Welcome back, Market Basket
A while back I wrote about the turmoil going on at Market Basket, my very favorite supermarket.
I’m happy to report that several weeks ago the whole thing got settled and the good guys won. Not only that, but business has increased, because new customers were drawn in by all the brouhaha. Was the whole thing a ploy to get attention? Don’t think so:
Artie T. Demoulas [the reinstated CEO, back by popular demand] is a modern-day Fezziwig, the big-hearted warehouse owner in Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol.” Fezziwig was a capitalist, but he prided himself on not maximizing profits at the expense of his employees, or his own soul. When the man who eventually buys him out makes a bid, suggesting he’ll never get a better offer, Fezziwig’s response could be lifted right out of the Market Basket story: “It’s not just for money alone that one spends a lifetime building up a business,” Fezziwig says. “It’s to preserve a way of life that one knew and loved.”
In the end, that way of life, a way of life that leads people like Tommy Aylward to wake up every day looking forward to going to work, prevailed at Market Basket.
But it did so not just because the workers there showed a remarkable loyalty to their boss. Market Basket customers showed an even more extraordinary loyalty to those workers and to Artie T. by refusing to shop there until Artie T. was brought back.
Would this happen anywhere else? Could it happen anywhere else?
Well, since during the interim they weren’t able to stock a lot of groceries, especially meat and produce, it wasn’t such a sacrifice to refuse to shop there. But I’m so happy they’re back! The prices at Market Basket aren’t just lower, they’re substantially lower—for the most part about 20-30% lower, by my reckoning.
As my sister used to live near a Market Basket, I learned about what a great store it is [they are?]. No, it didn’t have the variety and overwhelming size of a Stop and Shop- much of the space which is dedicated to prepared foods. But for those who actually cook, there was plenty to choose from at Market Basket. You save both money and time at a Market Basket. No need to walk a mile to complete your shopping like in a Stop and Shop, as Market Basket stores are very compact.
The Fezziwigs, Market Baskets, IN-N-Out Burgers (west coast chain) and LLBeans of the world understand that business is about more than making money, it’s also about providing a service and product one can be proud of, something that most bean counters never realize.
When business owners do take pride in the products and service they provide, it acts as a natural limitation on expansion because that last 10-20% of profit goes to wages, quality control and offering competitive pricing to the consumer, i.e. giving the consumer more for their dollar, instead of that 10-20% going toward ever greater expansion, fueled by keeping expenses minimized and profit maximized through a ‘let the buyer beware’ attitude.
This is capitalism’s limitation; it can be used to either morally support or amorally suppress the consumer and the difference is a result of the ethical standards of the business. In America especially, Christianity’s tenets once acted as the moral arbiter of a business’ ethical reputation but in the secular world, it’s what ever you can get away with…