How a succession battle over a beloved New England supermarket empire turned ugly
AP Images As Artie T. Demoulas addressed a crowd of hundreds of workers on the lawn of the Market Basket headquarters, he sounded more like a left-wing union organizer than the centimillionaire CEO of a grocery empire. "No one person is better or more important than another," Demoulas said, dropping his Rs in a New England accent, his brow slick in the August heat. "Whether it's a full-timer or a part-timer, a sacker or a cashier, a grocery clerk or a truck driver or a warehouse selectman, a store manager, a supervisor, a customer, a vendor, or a CEO — we are all equal." The speech marked the culmination of a bizarre labor battle that had come to define the summer of 2014 in New England. Amid a long-standing feud with a rival branch of his family, led by his cousin Artie S. Demoulas, the Market Basket board of directors voted to oust Artie T. as CEO that June. Artie T., who had spent decades building the supermarket brand into a profitable New England powerho...
