The Jerky Hut Story

ROUGH START

The year was 1972 and I had moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and settled in with my parents. My dad knew a guy who owned a McDonald’s and he offered me a job as an Assistant Manager. This job lasted about six months. In keeping with my vast experience in the fast food industry, I decided to take a job at Jack-In-The-Box. I had worked at JITB less than a year when someone flashed a gun in the drive-through window. I decided I had enough and quit.

NEW HORIZONS

My next career move began when I saw an ad that read, “Outside Sales – Steaks and Seafood. Company vehicle provided. Self-starters only!” The job was commission-based and involved selling 10-pound boxes of fresh steaks and seafood on retail routes. I responded to the ad and was invited to tag along with one of their top salesmen. He had an established route and so many friendly customers it looked like a good way to make a living. During my long ride home I had plenty of time to think about the job. I called the company the following day and said I’d like to give it a try.

LEARNING THE ROPES

The idea was that I had to call on LOTS of people. I noted that my trainer had an auto dealer in his route. I was so impressed with the potential of the auto dealers that I began to call on all of them around the Bay Area. My very first week in sales I hit bonus levels. My second week in sales I hit every bonus the company offered and never looked back. At that time I was earning $10 to $15 per boxed item and I was making in the neighborhood of $400 - $700 per day!

I would take cash, checks and credit cards. I even knew when my customers got paid. If I was there before payday I would tell them, “It's ok - if you want the product, the company wants you to have it! Just date your check for payday and put a note on it. I'll put in the cookie jar and hold it until then.” My route grew, eventually covering the entire Bay Area. I was having fun and rolling in the dough.

After I had been with the company for a little over six months, I became their top salesman. Little did I know the company had other problem and less than a year after I started, their doors were locked and I was out of business!

YOU CAN’T STOP WHEN YOU’RE ON A ROLL

Even though the company had closed it’s doors, I knew I now had a profitable new skill – the ability to sell. So, instead of sulking about my misfortune, the very next thing I did was find some dry ice and pay a visit to the packing house. I picked up an order of boxed steaks and went back to Hayward to visit every auto dealer I could find. I sold every box I had that day.

My business grew steadily and before I knew it I had gone from one delivery truck to seven. I now had hired salespeople, an office manager and a bookkeeper. I soon began to find out just how hard it would be to find good people to grow the business. I even had one of our competitors send in one of their people. He took our truck full of meat and just parked it. It turned up in downtown Oakland five days later.

CHANGE IS GOOD

I decided that it was time for a change and moved the business to Oregon.  Having to start over with our suppliers wasn't much of a challenge and office space was easy to find. I had again created my route from the auto dealerships throughout the Northwest.

One day I met a salesman who showed me a three-pound summer sausage manufactured by Grandpa Don’s. He suggested I buy some from him and offer it with our steaks, so I gave it it a try. It turned out to be such a hit that every salesperson was selling at least a box of fifteen sausages a day!

THE STORY OF SIMON WONG

One of my favorite salesmen was David Mitchell.  One morning David and a couple of other salesmen were waiting for their orders to arrive. A new fellow, named Simon Wong came in and requested a job application. Simon was an exchange student from Taiwan. He very young, and I didn’t think my insurance would cover him. I told him that I didn't have an opening for him and asked him to check back in a week.

Sure enough, the following week Simon came back. I apologized to him for not having a suitable position and asked him to check back later. Like clockwork, Simon came back AGAIN! I was about to turn him away for the third time when David pulled me off to the side and said, "This is what you should do - Send Simon out in his own car with an order form. Give him a box of the summer sausage. If the experiment fails you’re only out $100. “

Simon had what many of the other’s didn’t he was a self-starter with the desire to succeed. Simon Wong went on to become one of best producer’s. The staff started calling him “Simon Right”!

(Simon eventually returned to Taiwan and we lost contact with him. Simon Wong where are you?)

With the success of Simon Wong we started moving the company in another direction. The sales of summer sausages were so good that we decided maybe we didn't need all the overhead of the trucks, freezers and highly perishable products.

ENTER THE LOVELY “BARBARA”

This is about the time when I met my lovely wife-and-business-partner- to-be, Barbara. She took over the books and ran the office like a well oiled machine. (Much to my delight, I later found out she also had a knack for sales.)

Barbara and I began selling beef jerky along with our sausage and steaks. The first jerky we sold was a very good chopped and formed jerky. The best part was it needed no refrigeration. We quickly expanded our variety of the beef sausage and beef jerky.

I was still doing over $1000 per day on my routes. One day on my route, a lady asked me where she could buy my products other than when I was making the rounds. Barbara and I discussed this and we decided to open a store at the Jantzen Beach Mall so we could offer all kinds of beef jerky, by the slice or by the pound.  We needed to come up with a name for the store. Barbara and I looked at each other and said at the same time, “JERKY HUT!”

A customer suggested that we start selling jerky at swap meets on the weekends. Before we knew it we were also selling at sporting events, home shows, car shows, gun shows, you name it! Jerky Hut was on a roll!

Our experience has taught us a lot. We don't claim to know it all, we just know that what we do works. We call it Jerky-nomics!