Arthur T. Demoulas has a recorded history of loaning money to people who use land he covets for collateral then telling the about to be duped landowner one thing while doing another ultimately leading to foreclosure with penalties and fees and putting the land in Artie T.’s portfolio at a cheap price.
He also is on record as having lent money and promises of Market Basket business to a small business in return for a considerable piece of equity but then didn’t provide the Market Basket business as promised thus forcing the original partners to starve and sell their shares to Artie T. at a discount.
Then we have the SJC describing Artie’s attempts to pay someone over 2 million dollars ($2,000,000 – via loan forgiveness) to commit perjury by falsely testifying that Arthur S. paid him to install listening devices in Artie T.’s office. Gut that? (That’s criminal by the way and if you or I did it…)
And let’s not forget a couple of other SJC opinions outlining Artie’s Geppetto using his millions to pull the strings of a few of the greedy Pinnochios out there in his elaborate and expensive blackmailing attempt of a struggling young attorney.(That’s criminal by the way and if you or I did it…)
How many sinister things has he done that he’s gotten away with? Or didn’t get away with it? Think about it. He lives his life by taking advantage of people’s greed.
We see store managers allowing the plastering of those nightmarish Stalinesque posters of Artie T. in store windows and giving statements to the press knocking current management.
Now we see vendors telling the media they can’t do business with current management because they were overpaid and Artie T. was easy to deal with. Hmmm
We also know he hired top notch public relations/issues management/spinmeisters/mouth piece/lead-and-feed-the-lazy-incestuous-local-media firm Rasky Baerlein over a year ago to help create this cult of personality.
Workers, customers, politicians, vendors and others are being served up daily to the slacker “journalists”. This takes an organization. It costs money. Far from organic. Needs lots of pesticide so Artie T. is making it and Rasky has the local scribes spreading it. Like the tools they are.
Employees giving interviews threatening their bosses. Vendors going out of their way to publicly indict a customer for incompetence because they double paid a bill.
And 99.99% of local press and pundits all in with Artie T. BIZARRE!!!
Artie T.’s problem right now is financing. He knows all the dirty tricks nefarious creditors and debtors can pull but so doesn’t the other side because they’ve been forced to deal with him for years. He’s probably demanding terms with obscure but gaping holes while scoffing at legitimate business terms a person with his record should expect.
BTW, this whole thing about Market Basket never recovering is the biggest bull shit to come along since the last time larry Lucchino opened his mouth.
It will thrive when it comes back.
P.S. I forgot about Artie T. and his father stealing his cousins’ half ownership in the company. Really, would you do business with this nut?
—
Unless you want Artie T. to come to your house and tell you he just bought your mortgage from the bank and is foreclosing because under his interpretation of the terms the grass is too high but if you want to fight it you will have to hire very expensive lawyers to match his very expensive lawyers you will follow me on twitter. Gut that?
judy-meredith says
Loves this characterization:
But I think your characterization of the local/national media is dead wrong. They are not lazy and have destroyed many of a public figure with very good negative research. This is a great soap opera of a story with colorful characters and no PR person could manufacture such “cult loyalty” expressed by workers and customers for Artie T
unless they experienced genuinely excellent working conditions and genuinely low priced excellent selection of groceries…. even Larry.
Finally, the participants in the direct actions of workers and customers boycott are having fun and feeling powerful which is key to any member of Saul Alinsky cult will tell you.
JimC says
I’m not sure what to think about two governors spending time on this (Deval and Maggie Hassan). My instinct is that it’s nice to see them taking an interest, and this has spilled into the public arena. But I’m still cynical about the whole thing, so I have another voice saying they should stay out of it.
SomervilleTom says
Regarding the governors, it’s a nice and safe sandbox where nothing they say will have any legal or official import whatsoever, so they can say whatever they like. Governor Patrick is finishing out his career as governor, and positioning himself for whatever he does next.
This is theater. It’s a SHOW, for crying out loud. The governors can’t do a thing about it. The workers can’t do a thing about it. EB3 can’t do a thing about it. You and I can’t do a thing about it.
The money people, together with the DeMoulas stockholders, will decide who gets paid what and when. That’s it.
The rest of this is simply a circus. It’s entertainment. It sells papers. It attracts viewers.
If you like circuses, then sit back and enjoy the show (I like the clowns most of all). But please … remember that they do this EVERY night. The trapeze artists are in no real danger (unless they REALLY screw up). Whatever else happens, the show will go on.
