Hey, there! Log in / Register

Demoulas family feud has gone on for decades and Arthur T. hasn't always been on the side of angels

Ernie Boch III provides the basic background (old timers may recall the name Maria Lopez). Back in 2006, Boston Magazine provided a detailed overview of the vicious fight that included clandestine blackmail sessions in Halifax, NS and left lawyers disbarred.

Even more, if you like schadenfreude.

Topics: 
Free tagging: 


Ad:


Like the job UHub is doing? Consider a contribution. Thanks!

Comments

Don't care. I want low prices!

up
Voting closed 0

Both provided links go to the Boston Magazine article. Neither goes to the self-important EB3. Small loss.

up
Voting closed 0

It was the last link that said you want more, that you should have clicked on that took me here!

http://gloucesterclam.com/2014/07/21/clamsplainer-market-baskets-storied...

up
Voting closed 0

First two links both go to Boston mag story.

up
Voting closed 0

First link now goes to the right place.

up
Voting closed 0

Let's be honest-- who doesn'tlike schadenfreude on a Monday morning?

up
Voting closed 1

While the new execs for Market Basket are clearly the worst possible replacements, I do question the qualities and intent of A.T. Demoulas. If he's such a good guy who care about his people... why hasn't he stood up and spoken out for the people supporting him? Why hasn't he participated in rally's, or even posted an open letter? Where is this supposedly awesome guy?

There's a ma n' pa shop around the corner from me. Sammiches, deli, platters, and other general food-stuffs. The Ma of the duo worked supermarkets for most of her life, and she spent some time at MB. Her account of MB is that it's just another soulless corp. That the MB she worked out was a complete boys club, with huge unaddressed issues with sexual harassment (to which, she contrasts to Roche Bros, which she told us was an excellent work environment).

I'm not sure how much of her experience was specific to the location she worked at (I mean, we have people risking/losing their jobs for ATD, so he can't be all bad), but it's an interesting counter-point to everything we've read up until now. So at the end of the day, I'm somewhat dubious.

However, we rely on MB for groceries at reasonable prices... so I'm pretty much opposed to anything that threatens that.

up
Voting closed 0

" I do question the qualities and intent of A.T. Demoulas. If he's such a good guy who care about his people... why hasn't he stood up and spoken out for the people supporting him? Why hasn't he participated in rally's, or even posted an open letter? Where is this supposedly awesome guy?"

I imagine there is some sort of legal gag order preventing him from commenting publicly on this case.

up
Voting closed 0

A friend of mine suggested that. That'd make sense.

up
Voting closed 1

How's the bread there? Glad to hear the Bros. are ok, they were two meat cutters that worked their way up to a supermarket chain, they were righteous dudes , did things right.
What the original D brothers should have done was had life insurance policies on each other ,in the amount that would have allowed the buy out of the decedent's share, and left the whole thing intact. Now ,either Sweet T has to come up will enough dough ,and the Sour S. Team has to be willing to sell their stake, and buy out the other side. Otherwise the whole thing is going to implode, and spiteful moves will just undermine the value of the Market. Then the fire sale will begin to posture, with competitors , money funds , suppliers ( C & S WG ? ). Maybe Ahold will partner with someone , extract what they want , exterminate the rest.

up
Voting closed 0

up
Voting closed 0

He'll probably be able to buy the Chelsea MB megastore building at fire sale prices, and that store he's building in Burlington has just lost its major competition.

up
Voting closed 0

There is no winning in family feuds like this. The level of hate and mistrust on both sides is so strong that they'd rather see the company go bankrupt within a month then re-hire someone they morally hate. And even if they did re-hire Arthur-T, they wouldn't give him the ability to run the company the way he did in the past.

From what I've heard a major disagreement has less to do about the prices the store charges and more about how Arthur-T would spend Market Basket money on things like a private country club for his side of the family and giving high paying jobs to some family members. The side of the family now in power would rather the surpluses be distributed as cash. There seems to be less disagreements about how the actual stores are run.

