Herman at Work
knew 7-Eleven was selling beer, and the law required my signature for proper licensing. Unhappy with the rental rate, I told 7-Elev- en I was not going to sign the alcohol license for the following year unless I could raise the rent. They refused. I didn’t sign. A couple of years went by, and I heard nothing more about it. Frank visited the store and noticed they were selling alcohol. Looking into the license found it was a current. Upon inspection, the current license was based on my signature cut out of the last signed document and stapled to the new one. Frank handled the case, and we won. I adjusted the rents accordingly. 1960-1967 NATIONAL FOOD MARKETERS When Shooster’s restaurant was sold, I was lost for a while. Before long, my sights were set on frozen food. Refrigeration was beginning to be widely used and a whole new category of food was brought to market - frozen food. My first product was stuffed shrimp. I sold
it to Food Fair, a grocery chain. I also sold it toinstitutional frozen-food distributors. The product became so popular I eventually had a staff of eight people preparing them. Thinking about scaling, I started to look for a frozen food manufacturer who could produce my product in volume. My plan was to focus on sales and marketing while they did the production. I knew from experience that many of these manufacturers were located in southern New Jersey. I found one located midway between Chester and Atlantic City, in the small town of Blue Anchor, N.J. That is where I stumbled upon National Food Marketers, and I made a deal with its owner, Lou Caracciola. With a solid sales base, I began to make other products under my label. Soon, I was taking away some of Lou’s own customers
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