Christopher says
MB’s sales are down 90%. I’m not sure it will survive without returning customers who want Artie T. back.
I wasn’t going to comment directly because I didn’t want to feed the troll, but as an aside I love how EBIII characterizes paying people decently as “taking advantage of others’ greed”.
eb3-fka-ernie-boch-iii says
You can’t deny Artie T. has a history of thievery and deceit?
Christopher says
I’m actually not convinced even after reading through your stuff that he in fact has that history, but even if I stipulate to it he has figured out how to simultaneously compensate his employees well, keep prices low, and turn a profit. He is a model of corporate leadership in the current climate, how he treated his family in the 90s notwithstanding.
centralmassdad says
You do best to get that all of these guys were awful.
EBII is really quite correct when he describes all of the the awful things T did with respect to the S side of the family. He may even understate it a little. Sheesh, they blackmailed a kid right out of law school in an effort to get the judge who was ruling against them removed. What EBIII doesn’t understand is that no one, and especially MB employees and customers, give two shits about that.
Team T seems to have managed the company quite well. They kept it free of debt so that it could support more and better-paid employees. More and better-paid employees provide better service, and so customers become very loyal.
S opposes that– this entire fight is because T was going to pay a bonus to employees, and S wanted a cash distribution to stockholders instead. S won. S is moving toward the Stop & Shop model. Few employees, minimum wage, no service, compete on pricing alone.
So why is it a shock that employees and customers support T? You have 100 employees; 60 of you are fired and the rest will have a hourly-pay cut and hours cut to less than full time so we can ditch your benefits. And you don’t think that they’re going to support T? Maybe EBIII is too much of a fool to recognize when others aren’t being dumb.
Team T have done awful things, but in this circumstance they are pretty clearly the good guys, and have been treated accordingly by media. Their past sins may prevent them from finding the financing to save things, but it is pretty clear that the thing that is wrecking the company, putting a lot of Massachusetts employees out of work, and destroying something of value to many Massachusetts communities is S.
eb3-fka-ernie-boch-iii says
The only people that matter are the ones who will be funding Artie T.’s purchase. These past episodes and others we do not know are certainly in the equation for potential investors when negotiating terms.
centralmassdad says
T may be screwed by his past. I would imagine that it is not an enticing prospect to be a minority stockholder in an enterprise controlled by him. But he isn’t screwing the company– that is what S is doing. Before too much longer, there won’t be anything to sell.
You seem to think that because T is a historically proven turd, he must likewise be the bad guy in the present situation. The real world is more complex than that.
If you are a board of directors that forces a change in management that results in a near-immediate collapse of the company’s finances, you are doing it wrong. If you are the stockholders controlling those directors, you must have an incentive other than the good of the company.
Ultimately, this is going wreck the company, and then is going to cost a lot of the money he managed to extract.
eb3-fka-ernie-boch-iii says
n/t
Artie T.s’s prior actions have hurt the company. The case in the Globe was direct illegal action that hurt the company.
Something for stealing from shares
Making side deals with family members
all the things I site hurt the company.
Christopher says
…will take hurting the company a bit if the trade-off is helping the natural persons who work for it, but the company was also doing quite well under his leadership.
kirth says
I do not think it means what you think it means.
In your Globe story, it describes how a retired judge examined AT’s real-estate deals and found no illegal actions. You’re the only one claiming there was something illegal. Why? Why do you keep beating that dead horse?
eb3-fka-ernie-boch-iii says
kirth, blackmail is a criminal act. Suborning perjury is a criminal act. Nobody denies Artie T. did any of those things.
SomervilleTom says
You seem to forget that the valuation of MB, based on its grocery business alone, is less than $1B. Most of the company’s valuation is based on its real estate portfolio.
The principal effect of a total collapse of the MB grocery business is to reduce its sale price, lowering the sale price of its real estate portfolio.
Consumers can affect whether the sign on the marque over the current buildings says “Market Basket” or something else. That has little or nothing to do with what happens in the final act of the current show.
mannygoldstein says
Even the President would celebrate him as a “shrewd businessman”.
But because Artie T. does these things to the 1% and treats the 99% well, he is an awful scoundrel.
Such is America today.
eb3-fka-ernie-boch-iii says
negotiating with him is like negotiating with Putin