LOWELL — Like many longtime employees of the eastern New England grocery chain, Joe Schmidt and Tom Gordon started as associates at Market Basket and worked their way up.
Schmidt, now the company’s director of operations, started his career in 1986 at a Market Basket store in Danvers, at the age of 14. Gordon started at a store in Salem, New Hampshire in 1975, working his way through high school, and later up through the ranks of the company to his current position of grocery supervisor for the chain.
“I was lucky enough to have some good mentors along the way, liked the company, liked the culture and the way people were treated,” said Gordon, sitting next to Schmidt at a coffee shop in Lowell Tuesday morning…