Darren Pallen is a food broker who works in a specialty food brokerage.
"I was employed as a sales representative for a food company and racing cars,"
he says about getting into the food brokerage business.
"We put logos of different food companies on the car and we would take
it into grocery stores to promote the racing. A bunch of different people
approached us to get involved," he says. And that's how he became a food
broker.
"I quit racing and had to sell the car. The next natural step appeared
to be food brokering."
In the years since he moved from racing to food brokering, Pallen has done
well. "It's a dynamic industry that's a lot of fun," he says.
"As a broker specializing in one area, we're indirect employees to
the companies that we serve," he says. "The challenge is that the industry
and the job is always changing. It's not the same every day."
And with the wide range of new products and stores that Pallen deals with
each day, the variety is enough to keep him interested.
Of course, along with the things that he enjoys come a few things that
he doesn't care for. "I guess the biggest frustration is the buyers that
we have to deal with," he says. "The buyers have 50 brokers a day phoning
them for this and that. It's tough to get their attention. The buyers
basically control the industry."
Among the other changes that Pallen faces are the changes within the industry
that have caused the evolution of his job from just selling to something more.
"I find that a lot of new manufacturers have no sales and marketing skills
at all. They don't know what buyers want, so companies like mine do the
marketing for them."
Barbara Johnson is a food broker in Hollywood, Florida. She became a food
broker through a more direct route. "I took hospitality in college, and then
went to work in administration and ended up in sales," she says. "This is
something different. It's very social, and I really enjoy it."
Still, there are things that Johnson says she doesn't like about the
business. "There are a lot of things I don't like. Specifically, it's
difficult to follow a product from conception through getting it ordered.
And this is a very reactionary business," she says.
"I wish that it were more of a proactive industry. But people call us when
they have a problem. By that time, they're angry, and it takes a lot
of people skills to deal with them," she says.
There are a lot of other services that Johnson provides beyond customer
service, though that is a big part of the job. "We're the middleman,"
she says.
"We introduce new products from the companies that we represent. Sometimes
we're schlepping products because no one else can deliver it to the customer.
We're training. We're doing store checks to maintain the levels
of products." In short, it never ends.
Despite some of the less pleasant parts of the job, Johnson enjoys it.
"It's a wonderful way to stay in the food business without working a
million hours per week. If you like people, this is interesting, exciting
and different. And we do about equal amounts of selling and marketing."
Food brokers also do a lot of work on the computer. "It's important
for anyone who wants to work in this industry to have computer training. We
all carry laptops everywhere."
For all the work and the fluidity of the job, Johnson says it's worth
it. "Food brokers don't work on commission, though some work for bonuses,"
she says. "But it's a very nice career for someone looking to make a
living without working all the time."