frozen food company. I extended my notice but was implored to stay. It took me another year to leave the company before starting the next chapter of my life. At any rate, I was on my way to a new career. A career I wish I could have avoided, but nevertheless, lived through. NFM was in financial trouble most of those years. We held frequent meetings with the board of directors to discuss finances. During those meetings, Lou would pass around prom- issory notes and asked everyone to sign so he could borrow money from the bank. I never signed a promissory note for him. A wise man once told me, “A man who signs a promissory note is a schmuck with a fountain pen.” Years later, after I had been gone for some time, the company went under, and all those note-signers were held responsible. I think it killed one of them.
Once established, I introduced my next product. [frozen chicken kabobs] Those were exciting times. I was building a business on my own, carefully grooming sales trying to find ways to grow. I couldn’t help but be excit- ed about the prospects. The upside was unlim- ited. To give you an idea of how exciting it was, one time, I heard that Shooster’s kabobs were served at the White House! I achieved sales through frozen food distributors. These guys were savvy market- ers. I naturally looked to them for feedback, and they appreciated the chance to give it. The business was working, yet I could not get it to simply lift off. The problem of repeat sales occupied a lot of my time. One of my largest clients was Food Fair, a large supermarket. They spent tens of thousands of dollars for my products and, for a time, they were successful, but only if recommended by the people behind the counter. In the end, my products were just too much of a special- ty item to gather momentum. I had to find another solution. I was very excited about running my own business. All around me, opportunities abounded, I just needed a break. Bill Gerry was one of my best customers. He ran Book- ers, a large New York food distributor. knew him from National Food Marketing. He invited me to his farm in Liberty, New York. While we were having a drink, he pointed to a nearby mountain and explained that his son had installed a satellite dish up there to
SHOOSTER’S FROZEN SPECIALTY PRODUCTS
When I started Shooster’s Frozen Special- ty Company, I was not sure of exactly what I wanted to make. Dorothy came up with the idea. I found her excited about a demonstra- tion of seafood kabobs on television. Togeth- er we created our own. I already knew beef kabobs were a big seller in those days. Seafood seemed like a natural winner. I started to play around with various combinations of seafood and finally, put a product together that we both thought was terrific. The next step was to take it into produc- tion. I found another factory in South Jersey that could make the product and freeze it. Then, I paid a lot of attention to the pack- aging. Until I was satisfied, I did not offer it to the frozen food distributors or supermar- kets. I knew that to be successful, I did not just have to have a good product, but it had to look good, too! With seafood kabobs as my new flagship product, I built a small company and was able to make a living without incurring debt. Along the way, I think I also became the larg- est importer of bamboo skewers in the United States.
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