Market Basket and the Toxicity of the Banks

If you've ever shopped at Market Basket, you've experienced the knowledgeable and helpful personnel, low prices and long-term employees.
 
Employees have retrieved cases of products, dug through freezers and found humor while trying to stock shelves amid aisles filled with unhappy children.

Sue Offner was kind enough to share her insight about the Toxicity of Debt, below:


I wrote this essay at the height of the Market Basket struggle.

I am posting it now because I finally have some time to do so. I think it is still very relevant. I would only add that Arthur T. had to take on some debt in order to buy his greedy cousins out.

I hope he can find a way to maintain his business model while he pays off this debt.

I always knew that banks were toxic, but this story really brought it home for me.

Sue Offner

I have been following the Market Basket story.

There are many lessons here - the courage of the workers, the welcome support of the customers, and the decency of Arthur T. But I want to focus on one issue in particular.

I don't shop often at Market Basket, but when I do, I am always impressed with how knowledgeable the employees are.

If I am looking for something, no matter who I ask, they know where it is and they find it for me.

They are uniformly cheerful and helpful. The prices are astonishingly low, and the quality of the food could easily give Whole Foods a run for their money. And, to top it off, this supermarket chain has made the Demoulas family very wealthy. How do they do it?

The Globe let the cat out of the bag a couple of days ago.

They said that the business model is to avoid debt, and to treat workers fairly with a living wage, substantial profit sharing and good benefits. By being a "high road employer", they avoid turnover, and build the loyal and knowledgeable staff that make the stores a pleasure to shop in.

The fact that so many people work at Market Basket literally for decades speaks to this. And because they avoid debt, there is enough money to go around for everybody to do well. And this is what I call the toxicity of the banks.

There is enough money so that a well run supermarket chain can pay its workers well for a lifetime, offer high quality merchandise, have rock bottom prices, and still make its owners millionaires many times over.

Companies like this run into trouble when they have to start paying banks what they should be paying to employees and customers (in the form of low prices).

It is said that about 40% of profits today are due to financialization. This is money going to the 1%, directly or indirectly skimmed off the top of successful businesses.

It sounds very abstract, but when you see how much money there really is when the banks don't take their cut, you can begin to understand the enormity of the damage the banks are causing by taking their very large cut.