Possible Solutions

These are the ideas of someone outside Market Basket. Some (all?) may not be feasible. But, worth exploring. In each case, MB Staff would use its united and very considerable clout, to influence the Board to act as shown.
1. Reconcile the Family
The S v T feud has gone on for decades, so this may be the least feasible. But it's the most desirable. Houses divided against themselves tend to fall. Throw the 9 DeMoulas shareholders a party, get them well lubricated, and hire a choir to lead them in a round of kum ba yah. Weapons would need to be checked at the gate.
2. Flip One Member
That is, persuade one member of the "Arthur S" faction of the family to change sides. Rafaele Evans did it once, so precipitating the present crisis; might she flip back again? What were her reasons?
3. Divide the Baby
That was Solomon's solution to the claims by two ladies to be the mother of one baby; slice it down the middle. The real mother quickly backed down, and so was awarded the babe.
So here, make two separate companies out of the present MB; one run by Arthur S and the other by Arthur T. They would start about equal (51/49?) but let them compete and come back in ten years, see how they got along.
The surgery would be tricky, and of course would require agreement by both sides, and new names might be needed: MBS and MBT do not easily roll off the tongue. But creative PR consultants stand ready to be hired.
The flip side here would be that half the staff would be left working for Arthur S against their preference, but as time passed I'd expect the other half to do so much better as to be eager to hire them across. In any case, better half than everyone.
4. Sell the Firm
This is another middle-way from the Staff viewpoint, and again the Board would have to agree. You would resume normal work as soon as it voted to place Market Basket up for sale. Presumably it would be acquired by one of your rivals like Trader Joe, Hannafords etc. The family - both sides - should get a nice price.
It's a middle way because the new owner's policies would be unknown at sale time. But my guess is that he would wish to make very few changes at first, because he knows Arthur T's ways have worked well and he'd not wish to disturb them until he gets very familiar with the MB culture. Eventually they might change; it's an unknown. But most on the staff may prefer that to working immediately under the known policies of Arthur S.
Variations:
4(a): Persuade the S faction to sell their shares to the T faction, for cash (reportedly, they want cash.) Arthur T may not have quite enough, but could perhaps raise a loan. Update: according to Supermarket News that's exactly what Arthur T did on July 24th. He must have read this page and acted on it immediately! He can thank me later . So now the Staff needs to urge the Arthur S part of the family to accept the offer.
4(b): There are 25,000 of you. Take some advice quickly, see if you cannot yourselves raise enough cash to buy them out, fully or in part. I think that's called a Leveraged Buyout.

Any other ideas? Contact me here, I'll add them to this page - with credit to you, of course, as desired.
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