Speaker 1: It's night Side, who Dan ray On doing Busy Boston Radio.
Speaker 2: Beg you very much. I'll the Red Sox continue with
Speaker 2: their game down in Atlanta and we continue here at Nightside. Again.
Speaker 2: Thank you to Gary Tangway who sat in for me
Speaker 2: both Wednesday night and Thursday night. Had a chance to
Speaker 2: go up to Montreal for two days. And my friend
Speaker 2: and many many years, Chris Nyland, who played for the
Speaker 2: Montreal Canadians, did a one man show, which is the
Speaker 2: second one man show is going on tonight at the
Speaker 2: same venue. It's a beautiful venue as a dinner place
Speaker 2: with about six hundred guests who were supporting charity dealing
Speaker 2: with mental health issues. And Chris basically told his life
Speaker 2: story and it's a great job captivating story from being
Speaker 2: a kid grown up in West Roxbury who dreamed about
Speaker 2: playing in the National Hockey League but didn't think there
Speaker 2: was a real way for him to get there. But
Speaker 2: through some hard work he became a pretty accomplished hockey player,
Speaker 2: played thirteen years in the NHL with the Canadians, the
Speaker 2: Rangers and the Bruins, and then finished his career in
Speaker 2: Montreal with his beloved Canadians. And he talked about his
Speaker 2: post career and surgeries and addiction to certain substances, some
Speaker 2: very tough drug dealing with drugs. He was brutally honest
Speaker 2: in this presentation. He did that in conjunction with a
Speaker 2: gentleman from Montreal, gentleman by named of Barry Larenzetti, who
Speaker 2: worked with Chris and it was a compelling one man show. Basically,
Speaker 2: he spoke from his heart and was fabulous in terms
Speaker 2: of the message that he has. And I hope that somehow,
Speaker 2: some way his performances and he will do two more
Speaker 2: of these. It will be the same show or maybe
Speaker 2: a little different each night, but it's not scripted per se,
Speaker 2: It's outlined, and he is a compelling Speaker's done some
Speaker 2: radio in Montreal, did a great job on Wednesday night,
Speaker 2: and I'm sure he's doing a great job tonight even
Speaker 2: as we speak. And I hope that one of the
Speaker 2: content providers on television basically is small enough and enlightened
Speaker 2: enough to pick it up because it's a message that
Speaker 2: needs to be heard. How you can be overtaken in
Speaker 2: the most innocent of ways if you rely overly rely
Speaker 2: upon some of these opioids as you recover from surgeries
Speaker 2: and you can develop. And Chris held nothing back, nothing back.
Speaker 2: So for those of you who know Chris Nyland, if
Speaker 2: you let him know that he's served a great public
Speaker 2: service on Wednesday night, and he's doing it again tonight
Speaker 2: and very very rarely to people want to tell the
Speaker 2: world all of their faults and all of their failings
Speaker 2: in an effort to prevent others from dealing with those
Speaker 2: same faults and failings. And Chris has brought his life
Speaker 2: back together amazingly. Well anyway, I also want to just
Speaker 2: take a moment. I just got a very nice note
Speaker 2: from Teresa Mahoney. She writes, Hydian. My husband used to
Speaker 2: call it tonightside off and he was Paul m from
Speaker 2: Norwood or Paul from Dorchester. He was a retired Boston
Speaker 2: Public school teacher dean of students. Passed away at the
Speaker 2: end of March after a courageous battle with pancreatic cancer.
Speaker 2: He had been diagnosed in January of twenty twenty four
Speaker 2: and passed away this past March. He always enjoyed talking
Speaker 2: to you, and I was listening in tonight and thought
Speaker 2: i'd let you know. Best regards to Teresa. Teresa, I
Speaker 2: hope you're listening, I sent back. I sent to you
Speaker 2: a quick email during the news in which I said
Speaker 2: to you, and I want to tell the audience I
Speaker 2: remember Paul very well. He was an excellent caller. He
Speaker 2: was a dedicated teacher and a dedicated coach to his
Speaker 2: students in Boston public schools. Someone had mentioned to me
Speaker 2: a few weeks ago that he had passed, and I
Speaker 2: did acknowledge it briefly on here because I wasn't quite sure.
Speaker 2: You know, Paul Mahoney is not an uncommon name, and
Speaker 2: I decided, after seeing your email tonight that I just
Speaker 2: wanted to make a reference and do it right now.
Speaker 2: And I hope you hear what I'm about to say.
Speaker 2: But Paul always spoke from his heart. He was so
Speaker 2: dedicated to his Boston Public school students. He was a
Speaker 2: basketball coach and a basketball referee and spent a lot
Speaker 2: of time with young people in gyms in Boston, in
Speaker 2: the city of Boston, and I'm sure that he touched
Speaker 2: the lives of hundreds, hundreds of young people in Boston,
Speaker 2: and all for the positive. And I'm proud that he
Speaker 2: was a listener to Night Side, and I'm proud of
Speaker 2: the fact that he contributed so often to Night's side.
Speaker 2: I get to know a lot of my callers on
Speaker 2: this program because this is a talk show, and a
Speaker 2: talk show is necessarily driven by callers. I don't think
Speaker 2: that I'm some oracle of great knowledge or wealthy information,
Speaker 2: and I do not think I have either the ability
Speaker 2: or the inclination to sit here and spout my opinions.
