Editor’s Note: The following was republished with permission of Nashua photographer Kym Scott, who was moved by what she saw while on her way home from a Massachusetts beach on Aug. 10, 2014. She explains her experience below, which includes a link to her site where you can view all 45 of the photographs she captured, via her iPhone. It has been 50 days since Market Basket CEO Arthur T. Demoulas was ousted on June 23 by his cousin, Arthur S. Demoulas and the controlling faction of the Board of Directors, along with two executives, resulting in a 7-week customer boycott, so far, of every Market Basket supermarket across New England, inspired by the solidarity of the non-union workers, who are demanding Artie T. be reinstated.
I took some time to visit various Market Baskets to see the impact, for myself, of the strike of its employees to bring back their beloved CEO Arthur T. Demoulas.
I was shocked at the repercussions and admired the consistent message of unity across all of the MBs I visited. There have been picket signs and protesters since this began, but not these days. I’m told most picketers were part-time employees, but were missing from the daily protests because of drastic cut backs in part-time hours very recently.
They love their CEO. To them, he is one of them and they want him back. What is shocking is the customers almost complete support of the employees, even though their pockets are taking a hit from shopping at competitors, and more expensive, grocery stores. MB parking lots had only handfuls of customers, which is a marked stray from the norm.
I visited stores in Nashua, NH; Burlington, Mass., two stores in Lowell, Mass., and Newburyport, Mass.
Click here to view the complete 45-image gallery in black-and-white.
All images captured and edited on an iPhone 5S.
