Family History
The Dinner Bell
An unlikely hero goes big in the food industry
It was about 9:00 at night, I had just finished closing at D-bat, which was a local batting cage facility where I work. It was pitch black and the only thing on my mind was what I was going to ask my grandpa, who at this time was probably watching his Tampa Bay Rays on TV and drinking a glass of red wine. I left work in the dark night set out for the stories that await me a mile down the road. When I got to the house, sure enough Dat, my grandfather, was watching his Rays and having a nice glass of wine ready to tell me everything I sought out to know.
I have always wanted to know more about my family and how my great grandfather went from a high school dropout, to a successful and well respected man in the food distributing business. The goal of my project is to interview my grandfather and ask him about his father “Bob.” I look to discover more about his story and the company he started in the late 1920's.
Charles Robert Bell, or “Bob” for short was born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee in a poor and unstable household. In his senior year of high school, his father succumbed to a heart attack, which forced him to drop out of school and enter adulthood. He entered the workforce at an early age in order to support his mother and sister. He got a job working as a grocery deliverer boy for a local grocery store and that small job was the start of a very long and hard path he was going to take to achieve his dreams of owning his own company.
Bob then got a job working at a meat distributing company in Knoxville, called “Lays,” which was owned by three brothers who each had five sons. Bob worked in the marketing branch and met a woman named Kathleen. Kathleen was working in the organization department, and immediately the two had a spark. There was one thing holding back the two from falling in love, and as a Lays employee, you could not have affairs with other woman in the business. Realizing that he was in love with her, and could not be able to move up any farther in the business due to the company’s family name, they both decided to leave and get married. With the great depression rapidly rising and with minimum money for living and food, the newly weds decided to leave everything behind in Knoxville, and move to Asheville NC.
Bob’s dream was to start his own company and he was going to do anything he could to achieve that. He then had an extraordinary opportunity. When he moved to Asheville, there was a very small food distributing company that was being sold, because they had gone bankrupt due to the great depression. And Bob being a miser, and a smart saver, bought the business for $1,000. He and Kathleen, ran the business out of their garage, and while Bob was pitching his company to interested investors, she was keeping paper work organized.
As the business progressed, Bob faced many challenges. The great depression was at its peak, and as a food distributor, you have to buy the food from local farmers, but since at the time the farming business had little money, all the food was rationed and hard to get a big quantity to sell to grocery stores. Therefore, all the food distributing companies were competing and many of them went out of business. Bob being resilient, he persisted and worked even harder to achieve his goal of being successful. In the year 1946, Bob got exclusive access to sell Hellman’s mayonnaise. At the time, mayonnaise was used as a salad dressing and could not be found everywhere. Asheville had never seen mayonnaise before and quickly flocked to Bell’s Food Distributing to buy this new exclusive product. Because of this new popular item, more investors put money into the company to help Bob grow his business. Another challenge that came later on was money issues. As big trailers came along, he was forced to buy trucks to transport the food more consistently and faster. And with this massive expansion came more salesmen he had to pay.
In the year 1974, while going to work on an early October, Monday morning, Bob had a sudden heart attack that killed him. His son, (my grand father) Charles Robert Bell JR. was forced to take action and run the business even though he was 25.
I asked my grandfather what it was like running a big company that early in his life and he said it was very enriching, but with that enrichment came hardships. Most of the employee’s that were under him, had been working for Bell’s Distributing Company longer than he had been alive, and there were many trust issues about the future of the company. My grandfather made many changes to the business. Computers had just been introduced and they had to adapt to the new changes within that. Also, Bell’s distributing revolutionized the frozen food industry. At the time, there were no frozen food trucks and my grandfather took advantage of the frozen food ideas that were being brought up throughout the country. He decided to make larger portions of food, and to mostly sell to camps, and schools. The biggest decision he ever made, was to merge into SYSCO. SYSCO, is one of the nations biggest food distribution companies, and my grandfather was a proud co president of the business. After ten years of working with SYSCO, he retired at the age of 50.
Everyone in my family looks up to my great grandfather, he has set a comfortable path for my family and has opened many opportunities for my life and many others. He was always saving money, and an extremely hard worker who would say that he never made a dime between 9 and 5, meaning most the work he did was outside his business hours. He is now one of the biggest influences in my life and because of this project and will always be one. I am proud to be named after someone who never gave up on his dreams of having his own business, and has set such a great example on others.
