Ear on Chicago; Nattoli Bros. Fruit Produce

No, ma 'am, those are in bushels, the western delicious do not come in for another three weeks is yet. But I do have some nice 138 or 125 Johnson apples out of Washington, very fancy, a box of two Michigan tomatoes, number one, fancy, let's go, let's kind of quick here, don't see any seedless grapes, how about lemons, limes, cantaloupe, I got 48, 54s and 72s, I have, yes sir, fresh this morning sir. This is Hugh Hill speaking from Natalie Brothers, dealers and fruits and vegetables in Evanston at Dempster Street. The phone conversations that you've been hearing are salesmen selling fruits and vegetables to stores and institutions throughout the north and northwest side areas in the metropolitan area of the city of

Chicago, Bob not only is standing right next to me and he's been on the phone all morning very busy, Bob, what's been going on here, it's nothing but a mass of confusion as far as I'm concerned, well we're just trying to bend our wares. Your wares are fruits and vegetables of every kind, that's right, from all over the country and sometimes from different parts of the world such as South Africa, South America, Central America, even a few items come in as places as far off as Borneo, now who are those people you were talking to on the phone, obviously your customers but I mean what were they, grocery stores or what, they consist of all types of consumers, who handle and merchandise and bulk amounts such as retail outlets, restaurants and institutions of all kinds, things are quite a down here a little bit right now, is there a period where things slow down considerably, well we start early and we finish early, what do you mean by start early, the

warehouse here is open at four o 'clock in the morning, myself and our buyers are on the market by a quarter to four in the morning or earlier and our drivers start anywhere from five to seven o 'clock in the morning, well that is early, now you say first of all the warehouse is open at four o 'clock in the morning, now the next thing you mentioned was that you were at the market at a quarter of four and in just a second I'd like to take the listening audience very quickly down to that market so they can hear what's going on, but first of all let me take just a minute to describe what the situation here is, we're in the office of Natalie Brothers and looking out through the glass partition here you can look out into the warehouse and see sacks and baskets and crates and fruits and vegetables in this huge warehouse, now this has to come from somewhere, so Bob Natalie every morning goes down to the market, where is the market Bob, Portee Thereseen Chicago, now you go down there and actually

buy the fruits and vegetables down there, right? myself and combination with two other men who are experienced buyers in this field, then your trucks move down and pick that up, that's right, we have three to five trucks in the market every morning who have that merchandise picked up at a point where it is assembled, well now a quarter of four in the morning is awfully early for me to be going down to that market, so I'm going to let you go down and take this microphone along with John Buckstaff and record some of the things that go on down there, so when you come back I'll talk to you. We are now in front of a house that handles nothing but fruit to be sold in Chicago area, peaches from Colorado, grapes from California apples from Washington, another house of California fruit, a potato house, sweet potatoes from Louisiana, onions from Texas, potatoes from Wisconsin, potatoes from Idaho, a

house with a new crop, Florida grapefruit, what do you want? Another potato house, another California fruit house with grapes and apples on display, lemons, we are now in front of a large, distributed house that has every variety of fresh grapes, celery, cabbage, cauliflower, and the life, this house also distributes fruits along with their vegetable items, Joe, get three bananas right off of that, get there, that's New Lincoln right, New Lincoln, five bananas, what are you talking about? We are now crossing the street along the main

way of the south water market, we see licenses from Florida, Indiana, Ohio, of course a number of Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, at this present time you'll see that there are a way with more licenses from Michigan, perhaps in any other state in the Union because they are now at their highest point of production and all of their produce, refrigerated trailers are the main means of transportation from outside markets into the Chicago area. The fine ripe tomatoes out of California, 20 pounds are better, this lot here goes highest 25 pounds of more five size. Two tier, two tier yes, this is the first one, four five is all the way down to six, six, four. You all have that much color? No, I'm

on the side. Okay, just tell you something, with these background noise and that'll give you an idea just what goes on in this market starting from 2 .30am or maybe all the way on into the late afternoon and evening, back to the matter is this place never goes on. Now let's listen to Vince Russo who has a produce merchant down at south water street. Well, the conditions of the market have an improved or have in the last number of years that I know of other than the fact that we might have less customers now than we have in the past years. The merchandise is coming in, very much more improved state than it has in the past years but our activity to hear is not anything as the way it was here many years ago. I've been on the markets since 1925 when this market first opened all the history of the markets. I look out today, going back 25 years ago, this market was built primarily for what we then thought was a great

thing to these trucks. In the last 10 years or so, the advent of the trailers, the tractors have taken over the parking space of this particular market and it has injured the opportunity for the average customer come in here and park it back in his truck. We do find trucks coming through this market right now in trailers rather from the California, Florida and Louisiana and we're getting them coming in here from all sections of the country. Northern parts of the country, the eastern and the west and it's been something that has taken place within the last 10 years or more. Well, Bob, it was interesting to hear you talk to some of the boys down at the south water market. What precisely are some of the things that you buy down there? Well, we buy all kinds of top quality fruits and vegetables. First of all, let me ask you where the fruits and vegetables come from that get down to that market.

