Market Basket weighs closing 61 stores if deal falls through

http://bostonherald.com/business/business_markets/2014/08/market_basket_weighs_closing_61_stores_if_deal_falls_through

Sources told the Herald last night the Market Basket board has before it contingency plans to implement if the deal falls through. The plans revolve around closing a numbers of stores, and are predicated in part on the willingness of store directors to participate, the sources said.
Meanwhile, an employee in Market Basket’s main office has hit the chain with a labor complaint claiming the company violated her rights to picket and strike.
News of the complaint, filed last Wednesday with the National Labor Relations Board by Karen Bostwick of Lowell, came as Market Basket’s board called off a meeting scheduled for 6 p.m. yesterday. It was the fifth board meeting since Friday that had been scheduled and then not held, sources told the Herald.
The board is awaiting word from the company’s 50.5 percent majority shareholders — led by Arthur S. Demoulas, Arthur T.’s rival cousin — on the ousted leader’s bid to acquire their shares. Sticking points are said to include whether there will be a transitional leader put in charge of the company while Arthur T.’s leveraged buyout plan is completed, a process that could take weeks.