Speaker 2: I always want to throw out topics for conversation and
Speaker 2: give people a chance to share our opinions. And from
Speaker 2: the day I began this program back in two thousand
Speaker 2: and seven, I said that I wanted to be the
Speaker 2: voice of reason, and I wanted to hear different points
Speaker 2: of view. And most of the time I would sit
Speaker 2: back and listen to Paul because of the wisdom that
Speaker 2: he imparted about his time as a teacher and as
Speaker 2: a coach and the impact that sports could have and
Speaker 2: teachers could have on students in Boston public schools. And
Speaker 2: he remained remain so loyal to his students and to
Speaker 2: his athletes, and it came through so clearly every time
Speaker 2: he spoke on the radio. So he will be sorely missed, Toresa,
Speaker 2: But I want you to understand that there are hundreds
Speaker 2: of kids walking today, maybe now grown up families of
Speaker 2: their own, who were impacted by Paul and positively impacted
Speaker 2: by him as a teacher or a coach, and his
Speaker 2: legacy will live on through them and through their families
Speaker 2: because he, I know, changed lives and changed lives for
Speaker 2: the better. So I just wanted to say thank you,
Speaker 2: Teresa for confirming for me so I could speak a
Speaker 2: little bit more openly about him. I would see his
Speaker 2: name come up, and I knew that I was going
Speaker 2: to get a good caller, and I was going to
Speaker 2: get someone who's going to come with a point of
Speaker 2: view and say it and say it well as he
Speaker 2: did so many nights over so many years here on
Speaker 2: night Side. So rest well, Paul Mahoney and hopefully Teresa,
Speaker 2: he's listening tonight from somewhere in a far better place.
Speaker 2: But they say that WBZ can be heard across the
Speaker 2: country and around the world, and I suspect that if
Speaker 2: Paul is where I think he is, he's sitting up
Speaker 2: there and listening tonight. So thanks to and God bless you,
Speaker 2: and God bless your family, and certainly in God bless
Speaker 2: your late great husband. Paul Mahoney, Well, take a break.
Speaker 2: We come back. We're going to talk about the Dumoulis battle,
Speaker 2: another battle brawl, if you want to call it an
Speaker 2: interfamilial battle. I got to tell you, I'm rooting for Artie.
Speaker 2: It seems to me that this is a great store.
Speaker 2: It's a store that is not convenient to where I live,
Speaker 2: but I go there. I don't go there as often
Speaker 2: as I would as I should, or maybe as I
Speaker 2: would like to, because I do have some responsibilities during
Speaker 2: the day. But join us. Feel free who you're rooting
Speaker 2: for here. I'm rooting for ardt. It's as simple as that.
Speaker 2: I think that he survived that attempted coup back in
Speaker 2: the summer of twenty fourteen. I love Market Basket. They
Speaker 2: are not advertisers on this program. They don't have to
Speaker 2: be advertisers. I will tell you what I think, honestly.
Speaker 2: I had a conversation with a manager at another grocery
Speaker 2: store just yesterday actually, and I cited market Basket to
Speaker 2: him as how all stores should be run. I'll explain
Speaker 2: that conversation, and I want to hear from you on
Speaker 2: this Who are you rooting for? Are you rooting for
Speaker 2: RDT at market basket, or or he's been placed on
Speaker 2: paid leave. Are you rooting for his other family members?
Speaker 2: I guess it was a group of three sisters, all
Speaker 2: shareholders in the chain, who together had more votes on
Speaker 2: the voard of directors, and so they were able to,
Speaker 2: I guess, accomplish what what he had avoided ten years ago.
Speaker 2: But I hope somehow he gets back. The numbers, if
Speaker 2: you'd like to join the conversation, are six one, seven, two, five, four,
Speaker 2: ten thirty and six one seven, nine three one thirty.
Speaker 2: Light those lines up, and at ten o'clock tonight, we're
Speaker 2: going to talk about the future of medicine and what's
Speaker 2: going on in the medical world right now is extraordinary,
Speaker 2: and for any of you who are under the age
Speaker 2: of fifty, a lot of the things that we're going
Speaker 2: to be talking about tonight will be considered just normal
Speaker 2: medical practice by time you get into the year sixties
Speaker 2: or seventies, and it'll be an exciting conversation we will
Speaker 2: have with a futurist, Kevin Sirelli, and then we'll finish
Speaker 2: it off with the twentieth Hour. For me, it's I
Speaker 2: can't say it's the twentieth hours the twentieth hour of
Speaker 2: the week. So far, I've done nine hours. Gary Tangway
Speaker 2: has done eight and we still have three to go.
Speaker 2: We're coming back on Nightside. Let's talk about Demolis, who
Speaker 2: we are rooting for. I mean, this is important to
Speaker 2: me because I want Market Basket to stay the way
Speaker 2: it is. We'll be back on Nightside.
Speaker 1: You're on night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's
Speaker 1: news radio.
