Have you been following the strange labor fuck-tussle over the corporate leadership of New England regional grocery chain Market Basket? In June, the supermarket's board of directors fired CEO Arthur T. Demoulas, in the midst of a bigass family feud -- sorry, a "leadership fight" -- between him and his cousin, the conveniently named Arthur S. Demoulas. Workers and middle management folks siding with Arthur T. walked off the job to protest his firing (despite our Sally Field pic there, Market Basket doesn't have a union), and customers boycotted as well.
I heard this story on NPR and they did a pretty half(Arthur)-S job of it. They didn't even cover why Art T was tossed, and finished with some angle about how it was hurting the poorz because Market Basket had such low prices.
As the value of the company gradually approaches the value of its real estate plus 99 cents (less any pension obligations), Artie T. will find it easier and easier to buy out the morons who are now running the show. Nobody else in their right mind will pay for this train wreck . . . unless of course they plan to hire Artie and re-instate him as CEO.
<i>So you think that you&#039;ve got ambition Stop your dreaming and your idle wishing You&#039;re outside and there ain&#039;t no admission To our play Pack up your ambition in your old kit bag Soon you&#039;ll be happy with a packet of fags Chest out stomach in Do what I say, do what I say Yes right away</i>
See the thing is, I don&#039;t think that Arthur S. cares whether or not the company goes down the tubes. It&#039;s not how modern capitalism works these days. In the old days, capitalists started or bought companies and then invested in them to expand them and have them generate larger ROIs. That&#039;s all changed now. Today capitalists buy up companies in order to drain all of the wealth out of them, and then divest themselves of the lifeless husks. They aren&#039;t interested in actually building up and managing companies anymore because it takes too much time and effort to earn back the investment. They are not playing the commerce game anymore; they have largely abandoned it in favor of the finance game. <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/sto..." target="_blank">" rel="nofollow noopener" title="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/07/13/1313738/...">http://www.dailykos.com/sto...
...actually if they were smart they should go the corporate office and hand the CEO their intent to unionize. That would drag this entire cluster fukk on so long that the companies stock could be used as toilet tissue. Bet the &quot;Job Creators&quot; start negotiating then!
Arthur T. offered his ass-half of the family $3.5 billion to buy them out, which was half the value of the company before Arthur S. bought $1 billion in bad will and poor labor relations. Arthur T. drives a Buick. Arthur S. looks like a Bentley driving tool.
Market Basket is an interesting supermarket business case study. Most of my New England friends that shop there do so because they are the cheapest large-chain supermarket in the area. But at the same time, in an industry that typically expects somewhere between 2-4% profit margin, they have been able to treat their workers far better than average.
tl;dr, MB, up until this recent power struggle, proves that you can still eke out a profit for shareholders while not being greedy bastards.
In any event, nobody I know has shopped there since this whole Artie T firing went down. Unless he comes back, I don&#039;t think MB has much of a future long-term.
An S-load?
I heard this story on NPR and they did a pretty half(Arthur)-S job of it. They didn&#039;t even cover why Art T was tossed, and finished with some angle about how it was hurting the poorz because Market Basket had such low prices.
LIBRAL MEEDIA MY S
it&#039;s so hard to convey &quot;I told you so&quot; glee in writing. I&#039;ll content myself with cackling loudly.
It would be a waste of good piss.
When the lost profits hit $250 million, everyone drinks a shot of Stoli.
One thing the invisible hand is really, really good at, is picking workers&#039; pockets. Go figure.
As the value of the company gradually approaches the value of its real estate plus 99 cents (less any pension obligations), Artie T. will find it easier and easier to buy out the morons who are now running the show. Nobody else in their right mind will pay for this train wreck . . . unless of course they plan to hire Artie and re-instate him as CEO.
from <i>Arthur: </i>
<i>So you think that you&#039;ve got ambition Stop your dreaming and your idle wishing You&#039;re outside and there ain&#039;t no admission To our play Pack up your ambition in your old kit bag Soon you&#039;ll be happy with a packet of fags Chest out stomach in Do what I say, do what I say Yes right away</i>
(Kinks, &quot;Yes Sir, No Sir&quot;)
See the thing is, I don&#039;t think that Arthur S. cares whether or not the company goes down the tubes. It&#039;s not how modern capitalism works these days. In the old days, capitalists started or bought companies and then invested in them to expand them and have them generate larger ROIs. That&#039;s all changed now. Today capitalists buy up companies in order to drain all of the wealth out of them, and then divest themselves of the lifeless husks. They aren&#039;t interested in actually building up and managing companies anymore because it takes too much time and effort to earn back the investment. They are not playing the commerce game anymore; they have largely abandoned it in favor of the finance game. <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/sto..." target="_blank">" rel="nofollow noopener" title="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/07/13/1313738/...">http://www.dailykos.com/sto...
I think this story needs more people named &quot;Arthur&quot; in it.
...actually if they were smart they should go the corporate office and hand the CEO their intent to unionize. That would drag this entire cluster fukk on so long that the companies stock could be used as toilet tissue. Bet the &quot;Job Creators&quot; start negotiating then!
A CEO that doesn&#039;t try to shake down the employees for every last dime? I thought they were extinct.
They have Wal-Marted the store. <a href="http:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/2013-03-26\/customers-flee-wal-mart-empty-shelves-for-target-costco.html" target="_blank">" rel="nofollow noopener" title="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-26/customer...">http://www.bloomberg.com/ne...
...I didn&#039;t think it was possible but they actually made Wal-Mart look appealing
Arthur T. offered his ass-half of the family $3.5 billion to buy them out, which was half the value of the company before Arthur S. bought $1 billion in bad will and poor labor relations. Arthur T. drives a Buick. Arthur S. looks like a Bentley driving tool.
Market Basket is an interesting supermarket business case study. Most of my New England friends that shop there do so because they are the cheapest large-chain supermarket in the area. But at the same time, in an industry that typically expects somewhere between 2-4% profit margin, they have been able to treat their workers far better than average.
tl;dr, MB, up until this recent power struggle, proves that you can still eke out a profit for shareholders while not being greedy bastards.
In any event, nobody I know has shopped there since this whole Artie T firing went down. Unless he comes back, I don&#039;t think MB has much of a future long-term.