Boston Market No More

There’s a Boston Market in Greensboro that was on our dining rotation for Andrea and myself once upon a time.  

 

I used to get plates there fairly regularly, usually with the meat loaf and their sweet potato casserole.

 

I’m not sure why we stopped. I think part of it had to do with out daughter Randie not having anything particular there she liked.

 

The last few times Andrea and I did eat there, I was rather unimpressed with prices too high for what we were getting. I could spend the same amount of money at Cracker Barrell for more food. There was also some small thing about the quality that I couldn’t quite put my finger on.  

 

Anyway, the lone Boston Market in Greensboro is now no more.  It closed last week on Tuesday.

 

The tale of the Boston Market’s demise is a disturbing one.

 

General Manager Musa Hunter reported food orders going unfulfilled; Hunter was forced to stock up at Sam's Club or drive nearly two hours to the next closest Boston Market location.

 

Paycheck for employees were late or in the wrong amount.   

 

Then Hunter got the call at 7:30 AM on Tuesday from a regional vice president that the store was closing.  That day.    

 

Boston Market's Regional Vice President issued a statement: "The decision to close down was not sudden. We continuously evaluate the performances of each location and make decisions to close or stay open accordingly. There were more stores closed this week. Not just Greensboro."

 

I would say it was not sudden and I might be paranoid but it seems to me that Boston Market corporate knew the Greensboro location was not long for this world but instead of taking immediate action, they let that location die a long slow lingering death of a thousand cuts.  

 

There is a phenomenon called quiet quitting where workers do the absolute least they can get away with before leaving their job. Apparently there is a counter phenomenon called quiet firing. It’s where management makes small incremental changes and cuts that inevitably forces employees to want to quit or actually welcome being fired.

 

It seems like Boston Market was pulling some kind of “quiet firing” on it’s Greensboro location.   

 

Musa Hunter said his customers kind of sensed this was coming. “It gets to the point where the customers are already kind of sensing it and saying are you guys going to be closing soon?”  

 

As I said at the start, I hadn’t eaten at Boston Market in a long time but it is a shame to not only see it close but to close like that, it’s staff and management not treated with any sense of respect.