Speaker 2: Go the headline in the papers today and I heard
Speaker 2: about this yesterday. I was in Montreal on my way
Speaker 2: to Montreal actually on Wednesday, and got a phone call
Speaker 2: from someone and said to me that there was some
Speaker 2: sort of a coup underway at the board meeting of
Speaker 2: Market Basket people and longtime Market Basket leader Arthur T. Dermoulis,
Speaker 2: who had survived a big fight ten years ago, and
Speaker 2: any of you in our audience who were ten years ago,
Speaker 2: he was in a battle with his cousin Arthur S
Speaker 2: back in the day. Talk about an interfamilial battle, and
Speaker 2: Arthur T survived. At that point, there were people who
Speaker 2: boycotted the supermarket, and there were people employees who walked out,
Speaker 2: and it was it was inspirational. I mean, market Basket
Speaker 2: is a huge, huge company. It's a huge company, and
Speaker 2: I guess it is. I'm just reading here. I think
Speaker 2: it's ninety stores and they have something like three thousand
Speaker 2: employees and and last year they did seven billion dollars
Speaker 2: in revenue. And my understanding is that a lot of
Speaker 2: the stores want the employees to do their restocking of
Speaker 2: shells overnight, but apparently Arthur t does not want that,
Speaker 2: and he wants his employees in the stores during the day,
Speaker 2: which has been my experience. When I go to market
Speaker 2: Basket and I do go there, I develop a list
Speaker 2: and it saves me money, which is why I go there.
Speaker 2: I mean, obviously it cost me some money to drive
Speaker 2: there because it's not convenient. The one that's closest to
Speaker 2: me is in Waltham, and that's the store I go
Speaker 2: to on one twenty eight. I'm not going there this weekend,
Speaker 2: by the way, because I would have to go past
Speaker 2: the Massachusetts Turnpike. That's a different story from last hour.
Speaker 2: But you could save money, and there's nothing wrong with
Speaker 2: saving money. I was in another store I'm not going
Speaker 2: to mention the name of the store yesterday, and one
Speaker 2: of the things that bothers me about a lot of
Speaker 2: these stores is that they have they have these apps
Speaker 2: and stuff where and I don't know if you can
Speaker 2: relate to this. I'm pretty good with the apps. I
Speaker 2: know how to pull the apps down. I know how
Speaker 2: to use the apps. But what they do is they
Speaker 2: have like two sets of prices. They have the well,
Speaker 2: they have three sets of prices. They have regular prices,
Speaker 2: and then they have sale prices so that you can
Speaker 2: walk down the aisle and say, oh, those that item
Speaker 2: is fifty cents off. I can save a dollar on
Speaker 2: that item. And then they have the digital coupons. But
Speaker 2: you have to somehow be able to get the best
Speaker 2: price on a lot of the items. You have to
Speaker 2: get that you have to get the app, and then
Speaker 2: you have to go through the app to find the
Speaker 2: digital coupons you want, which is a pain that in
Speaker 2: the in the neck. Okay uh. And the bottom line
Speaker 2: is they make it difficult. They make and I blasted
Speaker 2: a manager yesterday. I said, you're basically making you you
Speaker 2: you basically are going to drive older shoppers away. They
Speaker 2: know the older shoppers, uh, do not want to drive
Speaker 2: far distances, so they have these marketing attitudes that that
Speaker 2: they'll the older folks get treated as second class customers
Speaker 2: because they can't. They're not comfortable with the apps, they're
Speaker 2: not comfortable with the digital coupons. I am. I use
Speaker 2: computers all the time. I'm kind of the exception. There
Speaker 2: are probably a lot of older customers who do, but
Speaker 2: there are a lot of older customers who don't. At Demola's,
Speaker 2: the prices are all there. I you know, you walk
Speaker 2: down the aisle, you see what the prices are, and
Speaker 2: they're accurate, and you don't have any of these automatic
Speaker 2: kiosks market basket. It is my favorite grocery store. And
Speaker 2: the fact that RDT now has been put on leave
Speaker 2: bothers me immensely. I hope some of you feel the
Speaker 2: same way. I have no idea what was going on
Speaker 2: within the family, but I'd love to get your take
Speaker 2: on it. Six one, seven, two, five, four ten thirty
Speaker 2: six seven nine, three, one ten thirty. Now, this is
Speaker 2: a talk show. I rely upon callers, Okay. I'm told
Speaker 2: that Gary runs a little bit of a different show
Speaker 2: and he's much more uh interview oriented, which is fine,
Speaker 2: But I want to hear from you on this. Are
Speaker 2: you concerned that Dumoulas might head in a different direction.
Speaker 2: I know. I am Jeane in Boston. Gene, welcome, you
Speaker 2: are next to the night side. Let me get you
Speaker 2: up here on the on the board. Go ahead, Geene,
Speaker 2: what rather?
Speaker 3: I think you also failed to mention though, that they
Speaker 3: also price at different stories and in what town they're in,
Speaker 3: which is also to scrimnatory against their customers based upon
Speaker 3: the competition in the area, as well as all the
Speaker 3: other things you talked about with digital coupons and things.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, you know, that's a good point. I know
Speaker 2: that there was some students I think from Boston, from Roxbury,
Speaker 2: Mattapan who went in and did an analysis of I'm
Speaker 2: not going to mention the store, but they did an
Speaker 2: analysis of what the same grocery bag to fill up
Speaker 2: with cost And I think it was a store in
Speaker 2: downtown in Greater Boston, in Roxbury, I think it was
Speaker 2: in the South.
Speaker 4: End right correct, the mall there over on the expressway,
Speaker 4: versus what people in one of the suburban communities would pay.
