The Knowledge Base

Produce with Appeal: The Story of Top Banana

Chapter Four: The Move to Orange County

Story by Nicholas Reiner

Photo: Greta center, 286 Brookline St, Cambridge, MA, 1980

The city of Alhambra began to change demographically and Otto decided to move to Orange County, where Greta’s mother (the two had split up earlier that decade) and sisters had moved. In 1979, he bought a store that spanned 3,800 square feet on Valley View and Lincoln Avenues. It was a big moment for Otto, and it proved to be even more pivotal for his eldest daughter. At the time, Greta was living in Boston. She was out of college now and working at Bread and Circus, a precursor to Whole Foods.

Otto called her up one day. He said, “I signed a lease to open up a store in Buena Park. Will you come help open It?” Greta had worked at the Alhambra Top Banana every summer when she came home from college at Humboldt State. Greta wasn’t sure she wanted that life. She was loving Boston and considering grad school there, with great friends and a fun job—in produce. She knew she’d made a promise to Otto once that if he ever needed help opening a new store, she’d do it. But she was caught off guard, on the spot, in a different place now, and she said no, she wouldn’t come back. She hung up the phone and sat there, thinking.

Well, she didn’t even leave the chair. Keeping her word had always been so important to her. She thought about how harsh it was to promise to do something, and then to back out of it when it felt inconvenient. Greta picked up the phone, called Otto, and said, “When do you need me there?” She gave her Boston job a notice that she’d return in a year—but she never made it back. She was busy getting Top Banana off the ground.

  Chapter Five: This is Your Store Now