Join John Ryan as he sits down with Jim Auen of Auen Distributing, reflecting on a remarkable 75 years in the beer distribution industry. Jim shares the trials and triumphs of keeping a family-owned business thriving amidst consolidation, while celebrating the legacy left by Ike and Dorothy Auen. From navigating childhood memories of answering phones for the warehouse to understanding complex industry shifts, this conversation provides a fascinating insight into how a small family business has managed to stand the test of time.
All right, here we go. It is year number two of must know people. I'm John Ryan with you and got to say it right off the bat today. Today's a redo. The last time I tried to do the very first interview for season two. We got everything done. It was a great podcast. And then I realized something went wrong with the recording and didn't get any of it. So we're back to redo it again with a guest that I tried to get on last year, but just couldn't meet up with him somehow. Jim Allen from Allen Distributing is our very first guest of the year. And first of all, Jim, thanks so much for redoing this. We're not going to ask different questions, by the way.
Well, John, I just want to say that if that's your worst mistake you've made...
Somebody needs to provide me better training. It's somebody else's fault.
Is there a manual for this?
I don't think so, but we'll try to get it right this time. So it's podcast 2.0. Here we go. We got a practice run in, so let's do it for real this time. Very good. So the reason I wanted to start with you this year is because KCIM and Carroll Broadcasting, they are celebrating 75 years on air this year. You guys are also celebrating that same birthday here at Auen Distributing.
Yes.
Got to be a huge feeling of accomplishment. 75 years, that's a milestone, man.
You know, July 1 is the actual birthday, if you want to look at it that way. It is, as we spoke before, 75 years, no matter what business you're in, it's a long time. You have, we like to say, a few bumps in the road as you go along. But to stay in this industry that we're in, especially when there's a lot of consolidation that we see in business, the number of Budweiser Wholesalers at one time was well over 1,000, and now it's under 400.
But to be a family-owned one, too, all that time, that's incredible. That's got to be a rarity in the distributor world.
Well, you have a lot of families. It's the ability to have succession within the family, that you have people coming up, right? And we have that with Ben. So the other part of it in the beer world is we have a really good supplier. We have Anheuser-Busch. We have Constellation. We've got good brands. There are some people that were very good wholesalers, but their parent company might not have been very good. And if you were selling Studebakers, you're out of business because of Studebaker, not because of you.
I mean, what a great decision your dad, Ike Auen, made. Ike and Dorothy started it, bought it, and they moved here for the distributorship. Is that correct?
Well, they were actually from here.
Okay.
They were born and raised in Carroll. Dad was working in Red Oak, then came back up here and was working for the family that owned this location. They were out of Red Oak. They had two locations. Okay. And he had an opportunity to buy it. I think I mentioned before, I've got the original contract. He got a pretty sweet deal if you look at it today. And we're very fortunate. Can I ask what the price was? You can ask.
The answer won't be forthcoming.
You could buy a used car today for that. So, but you have to think, you know, in 1950, Hams, Pabst, Schmidt, Grain Belt stores, you had a lot of brands. This was a regional industry. You didn't have multi-brands in a warehouse. Typically, we were doing Bud and Michelob. Somebody else might have had Schlitz and Old Milwaukee and Falstaff. So you didn't have hundreds of SKUs, for example, or packages. Yeah. It was a much simpler business. Think of it as a six cylinder motor with a carburetor in today's world of fuel injection.
Do you remember much from the early, early days? I mean, because you were just born right around that time that they started this, right?
Yeah. Well, I remember, you know, we were, I remember this, you know, dad was working down here. We didn't have an office staff, right? There were not a lot of employees and the phone at home. We thought this was tech, right? We had a phone that chimed and a phone that rang. So the home phone chimed. That was a call to the house. If the phone rang, that meant someone was trying to call the warehouse. And if it rang three times, that meant Ike wasn't here. So Dorothy would answer the phone I went distributing or I did once in a while. So, you know, here we are. in the fifties and sixties.
As a young child answering for a beer distributor.