Speaker 2: And I think that's that's a problem too. I mean,
Speaker 2: they have a right to do that. I don't think
Speaker 2: that I want the government going in and and price checking,
Speaker 2: but I think it's good to make to do these
Speaker 2: sort of consumer stories and I remember seeing that. My
Speaker 2: hats off to those kids from Roxbury, Dorchester. They sort
Speaker 2: of were doing the role of investigative reporters that should
Speaker 2: be done occasionally by local television news reporters.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, I will also say too like in terms
Speaker 3: of this like I was fully on board with the situation. However,
Speaker 3: many years ago I was with Arthur and the family.
Speaker 3: I do feel like now is a little different in
Speaker 3: my opinion, with the three sisters, they also helped him
Speaker 3: in that situation. They were on his side and took
Speaker 3: on the debt with him that he did. And the
Speaker 3: reality is now is they now own those three sisters.
Speaker 3: They owned sixty percent of the company. He only owned
Speaker 3: twenty eight percent. I don't know what the details are
Speaker 3: of what's going on, but if it's true that he's
Speaker 3: not providing them with budgets or big decisions you know,
Speaker 3: factors and what's what decision he's making on top of
Speaker 3: the fact that he's seventy years old, there should be
Speaker 3: some shared you know, I guess of information with who
Speaker 3: the managers are and what an exit plan would be,
Speaker 3: because if they really are in the dark and they
Speaker 3: own sixty percent of the company. I don't think that's
Speaker 3: fair with them, and they were on his side and
Speaker 3: they helped them get out of that situation and obviously
Speaker 3: made the company what it is today. So I do
Speaker 3: think that he should be sharing that with them if
Speaker 3: thats back through you, and I don't think we know
Speaker 3: what the details of that, So I don't think it's
Speaker 3: fair to say that you're on his side or their
Speaker 3: side whoever, without necessarily knowing what's really going on, because
Speaker 3: from what I've heard, if that's true, if he's not,
Speaker 3: you know, sharing that with them and keeping them in
Speaker 3: the dark when they own sixty pern of the company,
Speaker 3: you know, I hope that, honestly, I hope that. I
Speaker 3: don't care who's right who's wrong, but I think that
Speaker 3: they need to work it out and figure it out
Speaker 3: because the company has been doing very well, and I
Speaker 3: just hope they figure it out. And I'm not sure
Speaker 3: which side to take, but I hope they figure it out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, all, I'm all I'm trying to do. And
Speaker 2: I think you're a great first caller because you make
Speaker 2: the point that this is an internal fight within the market.
Speaker 2: Basket Board of directors and it's an internal fight really
Speaker 2: in effect between the Demula's family. Again, I've read the
Speaker 2: same newspaper articles that you've read. None of us know
Speaker 2: what internally is going on. My instinct is that he
Speaker 2: has always done what has been right, not only for
Speaker 2: the employees but for the customers, and he's grown the store,
Speaker 2: grown the business. And whenever there's going to be a change,
Speaker 2: I get a little bit concerned because I think having
Speaker 2: market Basket in so many communities in East Well in Massachusetts,
Speaker 2: and I guess also in New Hampshire could be wrong
Speaker 2: on that, but I think it's good to have that option.
Speaker 2: We have a variety of stores around, you know, you
Speaker 2: have Shaws and Star Market and Roach Brothers and Stopping
Speaker 2: Shop and Wegman's and Trader Joe's, and different stores appeal
Speaker 2: to different people. As far as I'm concerned, market Basket
Speaker 2: is the only one right now that accentuates low prices
Speaker 2: year round and also fully employees people I've never seen
Speaker 2: and if I'm wrong here, please someone correct me on this.
Speaker 2: I've never seen one of those automatic checkout machines in
Speaker 2: a Demola's market Basket.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 2: I haven't been to every i'ven't been to most market baskets,
Speaker 2: but I think, you know, one of the characteristics that
Speaker 2: I like about market basket is when you go in there,
Speaker 2: there's someone and often their first generation people who are working,
Speaker 2: you know, at at at an entry level job. But
Speaker 2: when you ask them to help you find something, whatever
Speaker 2: the language difficulty might be, they always are responsive. And
Speaker 2: I just I've never waited in line more than three
Speaker 2: or four minutes, you know, the busiest times. It just
Speaker 2: seems like a well run stored So that's that's what
Speaker 2: I was responding to, to be honest with you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I think obviously it's very well
Speaker 3: roun I do have a little sympathy for the sisters,
Speaker 3: but the little that I know, and ultimately I hope
Speaker 3: they work it out because they came together to, you know,
Speaker 3: take it out of a bad situation before. And I
Speaker 3: don't fully understand what the what the are, but I
Speaker 3: do get it that these sisters are probably the same
Speaker 3: age or similar, that he is probably concerned about what
Speaker 3: their errors are going to get and where it's going
Speaker 3: to go to, and that they should be involved in
Speaker 3: the succession planning and who's right and who's wrong. I
Speaker 3: don't know, but I hope they work it out.
Speaker 2: I agree with you on that as well. And I
Speaker 2: also hope that the characteristics of the store don't change
Speaker 2: as was helping.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely about that's part of the succession planning that
Speaker 3: I think that they should all be a part of.
Speaker 2: Okay, thank you, g'd appreciate your call.
Speaker 3: Well, welcome, I'm a good night.
Speaker 2: You too, have a great night, good night, bye bye.
