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Conflict Within Market Basket

Izak Munoz

South Texas College

ORGL-3311-KV2-Issues Organizational Leadership-CBE

Dr. Esmeralda Adame

October 15th, 2021

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Conflict Within Market Basket

It is amazing what one man’s influence can have over a company. You never in a million

years would think that Walmart, Costco, or HEB would crumble in the span of a month, all for

one person being fired. The idea of one person having such an impact over people’s lives that

they would risk their wages for, is incomprehensible; but that is exactly what Arthur T.

Demoulas meant to the company of Market Basket and its employees (Zeynep, 2014).

To understand why the employees would risk their wages for this man, one must

understand why the employees value the company they work for so dearly. The truth is, Market

Basket is like no other. What separates Market Basket from its competitors is that not only do

they open stores when in a new location, they bring in a whole new culture full of excellent

customer service and employee satisfaction. Another great way Market Basket differentiates

itself from their competitors is the “uncomplicated shopping environment” (Zeynep, 2014).

There is no extra frill when shopping at Market Basket, straight to the point of getting what you

need and being out the door promptly. This corporation also does their research when opening

new locations of its surrounding area, seeing what specific product is consumed more due to

region and always do their homework on what products it needs to have stocked for customer

satisfaction. One thing you might find odd and delightful about Market Basket is that the product

stocking gets done during the day, not the night. You might this odd because you have most

likely never seen supermarket employees stock during day hours. This is convenient because you

will find yourself needing assistance one day, and you can count on an employee always being

on the floor and will not hesitate to help you. Last thing I want to point out in how Market

Basket is unique, is its great employee retention rate. This statistic is just baffling and unheard of

“…Turnover rate for full time employees was 5%, and the part time employees were at just 10%,
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while the average longevity of a store director was an outstanding 34 yrs of service…” (Zeynep,

2014, para. 36).

Volume is the name of the game for Market Basket. Their strategy is buying more

product in bulk and selling it cheaper than their competitors. For example, let’s say they buy

1,000 units of Oreos and then their competitors 100, Market basket can go ahead and sell their

product for less than Walmart because there is more available to them and got said product at a

more discounted price since they bought in larger quantities. This is a big reason why consumers

keep on shopping at Market Basket, you just can’t beat cheaper prices and better customer

service. Now, this keeps the customer happy, but what keeps the employees happy you might

wonder. The answer to that, is the big bonus employees receive several times a year from the

Employee Profit Sharing Fund. This method is excellent because it creates functional conflict

between stores. You want to have the highest ratings to get the better bonus, so teams must come

together and find ways to improve (Zenkep, 2014).

The firing of Arthur T. created a ripple of destruction conflict within Market Basket. Not

only were sales affected dramatically by his firing, but senior employees who had 35 plus years

of experience resigned as well, because Arthur T’s leadership meant that much to everyone.

The reason he meant so much to everybody was because he has always been for the people and

has always prioritized customer satisfaction, “…Staying close to the customer was one of Arthur

T.’s management principles…” (Zeynep, 2014, para. 27). Arthur T. even went as far as to

establish a ten-foot rule, which is if you see a customer within 10 feet if you, you must smile and

greet customer, which created an excellent service culture and is most definitely the foundation

of its underlying success: to provide the best customer service possible.

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On Monday, June 23rd ,2014, when the new board fired Arthur T., little did they know

how much that one decision would impact the company, and most importantly, profits, so

drastically. On July 18th, 200 plus employees walked out of their jobs in protest of the firing of

Arthur T, a mere 3 and half weeks later from the most baffling decision the company has ever

made. Less than two weeks into the protest, the company was down a staggering 90% on sales.

The protests would continue all the way up to August 27th, 2014, when the board finally let

Arthur T. purchase 50.5% of the company back (Zeynep, 2014). Employees and fellow

protestors could not believe it. They did the unprovable, went up against goliath with a mere rock

and sling, and came out victorious in the end. This grit and determination shows just how much

Arthur T. meant to this company. The fact that people lost their jobs and countless hours cut, but

no one wavered in the fight to restore the great Chief Executive Officer back to his rightful role

within the company. Tom Trainer, whom is a district supervisor with over 40 years of experience

said “…We’ve all take on the debt ourselves, we are going to do whatever it takes to cut

costs…” (Zeynep, 2014, para. 65). For a person with that much experience to respect and look

up to someone as highly as he looks up to Arthur T, that speaks volumes on how well-respected

Arthur T. is. This is just another example of how one singular person can mean so much to its

fellow community and employees. If this demonstration of dedication doesn’t tell you how much

Arthur meant to his people, nothing ever will, because this feat is unheard of.

Market Basket definitely has to sort out their issues when it comes to debt. But when you

have determined employees such as the likes of Tom Trainer, who will do whatever it takes to

see the company succeed, you can be rest assured that Market Basket is in good hands, especially

with Arthur T. at the helm.

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References

Zeynep, T., Kochan, T., Reavis, C. (2014) “We are Market Basket” p. 1-66