We Are Market Basket: The Story of the Unlikely Grassroots Movement that Saved a Beloved Business by Daniel Korschun & Grant Welker

Author:Daniel Korschun & Grant Welker
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: BUS104000 Business & Economics / Corporate Governance
ISBN: 9780814436684
Publisher: AMACOM
Published: 2015-08-14T14:00:00+00:00

11

“Stick Your Neck Out”

It was sunny and seventy-five degrees. August 16, 2014, was a beautiful day for the 115th Old Home Day Parade in Londonderry, New Hampshire. Ten thousand spectators lined Mammoth Road for this annual New England tradition. Marching was an eclectic mix of politicians, local businesses, youth groups, motorcycle clubs, church leaders, marching bands, and bag pipers. They received applause from the crowd as they moved past the main stage.

As the parade was nearing a close, a large contingent of marchers appeared in the distance. Faint cheers of “Artie T.! Artie T.!” could be heard. They were coming from 130 full- and part-time Market Basket associates, more than a quarter of everyone employed at the Londonderry store. Most wore matching navy blue t-shirts, which read, “We believe in ATD [Arthur T. Demoulas]” on the front; the back was designed like a football jersey with Londonderry across the top—where a player’s name would appear—and a large number forty-two (the number of the store) below it.

The contingent was led by an associate in a giraffe costume, the assumed mascot of the Market Basket movement. It had become so when Gordon LeBlanc, spoke about it at a rally early in the protest. He says the LeBlanc family uses it as its mascot because it reminds them, “Do not be afraid to stick your neck out when you know you’re right.” After that speech, giraffe cartoons and stuffed animals began popping up at Market Basket rallies and picket lines.

By the time the emcee introduced “the employees of the Londonderry Market Basket,” the crowd had already risen to their feet for a standing ovation. The cheering was by far the most spontaneous, loudest, and longest of the parade. Some people stepped into the street to give the associates high fives of encouragement. Store director Mark Lemieux recalls that “people came up to [him] afterwards to say, ‘you guys rocked the parade!’”

For Lemieux, the ovation was thrilling. He had talked to individual customers and heard people honking their car horns in support as they drove by associates who picketed outside the store. But he hadn’t known what to expect at the parade and was surprised at the intensity of support from this community.

The event was also moving for another reason. When the town invited Market Basket to participate in the parade, Lemieux knew he had to ask for volunteers. Many of those volunteers would be people he had been forced to lay off just days before. It was a lot to ask. The number of people who participated and the response of the crowd that day rekindled his faith in the protest. “It was the most emotional thing I’ve ever been to,” he says.

—

Store associates became a visible force during the protest and ensuing customer boycott, but some had been finding ways to support Arthur T. for more than a year. One of these people is Cindy Whelan, the store director of the Market Basket in Epping, New Hampshire (#63), which lies about midway between Portsmouth and Manchester.

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