seems a little strange given that they don't have their shelves stocked. Regardless, a boycott, if rational, would imply that this store is somehow significantly worst than most - significantly worse than S&S, Shaw's, Roche Bros., and Hannaford's. Either that, or it is a distinctly irrational, emotional reaction. And it is fine if it is, as long as we're clear that that is what it is. As I've already alluded to several times, to make this a rational protest, the boycott should be against all groceries that are operated in the same manner.

Originally Posted by mdovell

Back in the late 1990's Microsoft tried to block other operating systems from being installed by fooling around with boot loaders.

So what is Market Basket doing to obstruct competitors? Nothing? Then that's a false analogy. There's no escaping that what people are "protesting" is loss of a great advantage, not a transgression against society that is worthy of note, because if that were the case, there would have been so much more protesting around these other groceries for years.

Originally Posted by mdovell

I think the bottom line also comes down to this. If S has his way and wages go down and prices go up that might actually encourage other competitors to do the same.

The competitors are already there, as so many in this thread have already pointed out. Yet again, we see the failure to direct the protest at the worst offenders.

[magicshark]

Originally Posted by David223

Aldi has large white eggs for $1.39

I was at Aldi on Wednesday, large eggs were down to 99¢ a dozen, mangos were 69¢, tomato paste 35¢, etc. Prices there on staples are ridiculously low.

[FrugalYankee]

Originally Posted by rranger

I wish I'd joined this thread earlier, but I haven't been looking at City-Data for weeks. This Market Basket craziness has absolutely left me scratching my head ever since it started and - I guess - the only way I can sum it up is by saying "only in America".

Memo to Market Basket employees: In 99.9999% of the planet, a "labor action" is taken by employees who have a legitimate self-interest related to their own betterment, not the betterment of the CEO. Good lawd, do these people really believe that their check-out, stacking and bagging jobs are going to be significantly worse under the new management than under the old? Do they really expect to get some huge payout as a result of this? I seriously doubt it, and really wonder where any semblance of rational enlightened self-interest has gone.

Full disclosure: I've never shopped at a Market Basket, nor do I have any abiding desire to do so. I'm not one of those people who will drive five miles to save 5 cents on a gallon of gas. And, my experience is that the typical Market Basket shopper is precisely that kind of person.

Apparently you also don't talk to anyone who works at a grocery store. My step-daughter used to work at Shaw's and management sticks it to their employees. They kept stringing her along, promising her an assistant manager job (with pay and title) but since the job wasn't open yet, they get her to do extra work without paying for it. You could say she was being naive, but from her view she was proving she could do the job. I have never heard stories like that from MB employees. Never. And you seem to have something against MB shoppers, I don't understand why. Up here the alternatives are Shaw's and Hannaford's whose prices are drastically higher than MB. MB doesn't even have any stores in VT, probably because the VT tax structure alone would make it hard for them to be competitive.

Originally Posted by TAM88

Not one poster on that Facebook page (I just took 5 minutes to look through it) clearly articulated their cause and the reason why they have stopped working, imo. I also enjoyed the several people who commented that the politicians need to step in and get involved with this dispute.

I am wondering how long these workers who have walked off the job and are not getting paid can last? What happens if it takes another 5-6 weeks to get this resolved?

The majority of workers haven't stopped working and haven't "walked off the job." They are picketing on their own time.

Originally Posted by GeoffD

Market Basket has 71 stores and is a relatively small chain limited to eastern Mass and southern New Hampshire.

Publix has 1,077 stores.

The amount of money spent in grocery stores in eastern Mass and southern New Hampshire is going to be roughly the same whether Market Basket is in business or not. The grocery stores in the region are going to employ roughly the same headcount whether Market Basket is in business or not. You have the same volume of people at the cash registers. You need to do the same amount of shelf restocking. If Market Basket goes out of business, it's not going to particularly change the number of grocery store jobs. The people working at Market Basket stores won't be happy but somebody will need to be hired at the other stores to do all that work.