Hey, I took an order. You know, again, it was a simpler business model basically is what it was. But yeah, I remember sleeping on the, in the front of the truck. Dad, I don't know if it was a breed as celebration. It was a celebration and I went along with him and I'm sleeping on the cab of the truck during a celebration. So yeah, it was a lot of history.
So what kind of equipment did you guys have? How many trucks did you have that you remember?
I know we had two. And you didn't have bay doors like you do today. And we had an old warehouse. It's actually down where the old Mittendorf sheet metal used to be on Fifth Street, down the street from Kerp's. The building was actually owned by Art Neu. And we rented one half of it and the back of it. And you basically loaded your beer for the day, peddled off the truck for the day. You sold. But you were only selling seven packages.
So you weren't taking orders, doing all the deliveries. You were out there just hustling, kind of selling.
Yeah, but you know, back in that era, whether you sold potato chips, Pepsi, bread, beer, the salesman was the driver of the truck. So you pulled up to the retail location and you go and take the order. go out to your truck, offload it.
That's it. There's your inventory. How does that work now though? But you would have sales representatives going out, right? Today we pre-sell everything. So you know exactly what you're taking to every location.
So basically the salesman's going out with the warehouse. You know, he goes out with his iPad, goes into the retail location, takes the order, submits the order here. We can, if we choose to, we can go to what they call the, like a B2B or the retailers can order direct. We just haven't pulled the trigger on that. We still like salespeople talking to people. If you want to talk about that being somewhat old school, but so we take the order, we pick the orders by stop. So when the delivery team pulls up to the retail location, there's his entire order ready to go.
I'm assuming you've done all the jobs here, haven't you?
Yeah, I had a CDL. Actually, I got pulled over for driving past a weigh station one time, so yes. Whoops.
So what was your favorite job to do here, other than the one you have now?
I really like the marketing of the product. I like the advertising end of it. I like the ad campaigns. I like putting together a program to get product out the door and promote the brands.
And that's a lot of what you do now, isn't it? I do a lot of that, yes. Yeah. So walk me through a day that you have here. What's a typical day when you walk through the door?
Well, first thing, I greet everybody. You know, good morning. How is everyone?
Do you walk around the warehouse and say hi to everybody? Yeah.
Yeah, well, we don't have a lot of people here for one. So yeah, we greet everybody. But, you know, you do your standard email things, right? Catch up on your day. You work through your list, right? You've got either meetings lined up or we have Zoom calls with various suppliers. I always check sales. I always check where we are with the month. I always check sales by all of our brands and suppliers. It's important to... We have to forward think so much here because we're already thinking summer, right? We forecast out eight weeks. So we live in the moment and we live in the future is what we tend to do in the beer world. So... Emails, go through my list, take care of Zooms, talk to suppliers. We don't have a lot of retail issues. Most of those are handled by our sales team.
I was always curious, do you guys have to buy the inventory from the breweries and then you're stuck with it? You got to deal with it? Or is it something that, oh, they're going to ship you this and then whatever you don't sell, you ship back?
They don't force ship anything. Well, that's sort of a lie. AB, well, and as a Busch, they'll do some inventory build in the spring because brewers can't make enough beer for the summer. So we'll go into summer with a little bit of a heavier than normal inventory load.
But do you have to fork out the money for that right away before you even sell it?
Oh yeah, your credit terms are one day.
You order it, you write the check.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You own it. Yes, if you have out-of-date product that goes out of code, it's our responsibility to destroy it.
So when it comes to things like craft beer, things like that, how does somebody break through the market? Somebody here has got a local beer. They want you to distribute it. It's not just as easy as walking through the door going, hey, Jim, do you want to take this around for me?
So that does happen. So let's take a craft supplier or a small regional supplier of either ready to drink vodka drinks or beer. It doesn't matter. First, they wanna build their network, right? So who's gonna be my distributors? So they either reach out oftentimes to the bud wholesalers, because then you've got a footprint and you've covered the whole state. Or you would pick the Miller Wholesaler Network. But it's getting to be more and more important that that supplier makes chain contacts. Casey's, Kum and Go's, Hy-Vee's, Farway's, Sparky's, Kimmes's family.
It's got to create his own little demand out there.