Some are brought in locally by the local growers in the Chicago area. Others come in from Michigan, give all states are represented probably at the present time, including well as far south as Florida, as far north as Northern Wisconsin, probably Minnesota. We have all the western states are in Colorado for peaches, out into the coast for your fruits such as plums, nectarines, state of washing for apples, all over the country. That's right. All over the world, I suppose, for that that's right. We have a present when we have Italian red onions and then we're shipped directly from Italy. Now, Bob, let's get back to the very beginning of this so that everybody can understand exactly how it works. Let's assume, for example, that I am a farmer. I grow, we'll say, some cabbages out in my farm and I want to get them into market. Now,

what happens? What do I do? You haul them into a commission house who will sell them for you and charge you an nominal rate for selling them. What's the commission? How much? Well, that percentage, that's on a percentage basis directly, yes. What's the percentage? Well, at the present time, I believe it ranges from 10 to 14 percent of the sale price of those cabbages. What do I bring them in by crates or what? You bring them in by crates or sacks, whatever the case might be. Now, I bring them into the commission house. Where's the commission house? Commission houses are located right on the market. Oh, I see. Then, he, of course, and turns them over to the market. Well, he turns, he and tries to sell them to the buyers who are roaming the market like ourselves or other people who do the same type of work. All right. Now, then you go down there and you buy a long list of groceries, whatever it is, whatever you have to buy down there, you get. You set up an order in other words, right? Well, we buy, we try to figure our needs

and we buy accordingly, and we assemble all that merchandise at one shipping point that we have on the market, and they are loaded on our respective trucks and brought up to this warehouse. Here, we reassemble them in individual orders for reshipment to the individual customers. Well, now, I watch some of your trucks come in, and that's the next step that I'd like to find out about is to go out there and look at some of those trucks arriving because a little while ago, we were out there, and some of the boys were pulling up. How many trucks do you have all together? We're running 11 units. 11 units. Now, I think there's one more thing, however, before we go out there, Bob, that we ought to find out about, and that's the fruit auction. I understand you go down there, too. We have merchandise coming out of the fruit auction besides that, which is shipped in directly by rail to our warehouse. Now, before we go down to that fruit auction, Bob, why don't you explain just exactly what it is? The fruit auction is a company that was organized for the purpose of selling

fruit, California fruit in the main, to the merchants in and about the area. They represent the grower as their salesman in this area, for which they receive a commission or a charge, a certain amount to vent every packet that goes through the auction. Now, when we go down to that fruit auction, we'll actually hear the auctioneer, won't we? It's very similar to any auction that people are familiar with throughout the country with tobacco or automobile or things of that nature. Well, I think that's the next thing we better do, and then when we come back, I'd like to go out and to find out how you transfer your produce when you bring it in here to your warehouse, transfer it from your warehouse out to the places that it goes to. So, the next thing we'll hear is the auctioneer. The one? You're not poor now, what's next

I'd help? It's pretty well, you're 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50

out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 down and 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 80 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of one, 50 out of Chicago area but to all the eastern markets might be

interesting to note that it requires about a hundred thousand cars of fruits and vegetables to supply the Chicago area each year. About 15 ,000 of these are fruits of which about 7 ,000 cars of fruit are sold at auction. Our sale starts each morning at seven o 'clock. The average sale is about 35 cars. We sell about 20 cars an hour. Each car contains about 20 lots which means we sell about 400 lots an hour. Those who buy at auction are the large chains, a few of the large retailers and the large wholesalers and several out of town buyers from an area within a hundred or a hundred and fifty miles. Of the 7 ,000 cars sold annually at auction, about 2 ,000 are oranges, 500 lemons, 500 grape fruits, about 1 ,500 cars of

