DeMoulas Market Basket protest (Boston, Lowell: kosher, suite, dental)

[G1..]

Originally Posted by johngolf

Market Basket has traditionally owned each store/mini-mall they are in thus better able to control their overhead costs. This has been a cornerstone to their financial success.

While this is a good practice to me the corner stone of any business is the employees and MB was doing something right for the employees to do what they did to help that company survive ,leadership to me is more of their cornerstone.

[Shutout]

Originally Posted by G1..

While this is a good practice to me the corner stone of any business is the employees and MB was doing something right for the employees to do what they did to help that company survive ,leadership to me is more of their cornerstone.

Artie T treated employees with respect... he knew them by name, all employees were part of profit-sharing, and they only promote from within. What he gets in return is loyal employees.

If this happened at any other "corporation" there wouldn't have been a revolution like the one we saw at MB.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by xo_kizzy_xo

Heh, I was just thinking the same thing Stoppy doesn't have much of a presence in MB's stomping grounds if at all, but Hannaford certainly does.

The world is not defined by what is 10 miles from where you live. And the Market Basket competitive market is certainly not defined by what is 10 miles from where you live.

Bring up the Goggle map for Boston, draw it back to see the whole 495 belt so you see the highest population density of the Market Basket footprint. Type "Stop & Shop" into the search bar. Then do the same for "Market Basket". Any casual observer will see more Stop & Shop stores than Market Basket stores. If you do the same with "Hannaford", you will see at least 4x more Stop & Shop than Hannaford.

[xo_kizzy_xo]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

The world is not defined by what is 10 miles from where you live. And the Market Basket competitive market is certainly not defined by what is 10 miles from where you live.

Bring up the Goggle map for Boston, draw it back to see the whole 495 belt so you see the highest population density of the Market Basket footprint. Type "Stop & Shop" into the search bar. Then do the same for "Market Basket". Any casual observer will see more Stop & Shop stores than Market Basket stores. If you do the same with "Hannaford", you will see at least 4x more Stop & Shop than Hannaford.

I think you misunderstood what I was trying to say.

I know there are more Stop & Shops around than either MB or Hannaford. However, Stop & Shop doesn't have as much of a presence in the Merrimack Valley area (aka MB's "stomping grounds"), just as MB doesn't have much of a presence on the South Shore. Hannaford has a presence in both markets.

People in general are going to shop at whatever store is most convenient. On the South Shore, that's Stop & Shop, just like MB is in the Merrimack Valley area. Doesn't mean that people can't go out of their way to shop at another chain. Heck, if I need to restock the pantry, I'm going to try to go to MB. But because it takes a bit of effort to plan a trip to MB because it's not within 10 miles of my home, I'm liable to go somewhere else. The overall savings isn't as important if you weigh it against how much gas I'd use getting there and returning home.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by xo_kizzy_xo

I think you misunderstood what I was trying to say.

I know there are more Stop & Shops around than either MB or Hannaford. However, Stop & Shop doesn't have as much of a presence in the Merrimack Valley area (aka MB's "stomping grounds"), just as MB doesn't have much of a presence on the South Shore. Hannaford has a presence in both markets.

People in general are going to shop at whatever store is most convenient. On the South Shore, that's Stop & Shop, just like MB is in the Merrimack Valley area. Doesn't mean that people can't go out of their way to shop at another chain. Heck, if I need to restock the pantry, I'm going to try to go to MB. But because it takes a bit of effort to plan a trip to MB because it's not within 10 miles of my home, I'm liable to go somewhere else. The overall savings isn't as important if you weigh it against how much gas I'd use getting there and returning home.

I understood exactly what you were saying and my comment stands. Market Basket is not a Merrimack Valley footprint. It has a much larger regional footprint. If you look at their store distribution and population distribution where their stores are located, I doubt the Merrimack Valley accounts for 20% of sales.

[AtkinsonDan]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

Market Basket is not a Merrimack Valley footprint. It has a much larger regional footprint. If you look at their store distribution and population distribution where their stores are located, I doubt the Merrimack Valley accounts for 20% of sales.

