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What is billed as being the biggest Market Basket rally to date is scheduled today at a Tewksbury, Mass., plaza, while at the company’s nearby warehouse in Andover, the second day of a three-day job fair designed to fill positions of employees who walked off the job 15 days ago will continue as planned.
On Monday as hundreds protested outside the warehouse only a smattering of applicants crossed the picket line.
Monday and today’s Job Fair is for current Market Basket employees. Wednesday’s is for applicants from outside the company and with a tough economy and few good-paying jobs will likely draw a much larger crowd and prove a tougher public-relations minefield for work-stoppage organizers who don’t want to appear abusive of outside applicants looking for a piece of the Market Basket dream.
For store execs and shareholders, however, the dream is increasingly a nightmare as financial analysts put the chain’s losses in the tens of million dollars a day.
The question now most often asked is how long can this go without causing irreparable damage to the company’s brand.
Meanwhile at the Rochester Hannafords, managers and workers scurried to cope with more than double the customers normally in the store. At the Lilac Mall Hannaford, where several food item kiosks display warehouse specials near a store entrance, managers frantically looked for ways to make access toward the deli more unfettered so customers wouldn’t bottle up as they entered the store.
An uptick in shoppers prompted extra personnel in the store as well.
Observers about town and on the Market Basket Facebook Page Save Market Basket noted Hannaford prices seemed lower than usual and the company could be making a play for a chunk of the Market Basket customer base.
Back at Market Basket on Milton Road, a large group of young Market Basket employees continued their picket at the entrance of a virtually empty store parking lot.
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