Shelves seen thinning, but not support for 'Artie T.'

Lindsay Seale, 17, of Rochester, holds a sign in support of ousted CEO Arthur T. Demoulas, while Brianna Hanson of Strafford, another employee, talks to others about the standoff with corporate. (Lebanon Voice/Harrison Thorp photos)

ROCHESTER - Lindsay Seale of Rochester will be a senior at Spaulding High School this fall, but she’s getting quite an education over the summer, too, about corporate greed, business in today’s profit-driven economy and the push and pull of labor and management.

Seale is one of thousands of Market Basket employees upset at the ouster of former CEO Arthur T. Demoulas, known affectionately as “Artie T.” by employees who see the fallen exec as the champion of low prices for the consumer and generous pay packages for workers.

The combination appeared to be working for everybody except some stockholders. Last week’s firing of Demoulas and his replacement by two co-CEOs the company, based in Tewskbury, Mass., brought in from the outside brought things to a head.

Seale, who’s worked at the store for a year and a half, is hoping that the solidarity of workers will help put things back the way they were, with Artie T. at the helm. She said that’s where he belongs.

Instead of special of the day, a sign at the entrance to the Rochester Market Basket proclaims employees' loyalty to Artie T. Demoulas, the chain's ousted CEO.

 “I love it here, we’re all one big family,” she said as she held a poster with an image of Artie T. outside the Milton Road store on Saturday. “We’re hoping this gets resolved, or the company will be sold or prices will go up or both.”

Inside the store, the produce aisle was thinning fast as predicted while the dairy aisle was reconfigured with vendor items replacing depleted stocks of lower-priced Market Basket brand goods.

The meat, seafood and deli sections still had many selections, but Andy McDonough of Rochester, a store manager who’s been with the company for 28 years, said it won’t be long before store shelves will look radically different.

“It’s not uncommon in a single day to get 4,000 to 5,000 cases of just grocery stock,” McDonough said. “You can imagine after two or three days, you’re talking about all that not going on the shelves.”

McDonough said outside vendors will still be delivering things like dairy items, soda and chips, but the stuff that comes from the Market Basket warehouse will no longer be delivered since employees at headquarters walked off the job on Friday.

McDonough is hopeful things can be patched up and Artie. T can be reinstated, but he knows it’s not a done deal.

“It’s going to be a test of wills,” he said standing in front of a bustling line of cash registers. “They’ll wait and see what our resolve here is.”

McDonough admitted the stores can only function so much and continue to operate smoothly for so long without anyone manning the front office in Tewksbury, but he said the Rochester store would shoulder on as long as possible.

McDonough said that when the shelves are bare and cleaned, they’ll find other tasks for employees to do.

 “We’re not planning on sending anyone home,” he said.

A group of employees will meet with corporate executives to discuss their grievances on Monday.

Protesters condemning Demoulas’ ouster urged those who wish to respond to the firing of Artie T. to express their feelings by emailing the following Demoulas Supermarket Board of Directors members:

Chairman of the Board: Keith.cowan@gmail.com

Board independents: ron@pwcpa.com and efgebaide@yahoo.com.

Market Basket operates 71 stores in New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Maine.