Publix? I thought that was a southern chain. Ain't any up here. And Market Basket is not limited to southern New Hampshire, they have a strong presence in northern New Hampshire.

And yes, if MB goes out of business maybe we will be stuck getting ripped off by Shaw's and having the cashier circle some ficitious number with highlighter on the cash register receipt and tell us how much we "saved." At least Shaw's has stopped with the nonsense of hav ing the cashiers trying to upsell customers chips and soda at checkout ("have you seen our Extreme Value offer today?"). THAT was something I considered corporate irresponsibiity. When I asked why they were making a targeted effort to get each and every customer to buy junk, I was told this was an arrangement they had with Coca-Cola / Doritoes or some such nonsense. MB on the other hand would have a special on something like Carando salami and put out $1 / lb off coupons at the same time, giving the customer a great deal on deli tiemjs.

[xo_kizzy_xo]

Given that the chain under Artie T was still being run like other family-owned chains of yore (I'm looking at you, the original Star Market), that's a pretty big incentive to keep on the good fight.

The other reason:

Many career grocery people lost their jobs when conglomerates started buying out the family-run chains. The conglomerate might have offered to hire them back, but with the caveats that either 1) their pay would be frozen because they were already at the top of the conglomerate's hourly pay scale, or 2) they'd be grandfathered X times to ensure that they wouldn' get any pay raises, just any COL ones coming down the pike. The career grocery people who didn't lose their jobs off he bat really had no choice if they wanted to stay in the industry...take it or leave it, basically.

I know career grocery people who make more than most department managers simply because of #2 above. Chances are they'd be the first ones to go if the conglomerate is taken over by another conglomerate or such because, business-wise, it's not cost-effective to keep them.

THAT'S what really this whole MB thing is about, IMO.

[Amontillado]

Originally Posted by brightdoglover

I don't get the Market Basket cult.
A friend of mine recently complained that MB organic peppers were $2.49 each. My local chain (Donelan's) was charging $2.99. However, now that a MB is supposed to open near Donelan's soon (a mere four miles from Westford's MB) suddenly Donelan's peppers are ... $2.49. I think they figured something out there.

Well, maybe you've explained it right there. Market Basket routinely has stuff significantly cheaper than the competitors--50 cents out of 3 dollars is a 17% saving. Another example from the produce dept is that MB would sell every kind of apple for $0.99 a pound, whereas at Stop & Shop they'd be a variety of prices, some over twice as much and none as cheap as a buck a pound unless there was some special sale on.

[Boston_Burbs]

MB reminds me a lot of Big Y, though I don't think people would be as up in arms if Big Y had a management change.

[in_newengland]

Originally Posted by Boston_Burbs

MB reminds me a lot of Big Y, though I don't think people would be as up in arms if Big Y had a management change.

How does it remind you of Big Y? Maybe the sort of look the same. I don't remember if Big Y is family run and treats its employees great like Market Basket did/does. Big Y prices aren't low, I know that much.

[brightdoglover]

I think my local chain has figured out that it needs to match MB prices for ordinary things, staples, paper goods and so on, and make its money on prepared foods, sushi, high-end stuff if people in fact want high-end stuff in the same store, as I do. I really noticed that I spent two bucks less on the four peppers that I usually buy, and am glad they carry organic produce (along with non-organic).

I love my local chain and hope that the new MB that is supposed to open nearby doesn't tank the local store. After all, there's a new MB a mere four miles away already.

[Boston_Burbs]

Originally Posted by in_newengland

How does it remind you of Big Y? Maybe the sort of look the same. I don't remember if Big Y is family run and treats its employees great like Market Basket did/does. Big Y prices aren't low, I know that much.

Big Y is owned by the D'amour family, is non-union, and has many long time employees. At leas when I used to work there they offered healthcare to part time employees. Worker moral was pretty high overall from what I saw. You are right about the prices though, aside from the sales they were not as cheap.