Right. He's got to make those calls and get a footprint in the door that's almost essential anymore. So that's one of the key questions we'll ask someone who calls on us is, what do you have for chain commitments? So they, you know, they've got to do their end and we've got to do our end. And then from there, you have to figure out an order. I don't know how well it's going to sell. So you have to put together an order and stock your building.
I was actually going to start with this question. And all the times that we've done stuff at the radio station, done interviews, things like that, you always have a little weird beer fact for me. And, you know, it's like kind of like something going on. Give me a weird beer fact that most people don't know.
Oh, boy. Well, we talked about it a little bit earlier. Here's a, you know, the 14th Amendment, when prohibition went away, allowed every state to do their own laws. And that's why when you travel, you know, you go to Nebraska and you see outside signage in front of a liquor store, but you don't see it here, or you go... In one state, you see beer glasses with a brand on it, but you don't see it here. Every state governs their own alcohol laws, taxation, age, hours. Minnesota, they have municipalities own some of the stores where you can't buy on Sunday. That is why every state is in charge of their own alcohol regulation.
Tell me about the Bud Light protest, because a couple of years back, obviously, that blew up. And that made a large ripple for what was basically one can that went out to a social marketer, a social media influencer, right? Right. So give me the background story in that real quick, for anybody who may not know the whole flap about it.
Well, the one thing I will say about that, we knew zero pre-doing that promotion, if you want to call it that. When we have big programs like with Harley-Davidson and Budweiser or Busch Light and John Deere, we're up on those early on because we have POS signage to order and beer to order and any type of marketing that goes with it. This was a low key, off to an influencer, one can. The idea behind it was Anheuser-Busch wanted to be a company that reached out to all types of people. You need customers. Right, right. And that went south. And all of a sudden, it became a hot point politically. We had zero to do with it, but we had to be the ones to deal with it in the trade. You know, we had some of our people were called names. People boycotted the product. We didn't have any violence. Thank you. We didn't have any threats to us or any damage to anything. But I didn't really appreciate some of the verbal comments that our people took because it wasn't their fight. Yes, we represent that brand, but we were the byproduct of a decision that wasn't very good.
Do you guys still hear about it to this day? No, no, no. How long did it take for that to die down?
Well, probably six to eight months.
So it lasted a while for you guys.
But what we did internally was we met our team, met with the team. I shared with them how much money we invest in the marketplace. Billboards, radio, signage, sponsorships, teams, events, all the different things we do. So I wanted our group to know we spend a lot of money in the marketplace promoting brands. We're chamber members in multiple communities around us. They knew that. I even told them where we'd send our donation money. Who do we donate to? What do we do? Both personally and business. So I wanted them to have a story if they needed it to tell a consumer or a retailer, hey, you know, we're a good neighbor. We were involved. We want to promote our brands. I think that helped. And then you know what else we did? We bought a lot of beer. We went and got every rep money cards and told them, go buy beer. You see a guy in the store with a suitcase of Bud Light, pay for it. See a guy with a 16 ounce can, pay for it.
That brings up another topic that you guys must get hit up on an hourly basis. Hey, can you guys sponsor this? Or can we have this for our giveaway? I mean, you guys are probably one of the first on the list that people check with, I assume.
We do get a lot of that.
That is an understatement. I know that.
I was just having a conversation with a gentleman in the office before you arrived about that. I'm okay with that. You know, we try to participate in a lot of things. You've been on the other end of asking, right? Oh yeah. I have.
Yep.
Everybody's event is the most important. We can't participate in everything and we don't participate in things that don't fit our business model. So we're in the alcohol business. So there are a few things that we get asked. Yeah, that doesn't really fit what we do. We love the Pheasants Forever banquets. That's our audience.
How many of those percentage wide you just say you have to turn down?
Not many. Not many.
Yeah. No, I'd say it's less than 10 percent.
Yeah. Yeah. OK.
Yeah. I just curious about that, because like everybody seems to run to the beer distributorship because you guys, like I said, you sponsored so many things in the past. Your name is all over the place out there that you're the natural first call.
