Demoulas Brothers

The Demoulas family is a Greek-American family that controls DeMoulas Super Markets, Inc., the company that operates the Market Basket chain of supermarkets. Beginning in 1990, two sides of the Demoulas family fought for control of DeMoulas Super Markets. The dispute ended in 2014, when the family of George Demoulas sold their shares to Arthur T. Demoulas after protests by employees and customers.

Athanasios "Arthur" Demoulas was born in 1883. He was orphaned during the Greco-Turkish War of 1897. On March 17, 1906, he arrived at Ellis Island. He settled in the Acre neighborhood of Lowell, Massachusetts. In 1914 he married Efrosene Soulis (born 1892), a girl he knew from his native village of Kalabaka. In 1917 they left their factory jobs and opened DeMoulas Market. By 1921, they had enough money to purchase a home in Dracut, Massachusetts with a slaughterhouse out back. They hoped their store would become known for its fresh lamb. During the Great Depression, Demoulas would give families who were struggling financially a free piece of bread with ham or allow them to purchase groceries on credit.

The Demoulases had six children; John (1915–2000), George (1919–1971), an unnamed baby girl (1919–1919), Telemachus "Mike" (1920–2003), Ann (1922–), and Evangelos (1925–1930). In 1954, Athanasios and Efrosine Demoulas sold the market to Mike and George for $15,000.

Arthur Demoulas died in 1958. Efrosene died in 1964.

John Demoulas was born on March 22, 1915. During his youth, he worked in his family's market. As an adult he ran a chain of liquor stores, a bar in Lowell (the Golden Nugget), and Marion's Cafe, also in Lowell. John Demoulas died on March 8, 2000. Demoulas had four children (John, Arthur, Pamela, and Kathleen) with his wife Marion and five illegitimate children with his mistress Dorothy Bedard (Melveen, Mike, Dorothy, George, and Patricia). In 1999, one of his illegitimate sons had his name legally changed from George Bedard to George DeMoulas.

George A. Demoulas was born in 1919 in Dracut, Massachusetts. He graduated from the Hellenic American Academy and Dracut High School. He served in the United States Army during World War II and was stationed at Guadalcanal. After the war, Demoulas joined the family business. In 1953, he married Evanthea Koukias. After he and his brother Mike purchased their parents' market, Demoulas served as executive vice president and treasurer of DeMoulas Super Markets, Inc. Demoulas, who was described as affable and gregarious, dealt with outside parties, including vendors. He brought in many friends from the Greek community, including many people from the Acre, to do accounting, banking, and buying for the company. Within 15 years, the two brothers had transformed their parents' "mom and pop"-style store into a modern supermarket chain consisting of 15 stores.

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