Frank Shooster Inside the Drive-In Addition 1939
Harry Shooster Inside the Drive-In addition 1939
The stand was successful from its incep- tion, but it wasn’t without problems. Those were happy days for our family. One of the keys to our success was giving great personalized service. I can’t emphasize this enough, critically it applies to every business, always give customers a quality experience. Customer service was at the heart of every- thing we did and perhaps the most important part. Everybody in Chester came to Shooster’s or was talking about it. They arrived hungry and left with full bellies and smiles. Shooster’s was quite a hangout. We became one of the IN places to go in the whole Delaware Valley. Lovely carhops in snappy uniforms, good food, fast cars, and GREAT service all mixed perfectly. Eventually, to make room for all the cars, we took down both gas stations and bought the lot behind the building from the school. A few young women were asked for their hands in marriage at the stand. A local girl named Patty Nardone was one of those. 1938, a newspaper article appeared with a quote from Frank Shooster, Sr., titled Hamburgers ‘n Cokeing . In a rare quote, he said, “We are forever trying to reach perfection in our service and facilities. Every day brings us nearer and nearer to our goal.”
I don’t know what Cokeing means, but I suspect it relates to the new soda that was invented by adding carbon dioxide bubbles to water, ala Coca-Cola™. In the summer, many kids went to camps. I only went once when I was 14; it didn’t work out too well. A key man at the stand quit, and I was the only person who knew how to make everything, so my parents came and got me to keep it operating. I’m glad they did. By the time I was 17, Shooster’s Drive-In had established a great reputation. We were so popular it would take all day just to prepare for the evenings. During those years, it seems like I molded a million hamburgers, chopped a zillion onions, and made tons of simple syrup drums, a mixture of water and sugar, the base for all our fountain drinks. Besides the car-hop service, we also had a few stools around the counter where walk- ins could sit for lunch or just drop in for a cup of coffee. In 1939, we built a glass enclosure around the front and added a few wooden booths. Now there was a warm, dry place to come out of the cold or rain. I remember my dad sitting there on those wooden benches for hours at a time reading his paper. We always hustled to get business. One way was to print circulars and distribute them down by the ferry. Business literally came to us by boatloads.
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