[3] From 1990 through late August 2014, the company was the center of a controversy over ownership and leadership, which culminated in protests receiving international media attention.

Shortly thereafter, in an effort to skirt laws limiting the amount of beer and wine licenses one supermarket chain could have, Mike Demoulas began opening stores under different names.

However, once the company began paying dividends in 1988, the family saw how much money they could have made if they had kept their shares and sought to "rewrite history" in order to regain what they had sold.

The case was damaged though when the woman admitted to being a crack cocaine addict who received about $500,000 in housing and other expenses from the family of Telemachus Demoulas and the man on the tape testified that he had been lying during the recorded conversation.

In the civil case, Judge Rya W. Zobel ruled that the trustees' actions were "wrong but not corrupt" and that the settlement with the Department of Labor was "an adequate remedy".

[13] In 1997 the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld a lower court's ruling that Arthur T. Demoulas had presented the DeMoulas Super Markets Board of Directors with “misleading, inaccurate, and materially incomplete” information in order to receive a rejection and keep his cousins from receiving any of the profits from Lee Drug, a pharmacy chain he started after the board rejected his proposal to start a pharmacy division of Market Basket.

[14][18] He was seen as a father figure by a number of his employees and compared to It's a Wonderful Life protagonist George Bailey for his willingness to put people over profit.

One example cited in the memo alleged that Arthur T. had recommended that the company pay $20.9 million to purchase a property in Bourne, Massachusetts, owned by an entity in which he was a major investor.

Arthur T. also defended his arrangement with Kettenbach and Pasquale, which he said allowed Market Basket to purchase properties without alerting its competitors, thus avoiding a bidding war and saving the company money.

Greenberg found that there was no wrongdoing by Arthur T. in the purchase of real estate (including the Bourne property) that the fees paid to Retail Development and Management were not excessive.

[17] On June 23, 2014, three top-level executives—CEO Arthur T. Demoulas, Vice President Joseph Rockwell, and Director of Operations William Marsden—were fired by the board.

[26] In response, six high-level managers resigned, and 300 employees held a rally outside Market Basket's Chelsea, Massachusetts flagship store on June 24.

[26] Beginning on July 18, 2014, additional protests with as many as 5,000 employees and customers were held at the company's Tewksbury headquarters and other locations demanding the reinstatement of Arthur T.[19][27] Many supermarket, warehouse and corporate office workers including delivery truck drivers went on strike, leaving many shelves bare empty at many Market Basket locations.

All previous offers by outside parties to buy the company had been withdrawn and the board was reportedly "furiously negotiating" with Arthur T. to resolve the situation.

[21] On August 22, Arthur T. and his sisters made a $1.5 billion offer for the 50.5% of shares owned by the opposing side of the family; several subsequent days of negotiations initially failed to reach an accord.

[21] On August 27, 2014, the shareholders of Market Basket reached a deal to sell the remaining 50.5% shares of the company to Arthur T. Demoulas and his sisters for $1.5 billion.

[1][34] According to Fortune, Demoulas was backed by The Blackstone Group, a private equity firm that put up over $500 million towards the purchase price.

[36] Felicia Thornton and Jim Gooch remained as the Chief Executives of the company but Arthur T. was given full operational authority until the deal closed.

The first Maine location opened in Biddeford in August 2013,[42] shortly before projects stalled between 2013 and 2014 due to the family disputes over company operations.

An independent website started by a customer filled the void and contained weekly specials and store locations and hours.