You know, we sponsor golf tournaments, softball teams, softball tournaments, bowling tournaments. We do a lot of things. Again, we try to hit the audience that we sell to, which is important. So yeah, we... You know, I would imagine your doorbell rings at the at the radio station a lot, too.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Everybody wants, you know, free publicity and stuff. And that's that's kind of what we do. And so, yeah, we're we're definitely in the same boat about that. Do you want to switch gears and talk about you grew up in Carroll? Salinger Drive.
Is that right? Salinger. Yes.
Yeah. Tell me about growing up in Carroll. What was it like for you and growing up on that block specifically?
You know, the top of 18th Street to the bottom of Salinger, there were like 60 kids, all ages. And you didn't have to go far to find something to do. You just step out the door. But, you know, that was the era when you went outside and came home for lunch and went out again and you were safe and there was a park in the backyard. It's a different environment in the 50s and 60s than it is today. But, yeah, there was always action going on. And we were fortunate we had a park in our backyard.
Do you still hang out with some of those kids today?
No, we've all kind of moved on. But, you know, every once in a while you run into them. And you see them and you sit there and you reminisce about Sunday nights when you went to the neighbor's house for dinner or things you did when you were a kid.
So who else was in your life growing up besides your parents? Obviously, they're always a big influence. But who else was a big influence? I assume you're older with Dave.
Dave was, you know, Dave was 12 years older and he went into the Navy. We kind of joke. My brother was... Maybe I can say this, a bit of a hellion when he was growing up. And the story was that Ike said, you have two choices, the Navy or Eldora. And David said, when does the bus go to San Diego? But Dave went to the Navy. And I'm very proud of, I'm proud of that, that Dave went. But, you know, I was the youngest of three. So by the time... I'm eight years old. I'm like the only child. So I have the run of the house. You know, the last one they always say is spoiled, right?
Yeah. I'm the baby in my family as well.
Okay. So I'm spoiled.
So who else was a big influence on you growing up aside from your mom and dad?
We had a neighbor down the street. His name was John . John was, I like, he was the father of the house and John flew planes in World War II. You gotta remember, we were kids of war veterans. My dad was a World War II veteran, John was. So we grew up hearing those stories. I always thought that John was a cool guy. And then Jack , you know, my dad passed away when I was in high school. And I spent a lot of time, Scott, their son, and I were good friends and hung out at their house a lot. Jack was a mentor. You know you're a member of a family when you get the same lecture that the son gets. And I'm like, hey, I'm just a guest, right?
What was your first job? Was it here at the distributorship or did you have something outside of this?
Actually, my very first job, I ran and owned the concession stand at the old gun club out past Walmart. There used to be a shooting range for a trap, trap shoot.
And that was going still not that long ago, right?
I don't, you know, it's been years since I've done that. So there was a concession stand there. that another family had owned and ran, and I bought it from him.
At what age?
Well, let me think. Probably 12. Wow.
And your mom and dad said, hey, go for it.
Well, dad shot and I shot. And we had a junior team that would shoot. We would reload shells and we'd go. We had a trap shooting team of young guys. So every Tuesday night I had to buy my own supplies. I would cook burgers and hot dogs and sell candy bars and pop and coffee. And did that up until high school.
First lesson in business right there. Yeah. I usually ask people what they learn, but that's pretty obvious. A lot of things.
Dad would take me around town, the biter's market, out to Pepsi. I'd buy my supplies. I'd open up my checkbook and he'd take me around. I'd buy all my supplies. Mm-hmm.
Sounds like your dad was, you spent a lot of time with your dad?
Yeah, we did a lot of things. He took me to Iowa State football games and we shot trap together and yeah.
Any hunting in there or just trap?
Yeah, we'd shoot pheasant. So I had a single shot 410 and all the guys that dad would hunt with were, you know, semi-automatic Brownings, right? How fast do you think a single shot 410 is compared? Yeah.
You better be accurate.
Let's just say that if it was me supplying food, it wasn't going to happen.
Were you involved in sports in high school and things like that? You went to Kemper. Yes. What year did you graduate?
74.
74. I did the old track, football, basketball. I played basketball up through sophomore year then. That's the year I was ill and it just didn't work out. So I dropped out of that, but I did football for four years and track for four years.
