Revere relishes grand opening of Market Basket

REVERE – The store was ready, but the Squire Road Market Basket’s doors were shut and its parking lot empty for a year as company shareholders battled over the supermarket chain’s future. Sunday, the cars were causing traffic jams and shoppers walked through the doors to find Market Basket’s chief executive officer and conquering hero greeting them.”It’s great to be here, great to have the store open,” Market Basket CEO Arthur T. Demoulas said.One customer told Demoulas she was sorry the turmoil over the summer had gone on so long.”I’m sorry you had to wait so long,” Demoulas replied.Demoulas was fired in June by a board controlled by his cousin, Arthur S. Demoulas. Employees of the supermarket chain walked off their jobs in protest, and hundreds of warehouse workers and drivers refused to deliver fresh produce to the chain’s 71 stores, leaving shelves depleted.Customers soon began shopping elsewhere; some because they could not find fresh food at Market Basket, while others stayed away to show support for the workers and Arthur T. Demoulas. The usually crowded stores turned into ghost towns, with only a trickle of customers.The chain’s owners finally signed off on a plan Aug. 27 to sell the majority of the company’s shares to Arthur T. for a reported financing package of $1.5 billion, including cash and a $500 million loan from a private equity firm.The chain, known for its low prices, lost tens of millions of dollars during the standoff. The dispute also put plans for new locations in Revere and Lynn in limbo.But Sunday, the Revere store opened, the first location to open since the standoff. An official ribbon cutting is scheduled for Thursday.The customers came in droves.Store director Ron Lambert said registers had recorded 3,000 transactions by approximately 2:30 p.m. Sunday, and he noted that few shoppers were shopping alone.”This is my fourth opening in two years, and this is by far the most pleasant crowd and most appreciative crowd,” Lambert said. “They just want to be a part of us.”Lambert said the new 80,000-square-foot store has many of the features of the supermarket’s newest locations. These include a “butcher block” with the nonprofit Certified Angus Beef (a feature of the last seven stores); a cafe and kitchen offering freshly made pizza, gelato and popcorn; a special tropical produce section unique to the Revere location; and a testing station with a different vendor promoting products every day.Lambert said the store hired 480 part-time and 100 full-time employees, of which he estimated 60 percent were from Revere.But the customers didn’t just come to shop Sunday.Lynn resident Bonnie Maitland picked up her groceries and looked for former colleagues.”I worked in Nashua (N.H.) store #13; worked in high school and college for eight years,” Maitland said.Crystal Pringle visited from Merrimack.”I’ve been shopping at DeMoulas since it was the only store I ever knew,” Pringle said of the Market Basket predecessor whose original signs hang in the Revere location. “I couldn’t miss this. This is just the symbol of this last year and what this last summer all meant. I’m honored to come here … this is a huge day.”Pringle said she, like all customers interviewed Sunday, had always shopped at Market Basket and was distraught when Arthur T. was ousted. She said she put in about 40 hours a week protesting with workers, spoke publicly for the first time at two workers’ rallies and just gave a speech about her experience at a symposium on workers’ strikes at Northern Essex Community College. Now her husband works at the Newburyport location.”I had a sense of pride, I knew I was representing you,” she told Demoulas. She told him she even put a sign supporting Market Basket workers and Arthur T. on her car. “You even made me a better driver,” she joked.