Speaker 2: All right, I'm having some trouble on my screen here tonight, Rob,
Speaker 2: So whatever you can do would be very helpful. We
Speaker 2: will continue with our conversations, and I have open lines,
Speaker 2: which always worry me. Six thirty six one seven nine
Speaker 2: one ten thirty. I think it's a very important story
Speaker 2: because if market Basket were to go away or fundamentally change,
Speaker 2: it would impact a lot of people who rely upon
Speaker 2: them for good quality products at the fairest and I
Speaker 2: think the least expensive prices around. Join the conversation, uh.
Speaker 2: I think Jean's position of holding your fire, I just
Speaker 2: want to get the conversation started, and I'm gonna be
Speaker 2: honest with you. I saw what Arthur t has done
Speaker 2: with that store. I saw how people stood up for him, before.
Speaker 2: I haven't seen any indication that he should have been removed,
Speaker 2: putting all of the into family internscine intomural warfare aside,
Speaker 2: which I have no knowledge of. I have no knowledge of,
Speaker 2: and I don't think most of you have any knowledge
Speaker 2: of it either, But it will affect much more than
Speaker 2: that family. Six one, seven, two, five, four ten thirty
Speaker 2: six month, seven nine three one ten thirty one. Coming
Speaker 2: right back on Nightside.
Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2: Now. I've been away for a couple of nights here,
Speaker 2: but folks, this is an issue that is near and
Speaker 2: dear to my heart, and I hope it's near and
Speaker 2: dear to yours to yours as well. So I got
Speaker 2: some open line six one seven, two, five, four ten
Speaker 2: thirty six one seven nine three one ten thirty. I
Speaker 2: like phone calls. Let's keep it a rolling. And I
Speaker 2: also like Noel, who is up in New Hampshire. Noel,
Speaker 2: welcome back to Night's Side. I haven't talked to you
Speaker 2: in months. How are you tonight?
Speaker 6: I know Dan, I'm doing well.
Speaker 2: How are you so great to hear your voice? I
Speaker 2: know that you travel along.
Speaker 6: I I just got back from Italy, really.
Speaker 2: For business or pleasure. Play God, good for you. Where'd
Speaker 2: you go anywhere? I was in Italy last summer and.
Speaker 6: We were in Italy. I've done wrong before. This was Venice,
Speaker 6: Florence for Pollo Venice. So but I have a lot
Speaker 6: to say about this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I want to hear it.
Speaker 4: Go right ahead, Okay.
Speaker 6: All three of my children worked at Market Basket. They
Speaker 6: all worked there, you know, as soon as they turned fourteen.
Speaker 6: And I think, what people when the first walkout happened
Speaker 6: eleven years ago, that was organic. The thing I find
Speaker 6: extremely suspicious about this is it seems like this board
Speaker 6: has not been very involved in the day to day
Speaker 6: operations of Market Basket. The new the newer board members,
Speaker 6: not people like mister Shay or the one that was fired,
Speaker 6: mister Carlton. But what's interesting is the board comes out
Speaker 6: with this letter saying that Arthur te Demu was planning
Speaker 6: to stage a walkout. Now, the man who has been
Speaker 6: there since I believe he was seventeen years old and
Speaker 6: seven days, why would he do anything to jeopardize the
Speaker 6: thirty thousand associates that he adores. They do, they absolutely do.
Speaker 6: He is the nicest human being you will ever meet.
Speaker 6: On the planet Earth, as are his wife and children.
Speaker 6: I've had the pleasure to meet them. They are just
Speaker 6: a wonderful feeling. They do so much for the local communities.
Speaker 6: Mass General Lawrence General Lowell General Boys Clubs, Girls Clubs.
Speaker 6: He's the most generous, honest, kindest human being you ever
Speaker 6: want to meet. He is never going to do anything
Speaker 6: to jeopardize the company that his grandfather and his dad built.
Speaker 2: So what do you think the motive is. I mean, again,
Speaker 2: you never know what goes on in a marriage or
Speaker 2: a family.
Speaker 6: We kind of I know, but I've been through this.
Speaker 6: I've been through this when my mother died with my
Speaker 6: own siblings. Yeah, I don't care how much money you have.
Speaker 6: If you have one hundred dollars or one hundred million dollars,
Speaker 6: if you have the opportunity to get more money, why not.
Speaker 6: And I think what's really tragic about this is these
Speaker 6: board members that you're seeing on television, they don't know
Speaker 6: anything about the culture of this company.
Speaker 2: Well, what I'd love to know. What I'd love to know,
Speaker 2: and you seem to know some. What I'd love to
Speaker 2: know is how do people get appointed to this board? Also,
Speaker 2: I want you to know that we reached out to
Speaker 2: a side today. Okay, there was no news conference, and
Speaker 2: I have a sound, some sound which I can play. Oh,
Speaker 2: I know it was Okay, I'm not not for you.
Speaker 2: But what I'm saying is we gave them an opportunity,
Speaker 2: the people who have been fired, to come on and
Speaker 2: make their points available tonight, and we what did they say?
Speaker 2: You can lead a horse to water, but you can't
Speaker 2: make them drink. I was very disappointed that the people
Speaker 2: who are supporting Arthur t they know how I feel
Speaker 2: about his management style and about and about the business.