Someone not in the family who is fighting this is wasting their time, sadly.

up
Voting closed 0

From what I can gather, Arthur S. and his siblings were not closely involved in the business at all, and were just basically collecting checks. One of the kids was a race car driver who died in a crash and another was a socialite/interior decorator. All of this funded by their share of the Market Basket money. It seems entirely plausible that Artie T.'s branch of the family, in particular his father, "Mike," figured that since they were doing most of the work growing the companies that they should reap the rewards. Not saying it was the right thing to do, but if in his mind he was "taking care of" George's kids by sending them checks, he may have been able to justify it to himself.

up
Voting closed 0

He screwed that widow and her family out of hundreds of millions of dollars. The Court was pretty clear about that.

up
Voting closed 0

Absolutely, this fine upstanding man A.T. and the lessons learned by his loyal father Mike, to go against his word of taking care of his own bloods family was a promise he decided not to keep because of his own greed. Not sure I would want to be a family member he pledged to take care of. He soaked his brother's widowed wife and children, getting them to sign their shares away cuz Uncle Mike came over to the house (someone whom they thought they could trust) so the kids and his sister In law could sign a few forms that would help build their empire, or so he told them, but instead hid his intent of really having his brother's family sign away their own shares under the guise of buying liquor stores or whatever other line of BS he had as he ripped off his own brother's family of millions and millions of dollars through construction companies operated by A.T.'s own brother in law, while selling the building costs of new stores for way more than the cost that some other company doing the same job would charge for building a store. (along with other tactics and hidden corps to add to his own wealth) Would I call that doing business in a way that benefits my employees, investors, and family? Come on you all know the answer to that i hope...make sense why they were building so many stores now......? Wouldn't trust A.T. or any of his families the courts did the right thing but should have made A.T. step down at time of court decision....Wouldn't trust that A.T. scum bucket as far as I could throw the little thief.......he gets way more in $$$ than he and his family deserve......
I replied to this post cuz it is nice to see someone who actually does their homework before commenting on things they know nothing about! Well done Anon!!

up
Voting closed 0

Were the lawyers disbarred (no longer allowed to practice law) or debarred (removed from the case)? Disbarred would be much more interesting.

up
Voting closed 0

Disbarred.

up
Voting closed 0

Fixed in the original post.

up
Voting closed 0

And Judge Lopez later disgraced herself in the Horton case. To quote Dark Helmet, "I'm surrounded by assholes!"

up
Voting closed 0

You lost me at "Ernie Boch III".

up
Voting closed 0

Before he goes off the rails at the end (as he does), it's a decent rundown of the whole thing.

up
Voting closed 0

I've often wondered why there were cameras at the plea deal sentencing of someone accused of a crime no one other than those who knew the victims knew about, which seemed to be the case in the "Ebony" Horton case that did Lopez in.

Think about it. We hear about judges bending over backwards for defendants all the time, but Lopez got a suspension over a plea deal. Now it makes sense. It was payback for a different case.

up
Voting closed 0

"You get these stores. They will be called Market Basket. I get those stores. They will be called Demoulas."

(Something like this happened to Aldi in Germany; there are two separate chains, owned by different brothers.)

up
Voting closed 0

I think they did do that. Only that Arthur T's father screw the Demoulas stores to death.

I suspect at this point, this is more about spite than greed - definitely more than disagreement in business strategy.

up
Voting closed 0

The dead brother's kids had the DeMoulas stores, and the surviving brother had all the Market Baskets, which were the newer and more profitable ones. More courtroom drama ended that arrangement.

I don't really even try to keep up with the family feud any more.

up
Voting closed 0

In which The Clam posts part 2 of the Demoulas story.

up
Voting closed 0

Food Bank should get Demoulas Market Basket unshelved foods before it gets spoiled sitting around. Let unshelved food go to a Food Pantry for the hungry!

up
Voting closed 0

With all that leftover MB produce, prices are going to crash. Freeze and can your bulk veggies!

up
Voting closed 0