apples, 1 ,000 grapes, 500 plums, 500 pairs and about 400 beaches. One of the trucks is coming in now, backing up to the ramp here. It's loaded with crates. We're going to talk about it in just a minute. Here it is. Come on. Back up. Come on. You're in. All right, he's backed up completely back to the ramp here. It's a panel silver truck with the not only brother sign on the side and their address in Evanston. Bob, let's get over here out of the way because they're about ready to unload this thing. The crates are coming off already. You don't waste much time, do you? Now, how do you go about it here? First of all, I saw one of the fellas carrying a crate off moving it over into this direction. Actually, took it off and put it on a truck over it and another truck. That is going on to an already assembled order that was lacking that particular package. Now, some other fellas are bringing out sacks of what looks like carrots, I guess, is it?

Those are California carrots with the tops off. Down and put up in 50 pound bags. Bringing them out in these bags and loading them onto a skid, is that what you got right? A skid which can be moved out by the addition of a whole thing that we call a horse that has wheels on it, a jack. Well, now we see these trucks lined up here, one after another, being unloaded, one over here to the right that we mentioned just a moment ago, being loaded with an order. And out here, near that truck that is going out, are some railroad tracks. Do you also get some of your produce by rail? All of our potatoes are come in by rail. I would say in the neighborhood of 85 to 90 percent of our oranges come in by rail. We get a considerable number of parcels of different vegetables such as lettuce, candelopes, and things of that nature also come in by car. Where did this particular truck come from by? This truck originated this morning at South Water Market, one of which was watching to be unloaded. What about the next one

to it? Same place? Yes, he originated at South Water Market. He also made one stop at the Chicago Northwestern Terminal in Chicago for a load of candelopes. And I believe he had a few cartons of lettuce on that load. Well, the reason I ask that question is to point out the fact that you get your fruits and vegetables many places other than the market downtown, right? Yes, if we, when we are in a position to use considerable quantities, we contract for them or buy them in car loan lots and they are shipped directly to our dock. Well, now Bob, let's move on in the sequence here. We have the trucks arriving. The carrots are here on the skid in a few minutes. They are coming up with a little wagon over here to put underneath the skid. What do you call that thing? A jack or a horse? And that will move it back into the warehouse where it will be there for how long? Well, not for very long for sure. We

have a great number of orders daily to be assembled for delivery to our customers and this merchandise is used for those orders. All right, now we have the orders arriving from the, wherever you pick them up, down at the market and other places throughout the city of Chicago. The carrots are on the skid, the truck moves over and pulls it away into the warehouse and it is stored here and his Bob says not for very long. Now, really, the next step in the procedure is what we began with, those phone conversations in which the customers call you and you call the customers. That goes on every day, doesn't it? That's right. Now, you take their orders as to exactly what they want. Sometimes it's big, sometimes it's small, but then what happens after you get those orders made up? After those orders are made up, they are loaded on the truck and the rotation of the stop. In other words, the last stop to be made by that driver will be put on his truck first. The truck that you see out in the dock there is headed for Highland Park. He has probably four stops on which

gives him almost a complete load. The other truck on the other side is going out in the Oak Park area. There's another four or five stops on that truck. Bob, now there's a few things I'd like to ask while I'm standing out here. I think this is a good spot as any to ask about the order taking that you were going through at the very early part of our program. There were numbers, for example, that you called out. 103s or 69s or 70s or whatever it was. And then sometimes you'd give a price. What did all that mean? Well, the numbers usually refer to a size with regard to the way some of the merchandise is packed. Namely, apples are packed accordingly sized. Great fruit is packed accordingly sized. Colorado peaches we have are packed accordingly sized. Plums, nectarines, et cetera, they're packed accordingly sized. Well, what would a 70 mean? 70 means the actual count of the individual pieces of fruit in the package. That truck that just backed in there just this minute is returning from the loop area where they

left the warehouse this morning around about seven o 'clock. And while you were taking the orders, another thing I noticed was the fact that the prices changed from time to time. In other words, you quote what you think is the right price. Apparently, that's what was apparent to me, maybe not. Well, the only differential there would be that we were quoting on different size items or different quality items. You're not being in a position to recognize such. We have more or less a standardized pricing system. It's standardized except from the standpoint of quality of the product. Quality or, say, quantity or weight. I mean, there are various number of packages containing the same kind of merchandise. We have the present time. We have about six or seven different packages of contained apples. Some are different varieties. Some are different sizes. Some are different containers. But when a grocery store calls you up in the morning, he's not

