5 Years Ago: Market Basket Workers Risk Their Jobs To Save Their Boss

Do you remember the Market Basket protests that almost destroyed the company? It's hard to believe that it was five years ago this month that the drama unfolded in front of New Englanders, who watch the news daily to learn about new developments.

According to Wikipedia, it all began when the board fired CEO/President Arthur T. Demoulas. He was known for treating employees very well, often remembering their names, birthdays, and attended their weddings and funerals. Workers would say he was like George Bailey from the movie It's A Wonderful Life." So when it was announced that he was being pushed out, they fought for him. There were several protests outside of stores all over Maine and New Hampshire. And at some point, the employees stopped showing up for work.

I lived in New Hampshire at the time, and I was a frequent Market Basket shopper. I remember walking into the store during the protests to see for myself what was going on. It was eerie. The shelves were practically bare, there were only a handful of workers, and virtually no customers. It appeared that if this continued for long, Market Basket as we knew it would be doomed.

However, it was all settled on August 27th, 2014,  when the shareholders of Market Basket reached a deal to sell the remaining 50.5% shares of the company to Arthur T. Demoulas for $1.5 billion.

Do you remember the Market Basket protests? Were you, or someone you know involved? Share your memories of it with us in a comment on the Facebook post!

Here's a news report from CBS This Morning from August 2014 - 5 years ago this month!