Speaker 2: I was hoping they would come on and talk about it,
Speaker 2: to be really honest with you. But the two individuals
Speaker 2: who who were at the news conference, they fellow name,
Speaker 2: I don't know if you know. Their name's Joe Schmidt
Speaker 2: and Tom Gordon.
Speaker 6: And Tom Gordon, yeah.
Speaker 2: Neither one of them were available even for ten minutes tonight.
Speaker 6: Which I think maybe that will be arranged for some
Speaker 6: day next week. I think I think right now the
Speaker 6: company and the associates and the people that actually work
Speaker 6: for the company are in shock that this has happened.
Speaker 2: Well, they missed an opportunity. They missed an opportunity. Tonight
Speaker 2: to put a stake in the ground, and I would
Speaker 2: be willing to have people from both sides on. Now
Speaker 2: I'm told that Arthur t is there's not someone who
Speaker 2: does interviews, which is fine, that's his.
Speaker 6: Right, but it's very private man.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but this has now become once again. He went
Speaker 2: through a very public a series of events eleven years
Speaker 2: ago and he won that battle in the court of
Speaker 2: public opinion.
Speaker 6: I think when it comes to the court of public opinion,
Speaker 6: he'll win this battle. I think anybody, I mean thirty
Speaker 6: thousand people. They have ninety stores in Massachusetts, New Hampshire,
Speaker 6: Maine and even Rhode Islands. And if you read on
Speaker 6: social media, people love this Mia, you know.
Speaker 2: But here's the thing, Noel, they should hire Arthur t
Speaker 2: should hire someone like you who has good sense of
Speaker 2: public relations. Again, they missed an opportunity tonight, which is
Speaker 2: unfortunate for them. They missed an opportunity to have joined
Speaker 2: tonight and taken questions from me and set out what's
Speaker 2: going on. But you've represented them very well. And I'm
Speaker 2: inclined towards him only because I've been a customer of
Speaker 2: the store for several years. I don't go there every
Speaker 2: week because it's too far away, but at least every
Speaker 2: couple of weeks or three weeks, I make an effort
Speaker 2: to go there because I like the atmosphere, I like
Speaker 2: the people, I like the product.
Speaker 7: And I like the prices, and I like itt me correct,
Speaker 7: I believe in employee.
Speaker 6: A previous caller mentioned that or you were talking about
Speaker 6: this study that was done on different prices in different stores.
Speaker 6: I can tell you for a fact, market baskets prices
Speaker 6: are the same.
Speaker 2: Oh no, yeah, no, he made me no. Well, that
Speaker 2: caller made it clear he was talking about another chain,
Speaker 2: another well known and I'm not here to bash anybody,
Speaker 2: uh at all or mine. It was. It was a
Speaker 2: chain that had I think it was in South Bay Mall,
Speaker 2: and the students who were from I guess Roxbury, Dorchester
Speaker 2: went in and you know, priced what it would be
Speaker 2: for a family of whatever buying their products for a week.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 2: And then they went and they did the same identical products.
Speaker 2: I think it was a store in Denham and there
Speaker 2: was a pretty good significant disparity and obviously the prices
Speaker 2: were consistently higher in the poorer community, which is, you know,
Speaker 2: a little unfair.
Speaker 6: It's a tragedy and Arthur would never do that, of course.
Speaker 2: Noah, well, thank you for making it clear. I thought
Speaker 2: I had made it clear. It was not it was
Speaker 2: not U. And then I went on about these these
Speaker 2: these companies that that induced people to get their app,
Speaker 2: and then they had digital coupons in the app, which
Speaker 2: is great for the people who have the to maneuver
Speaker 2: around that app and spend the time in that app.
Speaker 2: But a lot of people don't have smartphones. They don't
Speaker 2: they're not able to get the app. And what they
Speaker 2: do is they create two tiers of customers. People who
Speaker 2: are smart enough to have the app and spend the
Speaker 2: time of the app, they get the best prices, and
Speaker 2: then you have these other people who don't get the
Speaker 2: best prices. And that's not fair. And I had a
Speaker 2: fairly straightforward conversation with the manager of a different store yesterday,
Speaker 2: frankly because I saw him and I said, you know,
Speaker 2: I said, I think you're being unfair to older customers,
Speaker 2: and I know.
Speaker 6: You would never see that.
Speaker 2: That's why I go there. I don't buy it. I
Speaker 2: don't buy anything that's expensive. I don't go you know,
Speaker 2: if I have to buy some cold cuts or whatever,
Speaker 2: I can go to my local store. But when I
Speaker 2: want to stock up on you know, toilet paper, dishwasher detergent,
Speaker 2: you know, dishwash, the liquid, all of that stuff, paper towels,
Speaker 2: I go to marketing paper.
Speaker 6: The thing. Can I just mention? One other thing is
Speaker 6: that when people talk about the board of directors, they
Speaker 6: need to remember that the board has a fiduciary responsibility.
Speaker 6: Every board has a fiduciary responsibility to act and the
Speaker 6: best interest of everyone. That's the stakeholders, which is Arthur
Speaker 6: and the sisters, but it's also the shareholders, the employees,
Speaker 6: and the community. And Arthur is more concerned about the
Speaker 6: employees and the community.
Speaker 7: All right, And that's what makes market that you represented.
Speaker 2: Again, they need to they need to get someone like
Speaker 2: you representing them. Noel, Hey, I got to run.
Speaker 6: It was very good for my kids, that's all.
