Produce with Appeal: The Story of Top Banana
Chapter Five: "This is Your Store Now"
Story by Nicholas Reiner
Eric Tindbaek and Greta
Greta was back in California. The team had been working hard to build tables and get everything ready. Eric Tindbaek, a friend of Greta’s since childhood and one of the first Top Banana workers in Alhambra, created and laid out the floor and wood designs for the Buena Park Top Banana, and built all the stands and tables where the produce would sit. The first week in the new store, Otto told Greta, “This is your store now.” Truckloads of produce arrived the day before they were going to open and he said, “Design the tables” and walked out. She looked at him aghast. “I don’t know how to design tables,” she said. “What should go where?” He said, “you’ll figure it out.” That’s always how he dealt with her, let her solve the problems because she’d really learn it that way. Three days before they were to open, Otto asked, “Where’s your crew?” Greta had thought they’d be bringing over the Alhambra workers. Otto said you can bring one person down. We have to get the Buena Park one open and then we can close down Alhambra. She didn’t know anybody in Orange County but she had to go find ten people. She put the word out and recruited semi-randomly, talking to people face-to-face. You look like a good worker, do you need a job?
The store was busy from the moment it opened, just like it was for Otto six years earlier. Greta was obsessed with making the store work. She worked from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. seven days a week for three years, with the exception of Christmas. Otto was unsure about how to handle Alhambra. He wasn’t entirely certain he wanted to close it but because they’d been pouring so much energy into Orange County, the Alhambra one wasn’t doing as well. He sold the Alhambra location and the new owners kept it open for only six months.
In Orange County, Greta was the boss. Otto was around—he gave advice—but she micromanaged. He wouldn’t tell her how to work. Like with designing the tables: he’d ask, “Did that work out?” “How are those mushrooms doing over there? Are they getting wet? Are they getting bad? Maybe you need to move those.” Gentle nudging, but she had to learn it herself.
