The embattled Market Basket supermarket chain is one of the country's largest private companies, ranked No. 127 on Forbes annual list. But like many grocery chains, it started more than a generation ago — as a single mom-and-pop shop. That got me wondering whether mom-and-pop shop's can still thrive in the grocery industry and whether there are benefits — and drawbacks — to being family owned and operated.

On a sunny summer morning, Johnny D., or Johnny DePietro, is where he always is — apron on, penknife in hand. Among the fresh green kale, ripe peaches and regular customers in his small produce store in Brighton.

"Fifteen hours a day, that’s my norm," he said. "I get up at quarter to 2. I don’t get home till 6:15."

Standing in close quarters, among the wooden crates, it’s not hard to imagine you’re in Lowell in 1917, chatting with the original Arthur Demoulas in the small grocery store that his family would expand through the years into the Market Basket chain that is currently in a fight for its identity – and its life.

But it’s 2014. Little guys like Johnny D face stiff competition from deep-pocketed corporations, from Stop and Shop to Shaws — even Target.

"Here’s where I have the advantage, because my heart’s in this business," DePietro said. "I love what I do. I love giving people something, It’s just enjoyable, 'cause I know they’re gonna come back and next time they come in they’re gonna trust what I say on something. If they got really good peaches this one day, the next time they come in, if I say, 'You know, what you don’t wanna miss — the plums, today,' they’re gonna trust me with that."

Customers here tell me they love the prices — and the quality. But what keeps them coming back is that personal connection.

"Johnny D. is produce, he’s devoted his life to produce," a customer told me. "I know Johnny D. very well and I know most of the women who work here. I can walk in and ask the owner what’s good this week and he won’t steer me wrong."

So does DePietro see a future where there are Johnny D’s supermarkets all around the region?

"On a larger scale, I just don’t see it," he said. "It’s not as comfy and homey. And I could easily open another location, but this store just wouldn’t be the same if I was trying to do two. I know that for a fact, it wouldn’t be."

But going bigger doesn’t have to mean losing your way. Big Y also started as a single mom-and-pop grocery back in 1962. Today, they have 12,000 employees working 67 stores in Western Massachusetts and Connecticut. Like Market Basket, they remain family owned and operated.

"With the entire family involvement aspect, our entire mission is to stay and remain family owned and oriented, and to support family endeavors," said Donald D’Amour, CEO, chairman of the board and head service clerk at Big Y. He admits that staying family-owned is not easy.

"The biggest challenge for family businesses is finding succession," D'Amour said. "Kids, if you will, that have both an interest, a love of the business that their fathers and mother shared, as well as a certain level of competence. If you’re missing one of those two things, a lot of family businesses go out of business."

The grocery business is very low margin, and D’Amour says today, staying family-owned and operated means leaving money on the table.

"We’re perfectly aware that from a financial point of view we’d be much better off selling, but are committed to our fellow employees not to do that," he said. "So we’ve got programs in place to make sure that we survive and do not seriously entertain offers. Of course we get offers."

So if the swell of passion this summer around the Market Basket standoff has caught you by surprise, perhaps it shouldn’t. In the fiercely competitive, tiny-margin grocery game, D’Amour says these family chains stay alive precisely because they’ve cultivated strong relationships with their customers and their employees.

"We enjoy what we do," he said. "We enjoy developing people, we enjoy supporting the common good, and that’s not something that would happen if we sold out to a major corporation or a chain."

And their product, unlike so many in our consumer culture, is something you actually need to survive. For many, it’s also the centerpiece of their day — every day. Just ask Lindsay Atkinson, a customer outside Johnny D’s.

"It’s kind of like a family ritual, a family reunion and so you get to kind of bond more with your family members through cooking, through something as simple as going grocery shopping together," Atkinson said.

And if what they say is true, and you are what you eat, who wouldn’t want that food to come from a guy like Johnny D?

"There’s nothing like giving someone a peach that they need two napkins for," he said. "You can see they disappear into that piece of fruit and forget the rest of the world for a while. It’s just kind of a cool moment, you know."

Cool — and maybe even a tiny bit more important than we realize.