Company History
We Really Do Love Our Customers…
After coming by someone’s home month after month, sometimes for years or decades, you just can’t help but develop special relationships and friendships along the way. Many of our customers have been with us anywhere from a few months, to a few really dear ones that have been with us for over 35 years. Many, many children have been raised on our kid-friendly foods and even their dogs greet us with tongues hanging out, knowing there’s a fully cooked meatball or two coming to them. We’ve watched their children grow up and their dogs grow old. It’s truly gratifying when kids of customers become customers themselves and continue the tradition.
Our reps drive slowly through communities, always being on the lookout for kids, pedestrians and bad drivers. That thankful acknowledgement from a parent as we go by their home ever-so-slowly feels right. Spotting a dog on the loose will always trigger a stop-the-truck, emergency flashers on, all-out neighborhood rescue effort. There isn’t a better feeling than bringing that scared pooch to its grateful owner.
About the Founder, CEO
After majoring in partying and social life, while minoring in academics, I dropped out of college. Actually, they asked me kindly not to come back. Imagine that. Next, imagine how uncomfortable it was moving back in with my parents after declaring my independence a few years earlier. Undaunted, naïve and determined that I was going to go back to school, at 22 I said goodbye to my beloved Catskills Mountains of Upstate New York to “find” myself and start fresh in sunny Southern California. I was going to be a veterinarian…
With no job, no degree and no real plan, 40 years ago I answered an ad to be a salesman with a company that unbeknownst to me, had a not-so-spectacular reputation for selling mediocre foods directly to the home. Their trucks were beat up, they hired any warm body that could drive and purposely targeted low-income neighborhoods where the quantity of steaks in the box was more important than the quality. It was definitely an experience, but it really bothered me to be pushing products I didn’t believe in, so I quit. Also, I was bothered to have a gun pulled on me…
In 1981, Specific Pacific Foods was born out of an “I can do it better” attitude from its founder and still active CEO, Mark Gertner. That’s me with all the dogs in the pictures. With no real schooling or training, over the decades I’ve drawn on my early years of giving “Catskill Mountains type hospitality” to our customers. That and the business values instilled in me by my Dad. He would always say with a thick, gruff New York accent… “Take care a ya people, Mark.” He was right. Make your customers happy and they’ll come back. It’s not complicated. With hard work, insistence on top quality foods and lots of schmoozing, we’ve grown over the decades into a “nice little business.”
It’s been a long and winding road, but we’re far from our final destination, where, when or whatever that may be. The way in front of us is still uncharted and so we forge ahead as we always have, armed only with what we’ve learned and who we are. Who knew, 40 years later, we’d still be going strong with such a bright future? Mom knew. Hope I’ve made you proud, Mom…♥️
Contact Us At:
Specific Pacific Foods
Redondo Beach, CA 90277
Specificpacificfoods@yahoo.com
1-800-831-FOOD (3663)
