Haley Patnode remembers the last time Arthur T. Demoulas was at risk of losing his job. She was 14.

“I remember people holding up signs, ‘Honk for Arthur T,’ ” she said in an interview. As she and her mother drove by protesters outside Concord’s Market Baskets in 2014, Patnode would say, “Mom! Honk for Arthur T!”

When Concord’s third and newest Market Basket opened in Penacook in 2022, the popular CEO paid a visit. Patnode was there, too. By then, she had been an employee at the Storrs Street Market Basket for a few years.

She shook his hand and told him about how she’d recently been promoted to a full-time stocking position.

“He told me that I’m doing a great job, to keep continuing what I’m doing, to keep being a good employee, and he’s thankful that I’m working for Market Basket,” she recalled. “He’s a very nice guy.”

Patnode spoke with the Monitor midday last Friday, little more than a day after Market Basket’s Board of Directors released a statement that it had placed Demoulas on paid leave and initiated an investigation into claims he was planning an employee walkout. The statement outlined tension between the board of directors and Demoulas, who is 70, over a succession plan: he has pushed for his son and daughter, who were also placed on leave, to take the reigns of leadership despite the wishes of the board and the company’s majority owners — which includes his three sisters. Executives supportive of Demoulas have rejected the idea that a walkout was planned, and he himself has called the suspension a “farcical cover for a hostile takeover.”

These days, Patnode works six days a week as a stocker at the Storrs Street store, organizing displays in the bakery. When she read in the news last week that Demoulas had been placed on leave, it was her day off.

Patnode’s roommate, Justin Prince, works at the store, too. He was among the part-time staff laid off in 2014 as a result of the turmoil and boycott. That’s where Patnode’s mind went when she heard the news.

“I literally went into panic mode,” she said. “It’s honestly got a lot of us employees very paranoid and scared about our jobs.” Not everyone was as worried, she emphasized, but she and some other employees were holding their breath.

In 2014, Demoulas was dismissed amid a power struggle over the company with his cousin, Arthur S. Demoulas. The move sparked a six-week stretch of protests and boycotts by employees and customers, who said they wouldn’t work for or buy from anyone other than Arthur T. It ended when he, with the help of his sisters, bought out their cousins in a $1.6 billion deal.

It’s unclear whether a similar effort would occur today, should the friction persist. Inflation and rising grocery prices have pressed budgets in a way they weren’t 11 years ago, and the conflict between Demoulas and his sisters isn’t as straightforward as the dynamic between the two Arthurs, when the narrative of corporate greed versus a “people first” ethos compelled legions to make their stand.

Lyn Lull remembers the boycott. She participated in it.

Lull, an artist and sixth-generation Bow resident, isn’t an exclusive Market Basket shopper. She said she shops around for the best deals. But she and her family were willing to eat the cost of shopping at other stores last time around because they opposed a change in leadership.

“Artie T. was there for the workers,” she said. “We feel that’s important; as shoppers, consumers, we want to have the people taken care of, as well as being able to get stuff cheap for ourselves.”

Lull wasn’t among those taping their Hannaford’s and Shaw’s receipts to the inside of Market Basket windows as proof of their boycott back then. That’s not really her style, she said. But she and her husband did keep their receipts and showed them to a store manager downtown, who had become a friend.

Justin Prince hopes things won’t get to the point of layoff this time, which waylaid his part-time employment with the company years ago. In the 2025 economy, Prince isn’t sure shoppers or employees have the financial security to brave that kind of storm.

“Times are different now than they were 11 years ago. The economy is not nearly as good,” Prince said, also speaking with the Monitor last Friday. “People can’t afford living as is, so how are they going to go on strike?”

It’s too early to say, the way Lull sees it, whether things will erupt again like they did last time. But she is already avoiding shopping at any of Concord’s three Market Basket stores. It’s a personal decision, she said: while she supports Demoulas, she thinks, at the very least, shoppers like her are owed more of an explanation.

“You can’t just take everything away and expect people to keep coming back,” she said. “You can’t hide it in the boardroom. If the public is going to be buying your product, they should be privy to what’s going on.”

Similarly, Michael Royce — who doesn’t do the majority of the shopping for his household, but goes to the Fort Eddy Road Market Basket when he does — doesn’t know yet what to make of the news about Demoulas.

He felt like he had a grasp on what was happening in 2014: the narrative of a power struggle between “good Arthur” and “bad Arthur” made sense to him, and he was “thrilled” with how things ended up. It’s what’s made the current dispute seem such a surprise.

“What is the struggle with the board? Is it his sisters? Are they good people or bad people?” he wondered. “My question of who I would support would be how involved, how interested are you in the business that you’re building?”

When Patnode went into work last week, things went mostly normally. At a regular staff meeting, she said, store leaders said that they didn’t know what would happen next, but that the store would work together as a team, like always.

“We obviously love Arthur T. Demoulas,” she said. At the same time, the uncertainty is scary. “People just keep telling me to not worry about it, but it’s hard not worrying about it, because I don’t want to risk my own job. I just love my job.”

The company’s statement said no changes would be made to affect staff or customers. For now, Patnode is taking things one day at a time.

Patnode has been a Market Basket employee for almost seven years — “only” seven years, she said. The job got her through a lot, including moving out of her parents’ house as a minor.

“The employees here treat me with kindness. I’ve learned a lot. I’ve learned how to do things on my own... Everyone at my work is like a family to me,” she said. “I don’t know what’s what’s going to happen in the next several months, but I’m praying that everything will work out.”

Catherine McLaughlin can be reached at cmclaughlin@cmonitor.com. You can subscribe to her Concord newsletter The City Beat at concordmonitor.com.