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Ousted Market Basket CEO Arthur T. Demoulas, in a statement released on Sunday, said he would return to work as soon as midnight if Market Basket shareholders accepted his offer to buy the remaining company stock not currently in his control.
The offer is likely designed to ratchet up pressure on the Arthur S. Demoulas side of the family feud as the once-thriving 71-store chain continues to founder, hemorrhaging earnings while paying thousands of employees to spray-clean empty shelves and dust beneath counters.
Arthur T., known affectionately as Artie T. by loyal employees, has already offered to buy the $4 billion dollar business (no exact price has been given), but majority shareholders aligned with Arthur S. have said they are entertaining several offers and have not made a decision on whether to sell or not.
"As part of his proposal, Arthur T. has also offered to move immediately to return to work in advance of the completion of the stock purchase and work to bring back his full team to stabilize and begin to restore the business," Sunday’s statement said.
The statement comes on the eve of job fairs being run by Market Basket co-CEO's Jim Gooch and Felicia Thornton, looking to fill voids left by workers who have left their jobs. Workers, meanwhile, say they have not left their jobs, there is simply nothing to do as more than 95 percent of former customers continue to boycott the stores.
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| A message on the rear window of a car parked in the near where workers protested expresses the feelings of the overwhelming majority of Market Basket employees. |
Meanwhile, Gooch and Thornton have threatened workers who run the store’s front office in Tewksbury, Mass., that they will not receive their pay for August if they do not return to work today.
The workers and truck drivers virtually shut down the business 18 days ago when they walked off the job.
Artie T.’s offer was countered by a somewhat frosty reply later Sunday night.
"Following the board's evaluation of all offers, it will convey its recommendations to the company's shareholders who have the final decision as to which strategic alternative, if any, to accept," the statement said. "The board fully supports the current management team in their efforts to ensure that Market Basket's normal business operations resume immediately for the benefit of its customers, associates, vendors and communities."
Meanwhile, at the Rochester Market Basket, Assistant Manager Adam Bonovich said headquarters had been turning up the screws on individual stores, warning them to “start making production.”
He said that would be difficult as the vast majority of customers are in solidarity with Artie. T and the workers, and continue to boycott the store.
Bonovich said the store had only two Market Basket delivery trucks stop by last week, both making runs that were a week late.
He said produce and meat isn’t being delivered because it would just spoil.
Bonovich, who’s been with Market Basket for 20 years, added that the past few weeks have been stressful on workers throughout the chain, but vowed it wasn’t a matter of “if” Artie T. returns, but “when.”
Outside the store, sitting in a chair under an umbrella at the Milton Road entrance, Maggie McCawley, a cashier at the Rochester store for 13 years, painted pictures of “Jack,” the giraffe mascot of the Market Basket worker uprising.
She said “Jack” was the creation of a Market Basket worker who said it was his family’s mascot, because you shouldn’t “be afraid to stick your neck out if you know you’re right.”
She said she was drawing the pictures for other area stores.
Asked how long the standoff could go on, she replied, “We’ll be out here as long as it takes.”
And to the people supporting the workers, honking their horns as they drove by and boycotting the store?
“Thank you very much, and we will see you when we get him (Artie T.) back,” she said.
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