I would say MB's strongest area of saturation now is southern and central New Hampshire versus the Massachusetts portion of the Merrimack Valley. The only places in Massachusetts that are home to MB without a competitor are Haverhill and Billerica.

[mdovell]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

The world is not defined by what is 10 miles from where you live. And the Market Basket competitive market is certainly not defined by what is 10 miles from where you live.

Bring up the Goggle map for Boston, draw it back to see the whole 495 belt so you see the highest population density of the Market Basket footprint. Type "Stop & Shop" into the search bar. Then do the same for "Market Basket". Any casual observer will see more Stop & Shop stores than Market Basket stores. If you do the same with "Hannaford", you will see at least 4x more Stop & Shop than Hannaford.

Although that is true I can tell you that you don't create more customers by dividing the. I worked in box retail and I can tell you that when more stores open the budget gets cut and staffing gets cut to anticipate for lower sales. One of the stores that was in the first in the state to open was budgeted at 80 million (top ranked) now it's less than half that and it's only been 15 years!

while it is true that the world is not defined within 10 miles the fact of the matter is there are limits to which ow far people will go for products, especially food.

Take a look at walmart for a moment. Much of america is within a half hour or less of their nearest walmart. Yet Tractor supply focuses on a much more smaller market, has less stores and yet is performing much better.

WMT Vs TSCO

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by mdovell

Although that is true I can tell you that you don't create more customers by dividing the. I worked in box retail and I can tell you that when more stores open the budget gets cut and staffing gets cut to anticipate for lower sales. One of the stores that was in the first in the state to open was budgeted at 80 million (top ranked) now it's less than half that and it's only been 15 years!

while it is true that the world is not defined within 10 miles the fact of the matter is there are limits to which ow far people will go for products, especially food.

Take a look at walmart for a moment. Much of america is within a half hour or less of their nearest walmart. Yet Tractor supply focuses on a much more smaller market, has less stores and yet is performing much better.

WMT Vs TSCO

Apple vs oranges. Market Basket has significantly lower prices than their competition. Everybody buys food. Most people are quite price sensitive and will pick the lowest cost store, all else being equal. It's more like how Home Depot put the mom & pop lumber yards out of business with much lower pricing. Ditto Walmart's impact on Main Street.

What I have observed is that when Market Basket enters a footprint dominated by other grocery store chains, they crush their competition. For example, Market Basket built a store in New Bedford several years ago. Within a few months, Shaws shut several stores nearby. Market Basket managed to chase Stop & Shop completely out of New Hampshire a few years ago. I never see Market Baskets with empty parking lots. I see everybody else nearby with far less cars in their lots.

I imagine that if the whole Artie T thing hadn't disrupted the business for a couple of years, the south-of-Boston expansion would have continued at a much faster pace. With stores in Attleboro, Bourne and New Bedford, they're marching in that direction. There are still big gaps in places like Fall River/Swansea, the southern half of 128, I-95 between 128 and 495, the whole South Shore.

The only thing saving the competition these days is that Market Baskets tend to be such a zoo that many people avoid them. The Yogi Berra "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded." I won't shop there at the first of the month when EBT cards get reloaded. Food stamp people are by far the most price sensitive.

[G1..]

Thing is the Arti T thing did happen and they have a much higher bottom line now because of it add in the gains other competition has made during that problem and things aren't as easy as you may think .Big G is starting to make a push for more market area .

[Amontillado]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

Apple vs oranges. Market Basket has significantly lower prices than their competition. ...

Speaking of which--Market Basket's price for apples is 99 cents a pound for pretty much any variety, except if you want organically grown ones. Stop & Shop will charge you $1.50 and up, unless they have a sale going on. For a while, maybe a long while, there was a Great Banana Conspiracy going on, where bananas would be a minimum of 59 cents a pound except at Market Basket, where they'd be 39 cents. That seems to have ended, but I was recently out in western MA for a week, and I bought bananas in a supermarket there, and yup, 59 cents a pound.

Oranges I cannot recall.

Incidentally, I stopped in at the great ballyhooed Wegman's in Burlington a while ago, and I thought it was nothing great. Maybe I missed all the fun somehow.