“Reputation remains as valuable a commodity as the products being exchanged,” Overdorf continues. “Product availability on the marketplace is a reflection of our city’s enormously broad ethnic diversity. The market also remains an outlet for smaller farmers who are testing the marketability of their crops.”
Carole Shandler is CEO of Shapiro-Gilman-Shandler Company, a receiver just off the Market. “We’re close to the Market, but it’s more relaxed where we are and easier to get trucks in and out.” Labor, however, is an issue. “We’re union for all positions covered by our collective bargaining agreement,” Shandler explains. “We even offer similar benefits for the nonunion employees like pensions and 401(k)s that we contribute to even if the employee doesn’t. We like doing business this way and consider our employees family, she says. “The trouble is that it’s not an even playing field—like a highway, if everyone stays in their lane, we’ll all get where we want to go.”
Green Measures
As the produce industry strives to reduce waste and promote sustainability, food recovery organizations play an increasing role in the life of the Market. Rick Nahmias, founder and executive director of Food Forward, the largest of such organizations at the LAWPM, says the concentration of produce vendors is the advantage.
“Walking dock to dock, talking to people is the most efficient way to work with the community. We pick up an average of 250,000 pounds of produce per week,” he points out. “We’re a connecting organization, providing just-in-time distribution to agencies that donate food to people who need it.”
Reducing waste and leaving a smaller carbon footprint is clearly good for business, especially in environmentally-conscious California. Most of the companies in the Produce District find ways to incorporate green practices. “We installed solar panels on top of our building several years ago to help offset our power usage,” says Souther. “It’s really contributed to our sustainability.”
McLellan says QSI is doing its part too. “We recycle plastic, aluminum, glass, paper, and e-waste like old computers and phones. We encourage our vendors and customers to send invoices and other correspondence electronically to reduce paper.
“In the last year we changed all our lighting to LED, which has reaped big savings in our 40,000-square-foot warehouse. And I’m proud to say we’re one of the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank’s top-ten donors,” emphasizes McLellan.
Shandler believes her late father, Morrie Shandler, was a pioneer in his approach to the environment. “It must be in my DNA,” she remarks. “Our company is committed to reducing our carbon footprint; we’ve found ways to accomplish this without sacrificing efficiency.”
