Review: ‘WE THE PEOPLE: THE MARKET BASKET EFFECT’ puts the humanity in corporation.

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AN NBTV STUDIOS AND BUNGALOW MEDIA + ENTERTAINMENT FILM 

WE THE PEOPLE: THE MARKET BASKET EFFECT

We The People: The Market Basket effect
As a proud New Englander transplanted to New York City, I have a great understanding for small town living. I grew up in a storybook town in northern Connecticut, called Simsbury. It’s a place where people flock each year to see the turning of the leaves. If you’re a fan of Gilmore Girls, well Stars Hallow isn’t too far fetched when you grew up where I did. Everyone pretty much knows what’s going on with everyone else in town. When Target wanted to build a store on one of our busiest streets, well you can bet that got shut down pretty quickly. Everyone prides themselves on shopping local. We’ve got the chain grocery stores on the edge of town, but we all shopped, and still do, at Fitzgerald’s, or Fitzy’s as we so lovingly refer to it. At least one of your closest high school friends worked there at some point. It is a center point in our community. I can’t imagine what would happen if someone from with a corporate mindset came in and try to change things. If the Target incident is any indication, I’m guessing we’d raise hell. In the new doc WE THE PEOPLE: THE MARKET BASKET EFFECT, you get to see what happens when greed battles small town pride.

In an epic account of the warring Demoulas family, corporate greed breaks up a massive family empire. A groundswell of employee & community support cuts to the heart of the volatile, emotional, and dramatic conflict between Arthur T. Demoulas and arch-rival, cousin Arthur S. Demoulas over control of the $4 billion supermarket chain, Market Basket. A conflict that brought down the August 2014 U.S. jobs report by 17,000 jobs, sending shockwaves through the nation. With plot turns worthy of a Greek tragedy, the family feud raged on with the livelihoods of 25,000 employees hanging in the balance.

The film should be shown to such corporations as Johnson & Johnson and Walmart. The formula seems simple;  treat your employees with respect and high wages and productivity soars. Perhaps it doesn’t have to be about making a buck, especially when loyalty is on the line. The film utilizes intimate interviews with lifelong employees of the chain as well as a family history of the court proceedings. Dialogue from board meetings is highlighted and read to illustrate just how cut and dry this story really is. It’s like being afly on the wall in some of the largest businesses in America. At times, it’s actually heartbreaking to hear what we may already know to be true. Money makes the world go round, at least in some minds. With real time footage of protests from not only the staff but customers as well. With such love for their CEO, the people come together, sacrifice for what could have easily been a lost cause, and persevere to show who’s really the boss. It’s a beautiful depiction of what happens when small town heart overthrows greed.

Opening in New York on April 22nd
Opening In New England Starting April 14th
Opening On Demand May 18th

Narrated by Michael Chicklis 
(Gotham, American Horror Story, The Shield, Fantastic Four)

Directed by Tommy Reid 
(Danny Greene: The Rise & Fall of the Irishman, $uperthief: Inside America’s Biggest Bank Score)

Written by Jeff Pinilla
(The Earth, The Way I Left It)

Produced by
Nick Buzell
Robert Friedman
Ted Leonsis
Paul Nero

Executive produced by
Mike Buzzell & Todd Hoffman

About Liz Whittemore

Liz grew up in northern Connecticut and was memorizing movie dialogue from Shirley Temple to A Nightmare on Elm Street at a very early age. She will watch just about any film all the way through (no matter how bad) just to prove a point. A loyal New Englander, a lover of Hollywood, and true inhabitant of The Big Apple.

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