Beer cans and business lessons

Today’s topic: beer cans. Like many kids in the 1970s—the decade when housing starts soared to their highest peak—I collected beer cans. One day, while traveling through New Jersey on a family vacation, my father and I visited his old friend George, the proprietor of George’s Liquors & Deli in Lyndhurst.

George would later describe the challenges of the mom-and-pop deli in an era of intense competition from larger chains. Case in point: He told us he could walk into the A&P liquor store down the street and buy a case of Budweiser cheaper than he could buy it from his own Budweiser distributor. That arrangement hurt him, but he survived it.

Business lesson No. 1: Keep your competition close, keep your distributor closer.

When my father and I explained that we were hunting for beer cans, George led us into his small, cluttered storage room. There, we made a gigantic discovery: three mint-condition six packs of Krueger Cream Ale, untouched by human hands for at least three decades.

There is no analogy—neither in archeology nor mythology—to adequately describe the magnitude of this discovery. One can of Krueger Cream Ale flattop (meaning a can opener was needed to puncture drinking holes) could be traded for entire collections. And we had stumbled upon three mint-condition six packs, full of beer. Cost to us: $0.00.

Business lesson No. 2: Opportunities tend to pop up when you least expect them. But you have to aggressively look for them, and even then you have to have the relationships firmly in place. (See Carter Lumber profile.)

Back home in Indiana, I told some key collectors about my discovery. Almost immediately several kids I didn’t even know showed up at our house to gaze at our treasures. I vaguely remember that a can-related scuffle broke out in the Clark family laundry room, our gateway to the garage and beer-can gallery.

Around this time, my father gave away some of the coveted cans to people I hardly knew. On one occasion, I returned home from a bike ride to see an older brother of a friend walk away from our garage carrying two cans, while my father waved goodbye to him. I was dumbfounded.

“Why did you give him two Krueger Cream Ales?” I asked.

“Because he asked,” he said.

Business lesson No. 3: Sometimes, when dealing with customers or colleagues, all you have to do is ask.

I have no idea where those cans are now.

Business lesson No. 4: Some of the things that meant so much to us in the 1970s aren’t so important anymore.