What did that teach you growing up? I mean, it's kind of a rite of passage for a lot of kids.
Obviously the old cliche teamwork, right? You got to rely on other people. Not every day is good. Always like practice. You don't quit. You don't quit at mid season. You follow orders, rules, right? Stand in line, do what you're supposed to do. So, yeah.
Learn discipline.
Yes, that one too.
Yeah. What did you get involved in music? Because I know you were, you did, you were in a high school band, correct?
No, well, yeah, not like the marching band. I was in a band band.
A rock band.
Well, loosely put, yes.
What was the name of the band?
Well, we were called, our first name was Dynamo Hum. I think it was a Frank Zappa album. And then we called ourselves Telepath. I don't even know why we changed our name. I don't even know how the hell we came up with it. But freshman year, Kuemper was a feeder. You know, all these small Catholic grade schools would feed into Kuemper. So they would have the Kuemper freshman happening, kind of getting acquainted with everybody. So a group of us, Tony Knuckles, Steve Garber, Steve Schultz, some of the guys could play some instruments. Some didn't know anything. And we found some guitars and amps and a keyboard. And we said, we need a drummer. And I said, I can find a drum set. Never picked up a stick in my life. And we played a couple songs. I'm sure we weren't very good. But after that, I just kept playing. Self-taught. Ended up practicing with a band one evening. They needed a backup drummer. They needed a drummer for a practice session. They knew I played. I didn't know what they played.
What did your mom and dad think about that?
Well, drums are not quiet. Right.
No, I know. That's why I'm thinking. Where did you practice at? Your garage or something?
No, well, their band was, this band was actually practicing in Manning, but I had drum set in the basement and I played all the time. My mother was a saint.
To put up with a practice drum session that probably went on for hours.
The other thing about it is only you know what you're playing. I mean, there's no melody to a drum set, right?
Yeah. It just sounds like you're banging on stuff at that point.
Right. So anyway, I practiced with these guys, our classmates, one evening, and they thought I was pretty good. And they said, the other drummer's out and you're in.
To this day, you're still playing with some of the guys, right?
Play all the time, yeah.
Isn't that one of the best things you can learn growing up is learn an instrument, learn music?
I wish I could play keyboard or piano, but I really believe that if you have the chance to play an instrument, I mean, I find playing drums therapeutic. I drive my wife crazy because I'm always tapping. You know, I'm always tapping on something and keeping a beat and it's like, knock it off. Yeah.
So you went to Iowa State, majored in business. Was the plan always to come back here to the distributorship?
Yeah, I suppose I always wanted to come back. I wanted to get into the business. I did interview with Anheuser-Busch. I obviously didn't get the job at the corporate level. But I did get a job with Target. I think it's important that if you're going to go in a family business, you do something else for a while, right? And so I worked at Target in Ames in their management program. Then David said, hey, do you want to come back? We were getting bigger. The company was growing. And I know that it was becoming more challenging, more brands, more things. So I said, sure.
And what capacity did you come back as?
I came back as sales manager.
Talk about Dave, because he was big in the softball, the Bud Open softball tournament for years and years and years here. But after he passed, that had to be really hard. You were next in line in the succession.
It was a real challenge. I don't say this very often to people. In business, you fix everything. You fix trucks, you fix this, you fix that. You're the fixer guy. I couldn't fix this. I couldn't make it better. And so I struggled with that for a while. It's like, I can't do anything about this. All I can do is run our business. And, you know, when you look at 75 years or 50, doesn't matter. When I say bumps in the road, that's putting it lightly. And you have to navigate things that become very challenging in your business. And that was one of them. You know, we actually, you know, Ike dying in 72, and then Dorothy passes away. Those are big moments in a family business, and you've got to navigate that. And I think that's somewhat of a testament to the character of our people, And Troy and Hans and me getting through those difficult moments. Because our customers don't, I'm not trying to be cruel, our customers don't necessarily care. I mean, they did. A lot of them knew Dave, but.
Their life goes on.
Right. They need beer. They need their product, their business. And so those, that week, that was very difficult for the family, for everybody. Yeah.
