Business
Valerie Polito, a 35-year Market Basket veteran, reportedly told company leaders staff morale is declining due to “uncertainty, poor communication, and a lack of visible leadership.”
Amid ongoing turmoil at Market Basket headquarters, a longtime corporate employee is sounding the alarm about a purported office culture now “defined by fear, hostility, and lack of direction.”
“Many have reported that expressing concerns or dissent are increasingly met with intimidation and retaliation. This punitive atmosphere has created a chilling effect where many now fear speaking openly,” 35-year Market Basket veteran Valerie Polito wrote in a letter to the company’s board of directors, according to The Lowell Sun, which obtained a copy of the July correspondence.
Polito, Market Basket’s director of advertising and an internal investigator for allegations of discrimination and harassment, once touted the company’s culture as “basically second to none” in a 2024 promotional video posted to the grocer’s Facebook page. At the time, she said her role with Market Basket was a “dream job.”
Now, according to the Sun, Polito alleges some of Market Basket’s staff has seen declining morale due to “uncertainty, poor communication, and a lack of visible leadership.” She reportedly wrote that she was speaking on behalf of “a group of committed and concerned associates, who, with a unified voice, wish to express a profound and growing alarm over the current state of our Corporate Office environment.”
The ongoing schism stretches back to May, when Market Basket CEO Arthur T. Demoulas and several others were placed on leave amid allegations they planned to disrupt the chain’s business due to simmering tensions between Demoulas and the board. Market Basket later fired some of Demoulas’s corporate allies, with both sides heading to mediation next month in an attempt to resolve their differences without litigation.
In the meantime, Polito told WBZ she’s received a wave of complaints within the corporate office about shifting duties and pressure to do more or different work under threat of termination.
“Then they were saying if they don’t do it that they were going to lose their job, or the board was going to have someone hired from outside the company, which is not Market Basket culture,” Polito told WBZ. “We promote from within. We build our team from within.”
According to the Sun, her letter raised concerns about associates being followed or excessively monitored, as well as alleged incidents involving raised voices and explicit language in the workplace. Polito also described a supervisor purportedly leaving an open knife on his desk during work hours, the newspaper reported.
“Beyond breaching company policy, this sends a disturbing message about what behaviors are tolerated in our professional workplace,” Polito reportedly wrote. She cited another example involving a 40-year Market Basket veteran who was allegedly suspended “for simply asking when Mr. Demoulas would be returning, along with other operational questions.”
Polito further claimed there was no evidence that a work stoppage was in motion and said she and some of her colleagues are urging the board to reinstate Demoulas and other employees who have been sidelined, according to the Sun.
Market Basket board member Michael Keyes responded with a statement, writing, “Everyone has a right to feel secure in their workplace and of course that includes Valerie Polito.”
He said the board offered to sit down with Polito and even scheduled a meeting for Aug. 21.
“But instead she has chosen to share her concerns with the media,” Keyes continued. “We believe that her letter is part of Arthur Demoulas’s ruthless, no-holds-barred attack on Market Basket, the board, and even the majority stockholders.”
He maintained Market Basket is “a high-functioning operation that is running well,” despite the increasingly public rift.
“The board and majority stockholders are committed to maintaining Market Basket with the same culture, low prices, and convenience for its cherished shoppers and hard-working associates no matter how low Mr. Demoulas stoops in his effort to regain his job,” Keyes added.
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