Posted on 08/14/2014 12:12:53 PM PDT by BlatherNaut
"Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations." A typical paradigm for a family business; mom and pop start the business, their children successfully grow the business, and the greedy acrimonious grandchildren squabble amongst themselves and fritter away the business. The Demoulas family, of the Market Basket supermarket chain in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine, has added some new wrinkles.
Looking at Market Basket from the outside, you will see a business with discernibly lower prices, an operation with noticeably better service, and a staff anxious to please. The workers are much better paid than the competition and their total compensation includes profit sharing, retirement, and bonuses. Their benefits package is on a par with the high-tech industry and far ahead of the penny-pinching supermarket sweatshops. All of this and their return on assets is about 7.5%. A template for a more civilized world. Why can’t the Demoulas family enjoy such success?
There are two Demoulas factions, led by cousins Arthur S. and Arthur T., and nine family shareholders. There has been strife between the two sides of the family for fifty years or so. It boiled over into the courts in the 1990s.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Having been raised in a 3-generation family biz I can tell ya’ it’s hard as hell! Was always a frikkin’ soap opera....not to mention some really bad economic times and wondering how to make payroll.
D.C.
“Got so much cash, now by Gum, we’re rich white trash” - Thank you Mr. Lehrer for your apt summary of some of the progeny in that family in the article.
...yankees suck...huh,huh...huh,huh...
One of my great-grandfathers came from Italy, a laborer. He became a millionaire in the construction business, but died when only about fifty. They had eight children. His wife lived another ten years, dying in 1932. Their house was on the market for four years, eventually fetching a lousy price in 1936. It was shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in two generations.
Just one more illustration of the mendacity of talk about “the rich.”
In the car business they normally can’t make it past the second generation. It’s known as “dealer son disease”
My grandfather started his business in 1908.
We had to say ot back then because the Germans stole our zero...(Simpsons Grandpa ref).
When he passed away his 4 sons and a partner took over. My dad and his brother stayed and ran the place while the other two moved out of state and became engineers and had separate careers but still had their shares. The business grew but not by leaps and bounds. More maintained after an initial spurt of growth. A competitor however was growing much bigger (they went public).
My dad retire and sold his share back in the 1980’s and when his brother passed away his two sons ran the business. The first thing the new president of the company wanted was a raise.... the uncles said no. He bidden his time. I can tell how lazy this guy was when he did work, left his work for others to finish. It was just luck and not talent that he ended up in charge (his brother was a real hothead which influenced the family to pass him over).
The two uncles and the partners son decided to sell their shares several years ago and were to be paid out over the years. One day as my uncle told me he got a call from the guy who handle the companies finances and was asked if he wanted all the money now. My two uncles agreed as did the partners son. Soon after they hear that the two nephews had sold the business to the bigger competitor for quite a lot of money.
They never heard from their nephews again who are retired now and living off the money. Beware 3rd generation.
I hope they solve this, I used to shop there regularly but won’t do so while they have their public pissing match. For price, Market Basket beats the other chains in the Boston area hands down.
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