real sure what that price is going to be, is he? No, we aren't ourselves real sure what that price is going to be. Well, how do you determine it? Do you, you, yourself, determine it? No, we, we determine according to what we pay for or what we have to give for it to the grower or to the shipper or to the commission house. Is it a change every day? Not all of them. Some do. Some change twice a day and some don't change for days on end. Well, now, there was another thing. One of your salesmen in there was quoting some prices and says we have a sale on today. In other words, you felt as in the wholesale business must once in a while have a sale the same as the grocery store would have a sale. Well, we like anyone else's. Human make a lot of mistakes and sometimes we over buy and want to move the merchandise out and we have to offer that a reduced price, which is very often money out of our pocket. In most cases, is money out of our pocket in order to get it out. This merchandise does not keep, but has to move. Well, that's the next step that we're going to talk about

is the fact that this merchandise has to move, that it can't be kept very long. As we were walking along here, John Buckstaff and I a little while ago, we were looking over here to the left of the warehouse, which is on, I think, the west side. And there are some refrigerator rooms over there, right? That's right. There's three refrigerated rooms in this building. They contain approximately about 2 ,000 square feet of refrigerated area. We have come into one of the refrigerated rooms right now. What's the temperature in here, Bob? It's carrying approximately 36 to 38 degrees. Is this different from the temperature in the room right next to us? Well, the temperature is no different, but the humidity is. This is a fruit cooler. We carry nothing but fruit in here and try to keep it dry. All right, so much for the refrigeration and storage. Let's go out to the center of the warehouse where there is no refrigeration. They're just sitting out there in the open. I just wanted you to hear some of the activity that's going on out

here. We're standing right in the middle of the warehouse to the right of us and to the left of us. There are a number of men working with these skids and carts pushing around crates of vegetables and fruit. Well, Bob, it's interesting to hear about the business. I'd like to get over here and talk to your brother, Vic, for just a moment. Vic, Bob says he's been in a business here since 1938, but that you're the one that's really loaded. Yeah, I've pre -seed him by about two years in the business. You came in in 1936. It's approximately all. Is it a good business? It's a good living. Let me put it that way. How about the hours? It sounds pretty rugged to me. You have to be down at the market at 4 o 'clock in the morning. All you need is a good alarm clock. Doesn't need any brains. What does that mean that you have to go to bed? What time do you have to go to bed? Well, I don't get up quite as early as Bob does, but I get to bed around 10, 30, 11 o 'clock. Your dad has been in the business here for how long? 51 years? It's over 50. I think about 52 years. And he's still going strong. Yeah, you can't keep him away from it. I understand he had a birthday yesterday. 71 years old.

71? 71 years old. I noticed he was taking orders in there and then we came out here and he's working with the trucks. He's a very active business. He has to have his fingers and everything. Well, that's an interesting story that you fell has to tell here, Vic. I want to get back here to Bob now, but I want to thank you for allowing us to come out here and interrupt a busy schedule and believe me, it has been busy. This has been a rough day or slow day. No, this is a relatively slow day. We'd like to have you come out when we're busy. I don't know if I'd be able to get in the door with Russian or what goes on here. Well, the phones were ringing and you fell as we're talking all at the same time, but I imagine when it really gets busy, why things are hopping all over the considerable amount to do, yes. Well, thanks a minute for talking to us, Vic. It's our pleasure. Thank you. Bob, I think that's about it. We've wrapped up just about as much as I can think about. We've gone down to the markets and listened to the auctioneer, come out here and talk to you and Vic. We want to thank you very much for allowing us to come out

here and touring the warehouse and there's one final thing I want to ask you now. Now that the orders are all in, the trucks are loaded. They go right out to the stores and the institutions where you deliver the goods and drop them off. That's right. And some trucks go out and make the one trip if they're going out into the far suburban areas. Others will make two, three and four trips a day. Do you serve only the suburban areas? Well, we go back into Chicago. We go back in the loop. We go back in the old park. We go as far as Libertyville in the north, the lake on the east, and we go to Barrington and Points West of the Chicago area. Well, I think that pretty much wraps it up then. We have the fruits and vegetables purchased, brought out here to the warehouse and finally distributed to the grocery stores throughout the metropolitan area of Chicago. Bob, once again, thanks a million for letting us come out and tell the story. It's been a pleasure and thank you very much. That's the story of Natalie Brothers, wholesalers and jobbers

in fruits and vegetables. This is Hugh Hill speaking.