Produce with Appeal: The Story of Top Banana
Chapter Two: To See the Produce
Story by Nicholas Reiner
Otto Goplen was born and raised on a farm in Westby, Wisconsin in 1930. He loved the farm, though it was hard work and not as glamorous as it’s made out to be. Otto’s first job off the farm was working at a little market in town when he was 14, just near the end of World War II. His family had just moved into the town and because he was from the farm, all he had to wear were overalls. The boys at the high school teased him incessantly and frequently beat him up. Otto wanted a regular pair of pants to wear in order to fit in and the only way to get one was to earn some money. He got a job at the market around the corner from where he lived and with his first paycheck bought a pair of pants, realizing at a young age what some money can do for you.
After graduating high school, Otto served in the US Navy for two years. When he came back from the service, he decided he wanted to see a bit more of the world. He and his older brother Arnold hopped on and off railcars to travel the country, stopping in small towns across America. He did little jobs in different towns, anything he could get— from farm chores to sweeping floors to working in the fields. On one of these jaunts, in a small Texas town, Otto was picked up and thrown in jail for vagrancy, because the authorities caught him coming into town without any money or a job. After the short stint in jail, Otto realized he didn’t want to be behind bars again and returned home to Wisconsin. There, he reconnected with his high school sweetheart, Patty, and the two were married shortly thereafter, in 1952. The newlyweds decided they wanted to leave Wisconsin and go West. Not because of the winters, Otto would say. It was the summers that were hard for them, so humid. Plus, there might be more economic opportunity out west.
Their first stop was in Denver, where Otto got a welding job and where Greta, their first child, was born in 1954. After spending a year there, the little family kept going West, and settled in Alhambra, California in 1956. Otto still welded for a living but hated it, thought it was awful in the heat. Later that year, once he’d had enough of welding, he went to get a job at Pantry Market in Alhambra, a store the size of a Ralph’s today, though they weren’t called supermarkets at the time. He started at the lowest position: box boy. Then, a person who stocked shelves. Next, he bagged groceries and as soon as there was an opening in produce, he worked exclusively in that part of the store.
He did a kind of internship in produce. First, he skinned onions, made sure they were ready to be picked by customers. Then he handled potatoes and other non-perishable items. From there, he moved to working with perishable fruits, all the while working with the food in his hands. Eventually, he moved to the wet stand, home to all the lettuces and assorted greens. Otto kept working and continued to save. He and Patty bought a house. Otto became assistant manager in produce, then produce manager of a Pantry Market store. The knowledge he had accumulated allowed him to deftly handle produce, to know how to pick it, and how to choose what to sell during the various seasons.
By 1966, he had managed multiple Pantry Markets in southern California and helped open several new stores. In 1967, he moved to Albertson’s as a produce manager. In those days, the stores were still managed by Joe Albertson, the founder. The next year, Joe promoted Otto to produce buyer for all of Albertson’s stores. This meant Otto was in charge of what Albertson’s bought at the markets and sold in their stores. He’d go to the Los Angeles produce market, pick out what he wanted to go where—potatoes from Idaho, grapefruit from Texas, the like. The shipments would make their ways to Albertson’s warehouses, where the food would then go to the Albertson’s stores themselves. In this work, Otto developed relationships with farmers all across the U.S.A. and various trucking companies.
Meanwhile, Greta was growing up, the eldest of three girls. A pretty, smart, blonde high school student, she was 16 when she was chosen as a Miss Alhambra princess, waving from atop the float in the annual city parade. She loved the band Jethro Tull and her father’s contacts in produce could get her concert tickets from time to time, not to mention field-level seats to USC and UCLA football games.
Though he was thriving professionally, Otto felt restless at Albertson’s. He left the company to become an independent produce broker, based out of Los Angeles. He worked with smaller produce companies, using the contacts made through Albertson’s to connect farmers with stores all over the west. As a broker, his job was to move fruit around the country, from market to store. He no longer wore comfortable clothes or spent time in the stores. Now he only wore suits and ties and went to business meetings. He made good money but he was moving farther away from the actual produce. He never saw produce anymore, never handled it. He never saw the customer anymore, either. He was too far removed, too high up.
One of Otto’s major trucking company contacts asked if he wanted to open up a small store in Downey, California. Herb would fund it on the front end, to get the venture on its feet. Otto agreed and so he and Herb opened Country Gardens in 1972. Six months in, though, Otto had a falling out with Herb, didn’t approve of financial decisions Herb was making. Otto left Country Gardens but now had a taste of what it was like to own a business. He obtained investments from friends and decided he’d open his own little produce store, closer to home.