“He was incredibly gifted man.”
An interview with Charles Robert Bell, Jr.
What is your name and birth date?
Charles Robert Bell JR. November 12 1944.
Do you know much about Bob’s childhood?
His father died at a very young age and he grew up in Knoxville. He had to drop out of high school and start supporting the family. He was delivering groceries and thats how he earned money to support his mother and sister.
Do you know what grade he was in when he dropped out?
I think he was in the middle of his senior year.
Do you think starting out delivering groceries to people sparked an idea about being in the food distributing business?
I think it was just a funny little coincidence.
Did he have any other early jobs? Yes, he had some friends who worked at Lays meat packaging company, and it was a family owned business out of Knoxville, and when he realized he could not move up any farther in the company he quit.
Do you know what kind of man your father was? He was incredibly gifted man, he was very kind, and had an extremely well respected work ethic and was always saving money.
When he was starting out, how did the great depression affect him? Yes absolutely, but not as bad as other people, since he was always saving money, he had money saved up and fortunately had a job still at Lays and was making $50 a month.
How did Bells distributing company get started up? Well since he was always saving money, he saw an opportunity in Asheville to buy a very small food distributing company and he bought that small business out. He bought the company for $1000. The year was 1932.
What year did he get married? He got married to Nana in 1930 and they met while working at Lays. And the company policy was that you couldn't get married so they both quit to marry each other.
What role did Nana play in the business? Well since they ran the business out of their garage, she would just keep the papers in order while Bob would go out trying to find investors.
My dad told me that Bob sold some very exclusive products that Asheville had never seen before, do you know those products? Hellmanns was very rare since you had to make it yourself back in that time, and Bob got exclusive access to sell Hellmann’s so tons of people jumped on board to his company. He also sold Olio which was a rare alternative to butter. At the time, mayonnaise was salad dressing and it was very exclusive to people. So if grocery stores wanted these products, they would have to buy it from Bob.
Do you know what Bobs challenges were starting the company if he had any? Back in that period, everything was rationed, so the manufacturers couldn't make enough to satisfy everyone, so Bob and every other food company were competing so get their hands on the most amount of food they could get so they would have more to sell. There was also a money problem because the company was growing so fast and he had to buy trucks and sales men.
Was there any conflicts? Not really, all his employees were very loyal to him and there wasn't much competition in Asheville at the time.
When Bob died, what was it like inheriting the company? It was difficult for the most part, I started working for Bob when I was in high school, and I started out at the lowest position and had to work up the ranks through hard work so when I eventually inherited the business, people didn't assume I was entitled or spoiled. But what made it difficult was the fact that a lot of the employees had been working with Bob for more years than I have been alive so there was definitely trust issues.
How many people were working under you? About 100.
Are there any specific changes you made to the company?
I decided to focus more on selling to camps and schools, and restaurants since most grocery stores don’t use food distributing company’s. I decided to go bigger with portions as well.
And there wasn't any frozen food at the time, so as a company, we revolutionized the frozen food distribution and that grew tremendously.
What happened to the business? Well we merged into SYSCO, and I worked there for 10 years and then retired.
Project Reflections:
1)It relates me the community because the community needs food on the table and so does my family and my grandpas story relates to that because he delivered food.
2)Well I didn't really know were all the food came from and how people got their food and now i know where it comes from.
3)I had always wanted to know were my family came from and how they ended up in Asheville and i didn't know about my great grandfathers story and this project really pushed me into that direction.
4)The only problem i had with this interview was the availability of my grandparents.
I would want to do it faster and more efficiently.
5)I would tell about all my experiences with baseball and how I have been to many states including Nebraska, and Florida to play the game I love.
Works Cited
History.com Editors, editors. “Great Depression History.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 29 Oct. 2009, www.history.com/topics/great-depression/great-depression-history.
Morse, Alden. “Food and Beverage Distribution: How the Industry Works.” Handshake, www.handshake.com/blog/food-and-beverage-distribution.
Sobel, Robert l. The Great Depression, Business Slump of the 1930’s, franklaughter.tripod.com/cgi-bin/histprof/misc/depression.html.
“The Crucial Role Of A Commercial Food Distributor.” The Midwest’s Premier Transportation Company, www.winnesota.com/news/fooddistribution.
