Grant Welker

We lived this story, and it's fun to look back on our Summer of Deprivation, when we could not make our daily or weekly visits to DeMoulas supermarkets. The book is co-written by a Lowell Sun reporter and a business writer, and published by the American Management Association. It's got gobs of information about the family background that caused the feud that caused the boycott - by associates, customers, and suppliers. It gets at the heart of the matter: that everyone hung together because they knew that our entire area would be devastated by the sale of the company by the greedy Artie S. And that fighting together against corporatism would be a great mitzvah. Good recounting of a true story.… (mehr)

A century old company that was begun in the floundering mill town of Lowell, MA, suddenly became big news when the two controlling Demoulas cousins, Arthur T. and Arthur S., found themselves on opposite sides of the Market Basket grocery chain's ideology. Arthur T., with 49.5 percent of the company, had been the CEO for years and was much beloved by employees and customers alike. His philosophy was to profit share with his workers, exclusively promote from within, and keep prices as low as possible for his customers. Arthur S., holder of 50.5 percent of the business, believed profits should be split among the shareholders and was actively seeking to sell the business to a larger corporation. Arthur T. and much of Market Basket's management was fired which set off a protest involving employees, vendors, and customers alike. Employees walked off the job, vendors stopped delivering and customers stopped shopping. Market Basket stores were virtually empty for nearly 2 months as the picket lines formed outside the stores and corporate offices. The protestors demanded the immediate rehiring of Arthur T. as CEO. Thousands of people were involved, putting households, small businesses and even government unemployment payments in jeopardy. The protest was ultimately successful as Arthur T., heavily indebted to area banks, was able to purchase his cousin's share of the business.

Lowell is the town in which my husband and I both grew up so we are familiar with the Demoulas family grocery chain. The beginning of the book was quite interesting as it described the beginnings of the enterprise with the family immigration from Greece. The rest of the book was a bit dry and I think it will have limited appeal except to those from the New England area or those studying economics.… (mehr)

We Are Market Basket is a valentine to a beloved and much admired CEO, Arthur T. DeMoulas, the workers in the stores, suppliers and customers of Market Basket, a family-owned supermarket chain based in New England. Arthur DeMoulas and his cousin ran the company and while there was decades of strife between them based on different visions and priorities for their business it came to a head in the summer of 2014 when the Arthur T was fired by the Market Basket board. Living in Boston, I had the opportunity witness the phenomenal organizing and, no small amount of courage, by the workers and the suppliers to the store. Threatened with job loss they never backed down. The fact that workers were backing a CEO against a powerful board of directors is a rarity (and may be never been seen) and this case has been studied, and continue to be studied by business schools everywhere (and probably lots of CEO's).

The book is very readable. It captures the excitement and the fear felt by everyone involved and clearly illuminated the issues that brought about the strike and its ramifications. I knew how it ended before this book but at the time I turned on the TV every night to follow the story. This book brings vividly brings it all back, and once again, the workers at Market basket provide some measure of hope as we watch our family businesses close.

My only real criticism of the book is that it is so one-sided that I think the author's should have been clear about this. They describe trying to talk to the board members and Arthur T's cousin however given that this is very recent history it might have been too soon to write a full accounting of the story. Also, the title shows where the author's hearts seem to lie which is absolutely fine if they state this in an upfront manner. Otherwise, a well-told story about a gem of a story.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to review this book for an honest opinion.… (mehr)