Produce with Appeal: The Story of Top Banana
Chapter Seven: More than Bargain Produce
Story by Nicholas Reiner
"It was an experience because of the people..."
Sue Matteri, known affectionately as “Skiddy” by Top Banana folks, worked at both the Alhambra and Buena Park locations. Now a senior produce buyer herself, Sue tells me, “You didn’t just go into Top Banana to buy bargain produce. It was an experience because of the people. People wanted to be there and you had relationships with customers.”
Greta knows this better than anybody. She’d watch mothers come in with their little children and she’d hire those kids as high schoolers a decade later. When one loyal customer’s ten-year old son was killed in an off-road vehicle accident, the mother came into the store every day, crying uncontrollably in Greta’s presence. She’d ask Greta, “When am I going to stop crying?” and Greta felt awful that the woman had to go through the pain. How was she supposed to help this person? How could she calm her and help her get through it?
Like Otto before her, Greta knew customers by name and she knew people liked being called by name, liked the fact that the workers knew them. Top Banana became a place where people shared life experiences, like a community. Customers brought family from out of town into Top Banana to introduce to Greta. People would come tell Greta about cancer, even before they would tell their kids. We’d cry, hug, and then go to the funeral, Greta says.
When there was a huge plane crash in Cerritos in 1986, you could see a big cloud of black smoke from Top Banana. Many people came in that day—they wanted to talk about it, to be the first to tell Greta. It was like that for many disasters—those were the busiest days. People would pretend like they were buying a head of lettuce but that wasn’t the reason they came in. Greta knew they wanted to talk and share their experiences.
Greta inherited Otto’s desire to develop good workers. Sean McCreadie, who worked for 13 years at the Buena Park Top Banana, says Greta challenged him to be a man, to grow up. Because it was a small business, Sean became a trusted employee. If he was closing the store, he had to count the money, put it in the safe, call in orders, call Otto. It was this issuing of real responsibilities that made the job different from, say, some job at Home Depot that paid as much but didn’t have the level of investment, on either end. Greta and Otto wanted Sean to succeed personally, and he felt an even greater bond with the place and people because of it.
