Back in the early to mid seventies I was the operation manager for a small company by the name of Tampa Bay Enterprises. The owner (Harold Slaughter) was the owner and there was a lady in the office, one full time warehouse manager (Mike), a part time warehouse worker (Jimmy) and a truck driver (Ronnie-older guy) whom also did some part time work in the warehouse. Now Mike was also my brother in-law married to my oldest sister and that was how I came in the business.

Earlier Experience With The Pallet Business

Back in the early to mid seventies I was the operation manager for a small company by the name of Tampa Bay Enterprises. The owner (Harold Slaughter) had a small staff. There was a lady in the office, one full time warehouse manager (Mike), a part time warehouse worker (Jimmy) and a semi-truck driver (Ronnie-older guy) whom also did some split time work in the warehouse. Now Mike was also my brother in-law married to my oldest sister and that was how I came in the business.

Tampa Bay Enterprises was in the warehousing business and the main product warehoused was of all things Styrofoam Egg Cartons. The business was located in a 30,000 square foot warehouse with 10,000 available. After a year I became the warehouse manager and within another two years the company grow to over one million square feet located in several locations throughout the Tampa area, warehousing not just egg cartons but aluminum cans for Schlitz Brewery, Reynolds Aluminum, Thatcher Glass and provided other services such as trucking.

Harold Slaughter was the best sales person I've ever had the pleasure being around and during a time when the wine and dine way of selling was used a lot. He could be introduced to anyone and next thing Tampa Bay Enterprises was doing business with them or someone connected to them.

While doing business with the Schlitz Canning Division they had problems with pallets taken up room in the canning plant for one and the second was these pallets had slip sheets (used between the layers of cans) and Mr. Slaughter being the sales person he was jumped all over it. He rented more space (15,000+ sq ft) and the company got paid to haul the semi trailer(s) (owed by TBE) from the brewery, paid to unload and separate the pallets (2-sizes) and the slip sheets plus repair and warehouse (at a rate) the products. The pallets and slip were shipped back to the Canning Division as needed also at a rate.

The point of my story is just to let you know I have some past experience in the pallet business. Always just believed that it was a poor man business. Then after watching this webinar it brought back memories of my 45 plus years ago experience with the business side of the pallet business.

Please view below the cut version of a webinar video I was introduced to.

Harold Slaughter was the best sales person I've ever had the pleasure being around and during a time when the wine and dine way of selling was used. He could be introduced to anyone and next thing TBE was doing business with them.

While doing business with the Schlitz Canning Division they had a problem with pallets taken up room in the canning plant for one and the second was these pallets had slip sheets (used between the layers of cans) and Mr. Slaughter being the sales person he was jumped all over it. He rented more space (15,000+ sq ft) and the company got paid to haul the semi trailer(s) from the brewery, paid to unload and separate the pallets (2-sizes) and the slip sheets plus repair and warehouse the pr

The of my story is just to let you know I have some past experience in the pallet business.