Demoulas Supermarkets Inc., doing business as Market Basket, a a region chain of 95 grocery stores found in the U.S. states of Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. It is headquartered in the town of Tewksbury, Massachusetts.
History
In 1917, two Greek immigrants named Athanasios and Efrosini Demoulas opened a Greek grocery store in Lowell, Massachusetts, called Demoulas Market, which specialized in fresh lambchops. By 1938, the store was operating largely on credit due to the Great Depression. Since the Demoulas family couldn’t pay back their creditors, their store was threated with foreclosure. Eventually, the family’s youngest son Telemachus went to work tat the store full time after dropping out of school, thus making enough money to avoid foreclosure.
After World War 2, George Demoulas, Telemachus’ older brother joined the business. The original market was replaced with a bigger supermarket in 1950 . Four years later in 1954, both George and Telemachus inherited the store from their parents. The bothers would expand Demoulas Market to 15 locations between the years 1956 to 1971.
After George died from a heart attack in 1971, Telemachus became the sole owner of Demoulas Market. Shortly thereafter, Telemachus began to open stores under the name Market Basket in order to get around liquor laws that Massachusetts enforced on grocery stores at the time.
Between 1990 and 2002, Telemachus would face various lawsuits involving the ownership of Market Basket. Eventually, a court order forced Telemachus into retirement and was replaced by his son Arthur T. Demoulas. By 2008, Market Basket was facing competition from rival supermarket chains Stop & Shop, and Wegman’s, the latter of whom opened their first store in Massachusetts in 2011. In order to compete, Market Basket began expanding, opening stores in New Hampshire and Maine.
2014 Protests
On June 23, 2014, Arthur T. Demoulas, the CEO of Market Basket, was fired by his cousin Arthur S. Demoulas, who would subsequently choose Radio Shack executive James Gooch as the new CEO. In response, 300 employees of the chain protested outside of the Market Basket location in Chelsea, Massachusetts. The protests gained widespread attention both in America and around the globe.
Eventually, a deal was brokered by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and New Hampshire Governor Maggie Hassan. As part of the deal, Arthur S. and his thugs would resign and Arthur T. would gain the company back. The deal closed on Decemeber 12, 2014.
2025 Management Dispute
In 2025, Market Basket put Arthur T. Demoulas on administrative leave to to allegations that he was going to disrupt business with a work stoppage. This put the company is turmoil, during which, Arthur T. was fired again. In an article written by the Boston Business Journal, it was reported that Market Basket would be better run “by someone outside the Demoulas family”. In response to Arthur T.’s second firing, a Facebook group called “Save Market Basket” was created. As of October 2025, the media circus involving Market Basket is still ongoing.