How long have you been president since when?
Well, I was vice president. And then when David passed away in 2001, I became the president.
In that time, you not only run the business here, you got really involved with Carroll Economic Development, things like that. Talk about what drew you in for that and why you were so committed to it. Because you were president of the Carroll Development Corporation and all of that. So you were very instrumental in all that.
President of a child care center.
Yeah. Kuemper Foundation. So many different fundraisers. New Hope Village. The Cemetery Wall. I remember you were big on that, too.
Well, hell, John.
It's right next door.
Most of my family's over there, right? So let's make it look good, right? Part of it is I enjoy that. Some of it is it's good for Carroll. There's a lot of pride in Carroll. And when you travel and you tell people you're from Carroll, you usually get pretty good comments. Well, your town's this or that or progressive or. So, you know, someone asks, hey, do you want to be on the board? Yeah, sure. OK, I can do that. But I only think you should serve. I'm not trying to lecture anybody out there, but I think you should serve. And if you do serve, be committed to it. If you're going to be on a board, be on the board. Just don't say yes because that's your friend or you want to have them leave you alone.
Or sit in a meeting and not say a word or not contribute or something like that.
So, you know, you serve on boards and committees to try to make that group or your community a better place.
Do you feel like you've made an impact in that area?
Yeah, I do. And I always say this when I'm done, that I want the next person to do a better job than me. And it's, you know, it also is important. There are some boards you can be on forever, even though they have terms, you know, when you feel like you're done, it's okay. So, you know what? I've, I was on the daycare board for, I don't know, 13 years or whatever. It's like, okay, it's time. Let's get some new, new blood, new thought. It's okay to say, I'm going to resign.
I know that a number of years ago when the casino was, they were looking for a location. They were thinking Carroll. They were thinking Jefferson, all those. I remember here, and I was fairly new to town, but it seemed like it was pretty evenly split. That some people wanted it here. Some people didn't want it here. What side of the fence did you fall on for that?
You know, I would have probably supported it. We never got to the point of a vote. You know, they had a vote in Sac County, if you remember.
No, I didn't remember that.
And because they were talk of trying to put a casino near the sand pits. Don't quote me on all this being gospel truth. And it failed. Would a vote in Carroll County had won? Probably. I can't say for certain because I know there are people that like the casino, but there are people that say, I like the casino idea, but I don't want it in my neighborhood or I don't want it in my community. So, yeah, I don't know. That's, it probably would have passed.
Was that a loss for Carroll or was that a win for Carroll, not getting the casino?
You know, I don't, boy, that one's a tough question. I think that argument would go right down the middle. From a financial standpoint, it'd be a lot of tax money. Because you see it in Jefferson, right? There'd be maybe a windfall of money. Would it have been good socially? You know, gaming is fun, but not everybody wins.
Yeah, the odds are definitely in the favor of the house.
Why do you think Las Vegas has big, shiny hotels, right?
What are some other big things that came up that you had a hand in or things just for Carroll? And sometimes, as somebody pointed out, sometimes not losing things is a win.
Well, in some respects, economic development can be defensive. I hear this a lot. Why don't we get a business that brings in 100 to 150 people? Well, we're not on a four lane. We don't have qualified sites. Just because we have a farm field next to us doesn't mean you can develop that because someone owns it. You got to have a place for all these people to live. We don't have an abundance of homes. And our unemployment here is low, which is positive, right? That means we have a lot of people working. So attracting a business with lots of people might be challenging. We also don't, we would fight like hell to try to save a business because we don't want them to leave. But your original question, some things, you know, not everything CADC or Carroll Growth Partnership did was focused in the city of Carroll. We were instrumental in getting a gas line from Manning to the Arcadia Co-op. Because prior to that, there was no gas line going there. So by going to Washington, D.C., talking to certain people, we helped push that through.
Economic development doesn't mean new businesses opening their doors all the time. It's creating that atmosphere or helping out your existing business.