Speaker 2: I wanted to make a very strong testimony. I wish
Speaker 2: that the public relations people were smart enough to have
Speaker 2: taken the opportunity we presented to them tonight, Thanks.
Speaker 6: Noel, Maybe they will thanks somebody.
Speaker 2: Okay, And again, either side is welcome to join us
Speaker 2: any night next week, that's for sure.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 2: I got some open lines. And I'm done at ten
Speaker 2: o'clock on this, so if you're gonna call it five
Speaker 2: to ten, probably won't make uh. And I have a
Speaker 2: guest coming up at ten o'clock, so we are moving
Speaker 2: on from this topic. At nine fifty eight, we got
Speaker 2: about ten minutes six one seven, two, five, four thirty
Speaker 2: six one seven, nine, three thirty. If you want to
Speaker 2: wag in, go right ahead. We'll be back right after this.
Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Dan Ray, Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2: Okay, back to the calls. Let me go to Gary
Speaker 2: and Wooburn. Hey, Gary, welcome back.
Speaker 7: Yes, the fight between the family members and that I
Speaker 7: really almost don't want to talk about because we really
Speaker 7: don't know the fact.
Speaker 2: Sure enough, I'm talking about what you'd like to talk about.
Speaker 2: Go right ahead.
Speaker 7: Yet the show you go to? How much do you
Speaker 7: pay for a pound of cheese?
Speaker 2: You know what? I don't keep stuff like that in
Speaker 2: my head. Gary, to be really honest with you, I
Speaker 2: go for my big items at market basket. There's also
Speaker 2: a few it is that I know at market basket.
Speaker 2: I know that a gallery of milk is going to
Speaker 2: save me money at market basket. I know that half
Speaker 2: and half cream for my coffee will save me money
Speaker 2: at market basket. I know fruit will save me money
Speaker 2: in market Basket. But there's also some big ticket items.
Speaker 2: I go always spend one hundred dollars at Malcolt Basket
Speaker 2: for probably what I would spend one hundred and fifty
Speaker 2: dollars at somewhere else. So for me, the rut for
Speaker 2: me to say fifty bucks or forty to fifty dollars
Speaker 2: is well worth a thirty mile round trip to market Basket.
Speaker 7: As a guy who's an employee sixty four years old,
Speaker 7: he works for market Basket, and I've been talking about
Speaker 7: the last six months. We always talked baseball and so forth.
Speaker 7: He told me in you know, I didn't want to
Speaker 7: get two pressl on about how much he makes a
Speaker 7: year and so for because he's been there for our
Speaker 7: you know, over thirty seventy years. And he actually leaked
Speaker 7: at three He said that he makes it well. By
Speaker 7: the way, he's a manager of the department of like milk,
Speaker 7: the dairy department that he's only in that aisle all
Speaker 7: day longay that was, And he's one of the manager
Speaker 7: at the store, but not the head man's that he
Speaker 7: said he makes one hundred and twenty thousand dollars, and
Speaker 7: I told him, I said, what are you kidding me?
Speaker 7: I thought you, at the most was making about sixty cause.
Speaker 2: No one of the employees love RDT.
Speaker 7: Huh yeah. And when you figure, he said, oh, I'm
Speaker 7: not even coming for one k and that's that bank.
Speaker 7: And I said, why would you even want to leave?
Speaker 7: I guess you must have new years ago that you
Speaker 7: were heading in the right direction, because I'm sure we
Speaker 7: all think of people that work at Market Basket, not
Speaker 7: just that the cast, like we almost think of them
Speaker 7: as flunkies working at a store. But those people are
Speaker 7: making good money. I'm sure the cast are just women
Speaker 7: and men making fifteen bucks an hour. When he told
Speaker 7: me one hundred and twenty thousand, that's big money.
Speaker 2: Sure is sure is Gary. That's let's give some really
Speaker 2: good insight. Thanks for checking in, my man. We will
Speaker 2: talk soon.
Speaker 7: Okay, okay, my man, Thanks Gary.
Speaker 2: Doc deal later. Thanks. I'm gonna go left next to
Speaker 2: Elaine and andover Elaine. You next on nightside, Go right ahead. Okay.
Speaker 2: If Elaine's not ready, we'll put a land Elaine, let's go.
Speaker 2: We're running out of time.
Speaker 7: Go ahead, Elaine, good evening.
Speaker 8: I just I agree with you that I am on
Speaker 8: Atti T's side. Okay, I have seen the wonderful things
Speaker 8: he's done his first of all know him. I have
Speaker 8: had the opportunity of meeting him and his family. I
Speaker 8: know that I happen to be an educator, so I
Speaker 8: know how wonderful he is to all the hundreds of
Speaker 8: children I've had in my career, the number of students
Speaker 8: going off to college with wonderful profit sharing.
Speaker 2: And that's all. This is this, You're telling me what
Speaker 2: I have always sensed about this, uh, this gentleman. And
Speaker 2: we'll have to see how this works out. But I
Speaker 2: thank you for calling and saying some kind words about
Speaker 2: him tonight. I truly mean that. But I got a
Speaker 2: bunch of other calls are going to try to give
Speaker 2: him an opportunity to see what they.
Speaker 9: Have to all right, thank you, Thank you very.
Speaker 2: Much, appreciate it. Thanks Thanks Elaine. Next up is Steve
Speaker 2: and Merrimack, New Hampshire. Steve next on Nightsiger Right.
