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DeMoulas Market Basket, more commonly known as Market Basket, is a chain of 58 supermarkets in eastern New England.[1] It has stores from central New Hampshire to Bristol County, Massachusetts with headquarters in Tewksbury, Massachusetts. Supermarket News ranked DeMoulas/Market Basket No. 45 in the 2008 "Top 75 North American Food Retailers" based on 2007 fiscal year estimated sales of $2.5 billion.[2]
[edit] Early historyIn 1917, Greek immigrants Athanasios ("Arthur") and Efrosini Demoulas opened a grocery store in Lowell, Massachusetts, specializing in fresh lamb. In 1954, they sold their store to two of their six children, Telemachus ("Mike") and George Demoulas. Within 15 years, the two brothers had transformed their parents' "mom and pop"-style store into a more modern supermarket chain consisting of 15 stores.  George Demoulas died of a heart attack in 1971 while vacationing in Greece, making Mike the sole head of the DeMoulas supermarket chain. Although each brother had promised to provide for the other's family in the event of his death, a lawsuit filed in 1990 by the heirs of George Demoulas claimed that Mike had defrauded them out of all but 8% of company stock by moving assets into shell companies, such as 'Market Basket Inc.' and 'Seabrook Sales Inc.' and claiming that these were separate companies from DeMoulas itself. The ensuing legal cases threatened to require the sale of the chain, most likely to Royal Ahold's Stop & Shop. In 1994, Judge Maria Lopez ruled that Mike Demoulas had defrauded George's family out of nearly $500 million, transferring 51% of Demoulas' stock to George's family.[3] A separate company controlled by the Mike DeMoulas side of the family operated the Lee Drug chain from 1983 until it was sold to Walgreens in 1990; these stores were usually located in the same shopping center as a DeMoulas/Market Basket. The chain's corporate relationship to Mike DeMoulas's family interest in DeMoulas/Market Basket was cited in the 1990s litigation. [edit] Market Basket today Market Basket's main competitors include Hannaford, Shaw's, Star Market, Stop & Shop, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods Markets, and smaller, local markets, such as Butcher Boy, and, to some extent, FoodMaster (formerly Johnnie's FoodMaster) and Super 88. Though the chain is often called DeMoulas, 58 of its 59 stores now operate under the Market Basket name. Market Basket supermarkets are usually in shopping centers with other stores, often properties owned by the company through its real-estate arm, Retail Management and Development, Inc. Only one store in the chain's history—number 38, in Plaistow, New Hampshire—has ever closed, although many have relocated to larger locations. Mike Demoulas died in 2003 at age 82 and is buried in Andover, Mass. In March 2006, Boston Magazine rated George's son, Arthur S. Demoulas, a member of the board of directors, as Boston's eighth wealthiest person, with assets of $1.6 billion.[4] He was not listed in the Forbes 2008 edition. In early 2008, the board of directors elected Arthur T. Demoulas president of the corporation. Market Basket also has started adding Market's Kitchen to some of its existing stores and most of its new stores. Market's Kitchen offers submarine sandwiches, panini, rotisserie chickens, salads, and fried foods. On June 10, 2009, Market Basket replaced its Chelsea, Massachusetts, store with a new building (tearing down the old Mystic Mall), whose 135,000 square feet make it the largest supermarket in New England.[5] Market Basket has no regularly functioning public website. Its rudimentary sites that were hosted at Geocities and a free blog-hosting site are defunct. New stores are presently under construction in Lowell (#2), Oxford (#62)[6] and Gloucester, Massachusetts[7] and Epping[8] and Swanzey, New Hampshire [9]. New Bedford, Massachusetts is under agreement, planned to start fall 2009, opening 2010[10] [edit] References
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