Shoppers: Market Basket is bare

When South Peabody resident Barry Berman went to the Danvers Market Basket Sunday morning, he said it wasn’t so bad, but by nightfall, Lynn resident Kathleen Tringale said it was getting thin.”No fresh produce, no bagged salad, no meats or seafood,” she wrote in an email to the Item.Tringale called it a sad situation for everyone involved.Loyal customers from New Hampshire and throughout the commonwealth are seeing much the same, empty produce aisles and shelves that are starting to thin as deliveries to the embattled supermarket chain wane due to feuding.The rallies outside Market Basket’s Tewksbury headquarters were put together to show support for fired CEO Arthur T. Demoulas. Demoulas was removed last month by a board controlled by his cousin, Arthur S. Demoulas. Both are grandsons of the chain’s founder, and their feud has been ongoing for years. The chain’s 71 stores are located in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine.Workers said the fighting is beginning to impact stores, as employees are not making deliveries, but that statement, according to shoppers, is an understatement. Over the weekend, several longtime employees were fired. Meanwhile, no members of the chain’s new top management have made themselves available for comment.Shelves were low on stock at the Salem Market Basket store on Monday afternoon, and some meat and frozen food display cases were empty.The large parking lot, where shoppers typically have to search for a space, was barely a quarter full.A dozen employees demonstrated outside the entrance farthest from Highland Avenue, in support of fired CEO Arthur T. Demoulas, some wearing sandwich boards with his image on them.One of the employees, a woman seated near the door, addressed groups of customers approaching: “Can we get you to sign our petition to get Arthur T. Demoulas reinstated and help keep our prices low?”John Hodgson, among the demonstrators, has worked full-time in the Salem store’s dairy department for three years.”We had about 35 or 40 employees just from this store at the rally in Lowell today,” Hodgson said. “We went up this morning. There were carloads of us, and there was about 7,000 people (at the rally).”Asked if he was concerned about losing his job because of his stand, Hodgson said, “No, I’m not necessarily worried about it. I’m thinking positive and hoping this is going to go in our favor. We want Arthur T. reinstated, and that’s all we’re hoping for. I don’t intend on giving up. This is like a family to us. We all work here. We all get along. We all support Arthur T. because we know if the tables were turned, he’d do the same thing for us.”Asked how the corporate family feud is affecting the Salem store, Hodgson said, “You’ll see that there’s not much left in there.”Matthew Norbega, who has worked in the Salem store’s dairy department for three years, paced in front of the store wearing one of the sandwich boards with the former CEO’s image.Norbega emphasized that workers were demonstrating on their own time and that the job action is not intended to be hostile toward the company.”This is not a (job) walk-off at all. I haven’t punched into work yet,” he said.Before Norbega could elaborate on his participation, a store manager interrupted and asked that the interview end. Just minutes earlier, several managers ushered an Item editor out of the store when they noticed photos being taken with a BlackBerry tablet.Hodgson may not be worried about his job, but workers at the Chelsea store are. Lynn resident Tanya DeArco snapped a picture of the Chelsea store that shows one produce aisle completely bare with the exception of a pile of yellow plastic lemons next to a pile of green plastic limes. A second photo shows another aisle that is more than three-quarters empty.DeArco said she asked an employee why there were no vegetables, and he said they were not receiving stock due to the firing of Arthur T. Demoulas. She said he also told her that he and many of his colleagues were also wo