MB's stock is going down in more ways than one

On Saturday I went down to the Market Basket to get a couple of things, but most importantly, I wanted to get some of the Market Basket nondairy, fat free, lactose free creamer, you know, the one in the green container that’s under a buck.

It’s about 30 percent cheaper than the brand name, and I wanted to get a bunch before they ran out.

Sorry, Charlie.

In its place were a bunch of higher-priced offerings I wasn’t interested in.

It was almost surreal as despite the many shoppers, the place seemed eerily calm.

I soon realized the quietude was because there wasn’t the usual hustle and bustle of employees frantically restocking shelves.

Instead they were quietly and unassumingly rearranging dwindling produce and tidying bare shelves to make them look, well, less bare.

How bizarre was that?

Market Basket’s stock is going down in more ways than one, however.

Americans are so sick and tired of corporate greed and malevolence they can barely stand it.

Meanwhile, the folks at corporate, who I am going to just guess make a few bucks more than you and me, want to make some extra cash at our expense and the expense of those workers you used to see hustling hard to keep Market Basket shelves full of the stuff you wanted.

I can hear those selfish you-know-what’s right now. “We don’t have to give them profit sharing or bonuses. What companies do that anymore, anyways? That’s so 1960s. What is this, Mad Men? Besides, if we shift all that money from the bonuses and hike the prices, we’ll be able to increase the size of our mansion being built at the Nubble by a couple of extra thousand square feet.”

So you dismantle a behemoth of a business model that fueled one of the fastest-growing supermarkets in the country for a couple of bucks and a bigger mansion.

Andy McDonough, a front-end manager at the Rochester Market Basket, said it best. “When you reward a hard-working employee you have a happier employee and a more productive and loyal employee.”

While other supermarkets used crazy gimmicks like bonus days and discount cards, Market Basket kept it simple. Low prices. Honest value. Employees who busted their ass.

I guess there’s no place for that anymore, either.