Ok, so when I got out of the Army at the end of 1995 and returned to Philly after just turning 21, I still had no usable civilian skills, as I was in an airborne artillery unit and I was looking for a job in the newspaper.
I went down to interview at a company called YNB (Your Neighborhood Butcher), I believe it was headquartered out of Arizona, but they had satellite offices up and down the east coast (Tampa, Boston, Philly, ect…). At the “interview” I actually smashed up my car wheel in the parking lot on an island curb that I didn’t see, because it was pitch black. The regional manager called AAA and helped me out. The guy they made a manager was a marine and I thought it was legit at the time, so I took the job.
It turned out to be door to door sales and I had nothing else going on, so I thought I would see how it worked. They also moved other sales people to this location to help it get started. There was an ex-nfl player and other assorted people who had been successful in this business. I was not making much money and I quit after a few months and I’ll let you all in on how this works.
They had training classes/pep meetings in the morning before you went out and they taught you all the classic entry or opening pitches you hear, “I’m done my meat route and I have a leftover box, hold on, let me just show you what I have real quick.”, “I was delivering in your area and this is my last box…”, “We distribute Steak, Chicken & Seafood and my last delivery was cancelled…”. The main objective was to show you the product in your home or space and get into a conversation of how great the product was and how to answer any objections. Freezer full? If I can’t make it fit, I’ll give it to you for free. How much per pound? Well what we do is to trim all the fat and remove all the bone and flash freeze in vacuum sealed packages, so you don’t pay for what you don’t eat. You are vegan or vegetarian? I’m sure you know someone who could use it!
Then they would show you the payout scale which increased with how many cases you sold. Within those cases were like 5 or 6 boxes 2-3 of meat, 2-3 of chicken & usually 1 seafood.
The office was in an industrial office complex and had warehouse space attached on the back. In the back warehouse was a large freezer loaded with hundred or so cases. Then there were 6-10 economy sized red Nissan trucks with a storage freezer on the back and no advertising on it. They would load you up with cases and brochure pamphlets, and then send you out.
At the end of the day or night, because you would call into the office to give updates and they would tell you not to come back until you sold more, you had to pay for the use of the truck and gas and then you would count back into the freezer whatever you didn’t sell. They also get you to go to all your family and friends to try and sell.
I actually made it to assistant manager and as you moved up into “management” of the company, you would get a percentage of whatever the office sold. I still didn’t make much money and told them I was leaving. They then offered to send me to Boston and show me how much easier it was and get a change of environment, but I still left.
Nobody was concerned with the quality of the product or where it came from. They were all just given a legal product to sell any way you could. Some guys would go to a bar and drink while they talked with patrons, other people went to residential neighborhoods and went door to door, others went to mom and pop business, ect…
The profit margins can be large or small depending how well you could sell, but mainly the sales people barely made any money and sometimes would even owe money, because they had to pay for the truck and gas.
I’m not sure but I believe the managers and regional managers made the most on this pyramid, because I’m sure they got the product for pennies on the dollar. I always wondered where the product came from, as they would always just give you the sales pitch spiel of where it originated.
That was my first and last “job” of that type. Lesson learned!