Speaker 5: Ahead, Hey Dan, thanks for taking my call. I just
Speaker 5: want to say I, you know, everybody agrees and so
Speaker 5: do I that Market Basket is absolutely the number one
Speaker 5: food store in New England and I shopped there. I
Speaker 5: went to high school with RDT. I know him very well.
Speaker 5: He's a nice guy. I was talking to one of
Speaker 5: the managers today and there's another side to the story,
Speaker 5: you know. The the fact is that the board is
Speaker 5: packed with the by the sisters who hate his guts.
Speaker 5: I mean, it's not even close.
Speaker 2: Again, I'm going to try to stay out of the
Speaker 2: personalities at this point. I'm hoping to get people and
Speaker 2: we'll follow the story. I think that that that his
Speaker 2: people missed an opportunity tonight to come on and sort
Speaker 2: of set their position out. And I would have invited
Speaker 2: the other side. And if the other side, if me decide,
Speaker 2: wants to go on, there's not much I can do
Speaker 2: about it. But I felt I wanted to put my
Speaker 2: stake in the ground tonight to give people an opportunity
Speaker 2: like yourself.
Speaker 5: Yeah, he needs, he needs to come together with them,
Speaker 5: and you know they he does the day to day operations,
Speaker 5: but when he makes purchases of real estate and opens
Speaker 5: up the new stores, you got to tell the board.
Speaker 5: I mean, they are responsible for what happens, and I
Speaker 5: think that's part of it. Too.
Speaker 2: Fair enough, fair enough, thanks Dave, appreciate it.
Speaker 5: That's it, Thank you.
Speaker 2: Thanks sure, let me go to marketing Clinton, Mark, want
Speaker 2: to get you and maybe one more in here, go ahead, Mark.
Speaker 9: All right, Yeah, I just wanted to weigh in. And
Speaker 9: you were talking about, you know, new people coming into
Speaker 9: a business and running it a different way. Yeah, and
Speaker 9: that it's ridiculous in terms of you see, we've seen
Speaker 9: so many businesses in the past that get handed down
Speaker 9: generation a generation and then some new guy, whether it
Speaker 9: be a grandson or just a totally new non family member,
Speaker 9: comes in and changes the whole way of how the
Speaker 9: company was run. And it's like that company worked a
Speaker 9: certain way for five generations, it did well, why would
Speaker 9: you change it?
Speaker 2: Yep? I hear you. You're breaking up with me. Mark. Unfortunately,
Speaker 2: I think you made your point, but I got to
Speaker 2: let you go because the line broke up on us.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much for your call.
Speaker 9: Good all right, have a good night, you too.
Speaker 2: Matt is in Pembroke. Matt gets in quickly. Here go ahead, Matt.
Speaker 10: Hey, Dan, thanks taking my call. I went into handle
Speaker 10: the store a couple of years ago with my son
Speaker 10: who's fourteen, and he walked right over with pushing a
Speaker 10: cat and said, hey, hell are you what's your name?
Speaker 10: And I told my name, my son's name. We carried
Speaker 10: a convas station in ten minutes. He none of the
Speaker 10: employees knew he was there. And he just seems like
Speaker 10: a really, really nice guy. And he just we spent
Speaker 10: ten minutes talking. You know, he was interested in me
Speaker 10: and I'm talking about what he does, you know, and
Speaker 10: it's just he went back to pushing his cat. Look
Speaker 10: at the back of the groceries and you know, like
Speaker 10: with the calories and.
Speaker 2: Stuff are so so that he was rd T is
Speaker 2: what you're talking about.
Speaker 7: Gotti T.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 10: Yeah, he was in the store doing his own shop
Speaker 10: and he wasn't with managers or oh.
Speaker 2: I said that that's a great, a great story. And
Speaker 2: I thanks Matt. I appreciate you call call more often.
Speaker 2: We had called earlier. I'll give you more time. Thanks,
Speaker 2: thank you, talk to you soon, okay, Alan, and weymouth Alan,
Speaker 2: I got maybe thirty seconds for you. I got. I
Speaker 2: worked to get you and go right ahead.
Speaker 11: Believe in Dan. I love your conversation. You always have
Speaker 11: good calm. It's about everything. I work at market Basket,
Speaker 11: in the store at Hanover I've been there for three years,
Speaker 11: and I like where I work. The atmosphere in every way,
Speaker 11: as far as I'm concerned, is good. I feel the
Speaker 11: company cares about the employees and the customers and the stores.
Speaker 11: The stores I kept upright, they're clean, they're comfortable, and
Speaker 11: not just me. I've got rocalies and I help out
Speaker 11: with other things. But we're going afraid to help customers
Speaker 11: find something.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, and I've been I've been that customer, Allan. And
Speaker 2: by the way, my first job was I was a
Speaker 2: bagger in a supermarket. So yeah, we have a lot
Speaker 2: in common. Alan, I'm flat out of time. Call earlier
Speaker 2: and I give you much, but it's the ten o'clock
Speaker 2: news coming at me like a thanks, good weekend, you too, Alan,
Speaker 2: talks soon. Thanks for your your comments on market basket.
Speaker 2: All right, that is it on market Basket. We get
Speaker 2: back when to talk about the future of medicine and
Speaker 2: it's moving at a rapid page. Is back on Nightside
Speaker 2: right after this