They've been trying to do things to help the waste treatment plant in Carroll because of the water that they're dumping into the middle of Raccoon River has to be of a certain standard. Now, I can't speak for everything but the city, but we line up a trip to D.C. to get in front of the right people to tell your story. So I often say this, economic development is a turtle crossing the road. Some people never see it. It doesn't benefit maybe everyone, and it might just get done quietly.
All right, let's switch gears here a little bit. Big Iowa State fan. How many years of frustration? How frustrating has it been to be an Iowa State guy for so long?
Well, that game last the other night against Okie State was frustrating. But if you can't take the loss very well, you can't be an Iowa State fan. I mean, because you have good years and bad years. I enjoy going over to games. It's a lot of fun. Hilton Coliseum, it's a great environment to watch college basketball. And you know, you're 60 miles away from big time, big conference basketball. If you think about some of the players that have come through and played on that court, not just Iowa State players, but Danny Manning and coaches, Bill Self, Norm Stewart, Eddie Sutton. I mean, most of the people don't remember these people, but we do.
They all have arenas named after them and things like that. Yeah.
Yeah. So you got to see some really, you know, Jeff Hornacek, Fred Hoiberg. You've seen some great athletes on that court. It's a lot of fun.
If you had to pick between a national championship in football or basketball for Iowa State, what's your first pick?
I'd probably say basketball.
Really? Yeah. I would think football, but just because there's all the years of frustration.
Well, it's probably more realistic. Not to say that, you know, it's going to be tough to win national titles in football. Yeah. Unless you're Ohio State and have a checkbook.
Got to have that NIL money.
Yeah, that's right.
So in a sport growing up, what was your favorite sport growing up?
Wasn't track.
I'm assuming you're wearing the distance races. No, everybody hated those.
I ran the hurdles and did some high jump. God, no. Why would I want to run around the track 10 times?
Yeah. When I was in high school, track was the punishment that you got. You're going out for track. If you don't do that, you're not going to play.
I like basketball, but I preferred football over track.
How about watching? You're a huge Cardinals fan. I know that.
Well, you know, football games in Ames, there's a lot of activity prior to the game, right?
Yeah, that socialization going on.
Yeah, we'll just leave it at that, right?
And you're the guy that everybody wants at their party, right?
You know, it's funny. I'll probably get inundated with a lot of people here. I fly a Budweiser flag at the tailgates only because everybody flies Iowa State flags. But this Budweiser flag that I have put up, but everybody can find it. So you just tell people we're in section whatever and look for the Bud flag.
So the Merchants, you got involved with that in what year? I mean, because you're one of the, what, two or three owners? How many owners are there?
Was that 16? Yeah.
I remember the first year, but I don't remember what year it was.
It seems like a lifetime.
It does. Because you're talking almost 10 years ago.
And then we shut down for two. But we didn't start 100 miles an hour. We had a few games. I was on the Doubting Thomas group saying, man, I don't know if this is going to work. But you talk about perseverance. You get the right people. You build a business model. You have a great stadium. That's the whole thing. If it wasn't a city stadium, we wouldn't be doing this.
I'm assuming that's why a lot of the other clubs didn't have success. They didn't have that facility that people turned out at, like Merchants Park.
Well, you know, Spencer had a baseball team in the 50s, but they don't have a stadium today. And I understand the field in Storm Lake's not that great. Probably the biggest asset, well, the two assets we have is, we have three. We got Scott Parcher. We got a baseball stadium. That's beautiful. And we have a group of people that want merchants to succeed. You put that together, and I think we have a pretty good track record.
So if you weren't all in favor of it at the beginning, how long did it take you to convince you otherwise? Or are you still trying to convince yourself?
What the heck am I doing? Well, after about the first year, we had great fan support and corporate support. We don't get money from the city to fund the merchants. We go out and sell games and passes and tickets and stuff. sponsorships and sell beer obviously we make some money off of that um if we're not profitable we're not doing it so after a couple years we thought hey this is gonna work we can make this work but then of course covid shut everything down and all of a sudden you're you're left without a league the uh the owner of that previous league i don't know whatever we mutually parted yeah
I had heard some very colorful stories about that.
How about the saying that's politically correct. We decided not to participate with each other there.
The state of the merchants right now, everything going well?
Really good. We have a full roster. We had a little meeting last night. A lot of kids are already placed in homes. We're short six, approximately six homes. We have coaches. Most of the games have been sold. Sponsorships have been done. And now we're in the mode of selling passes and getting ready for the season. So we're in a pretty good spot.
I was going to say, you guys got a great organizational group that puts all this together and everybody takes their responsibility and goes out and works it hard.
Well, G-Man is, he reigns everybody in. He's, you know, we'd like to talk that we're a democracy, but we're really not. We sometimes make our own decisions and just say, okay, I decided this. But, you know, G-Man, say he drives the bus. We got to have someone like that and he does a great job.
Yeah, I can't wait for the merchants this summertime. It's going to be a great time. We're going to wrap up here with some quick answer questions here. What's the best compliment you've ever got?
I've had someone say I'm a pretty good drummer.
What food won't you eat?
God, that's tuna casserole.
What's one habit you wish you could break?
Getting up every day at four o'clock.
By choice or because the alarm goes off?
I just don't sleep.
Oh, wow. What's the most famous person you have in your contacts in your phone?
Oh, boy. It's probably you.
Far from that.
You know what? Jamie Pollard is probably the most famous person I have on my show.
See? That's pretty good. Yeah. That's pretty darn good. What's a weird fact that you just recently learned? Wow, you're asking a lot of... See, this is just way out of left field questions.
You know, this is a newspaper one. I read what the Sunday circulation of the Des Moines Register was, and I was stunned at how low it was.
Do you remember the number?
50,000.
50,000? Might have been 30 Sunday. Wow. At one time, it was a half a million.
Most overrated thing in today's culture. What do you think just gets way too much play? TikTok. Why do you hate the song Stairway to Heaven?
Oh, this is a holdover from the first podcast. We had mentioned that. Okay. I'm going to speak to it as a drummer. It's just not very fun to play. I like songs that start and go. I'm not one to sit back.
Okay. Who do you want to share a beer with either living or in the past? Who would be like your ultimate? Yeah. Sit down for a happy hour.
I'd probably like to sit down with dad.
One more beer, right? One more beer. What would you ask him?
I never asked him why he started the business. I know that he worked in the beer business before, and he probably looked at it as an opportunity. I get to own my own business. But, you know, when you grow up and you're a teenager, you're not hanging with your parents a lot, right? You're doing your own thing. But, you know, I've never thought of that question like that, but I would probably sit down and have one more beer.
Just to have an appreciation for him, I guess. How many Budweiser shirts do you own that are in your house right now?
I probably have, I probably have a dozen.
That's it?
That's it.
Wow. Do you like get rid of the old ones?
I get rid of, well.
Cause your wife was also a manager of a beer distributorship before you guys got married, right?
Yes. And you know, what's funny, I don't have a lot of paraphernalia for bud. You know, like I have a couple signs. I don't collect that at all.
I just imagine you open up your closet, you know, and which Budweiser shirt am I going to wear today?
Well, you know, in the world of beer, your colors are blue, black, and red. A little bit of khaki, actually. But, yeah, I probably only have a dozen.
One more question for you. What's the future hold for you? 75 years, this is a huge milestone. Do you still want to accomplish things here? What are you still working for?
Well, I want to... I'd like to keep the business going. I'd like to set it up for future success. And you have to exit. This is my theory. This is my thinking. You need to exit correctly. I just can't walk in someday and go, oh, by the way, I'm done Monday. You have institutional knowledge. You need to use it, share it. I'm trying to do that. You want to set your company up structurally and You need to have your company financially strong. So I could sort of say I'm working my way out of a job.
I think we all are.
We are. But I think you need to do it. Grant, if you worked for the state or whatever, and you said, I'm going to retire in two months. Okay. But this business is a little bit different than that. It's a family business. And you got to keep your supplier happy too. I just can't walk up to Anheuser-Busch and say, oh, by the way, I'm done. There's some things we have to do with our equity agreement with them that are proper also.
Well, you're done. I appreciate the time. Again, the second time. And I promise it got recorded that time.
Good, good.
So Jim, thank you so much. I appreciate it.
Hey, thank you, John.
