From the Chair continued from page 3
kinda like a Piñata pyramid rising slightly higher than the cab of the pickup. In 1970, it was groovy.
We purchased the Piñatas for 25 cents. We had a buyer in San Antonio. Kerr’ s Curio Shop on the Riverwalk in San Antonio agreed to pay us 50 cents a-piece plus the shipping costs for 100 Piñatas a week. Our weekly cost was $ 25 dollars, and our weekly revenue was $ 50. We shipped the Piñatas in discarded cardboard refrigerator boxes which we found at the back of the Sears store close to our house. A clear profit of $ 25 per week. Not sure we ever paid Pop for the gas. $ 12.50 for each of us for a few hours of work on a Saturday morning was not bad. In our other summer job, Donald and I made $ 1.25 / hour working construction in the Texas heat. We could make more money in four hours’ time on a Saturday than we could working all day during the week. And, running an international importing company was much more fun!
Until, it wasn’ t. Operating an international importing company became complicated in about our third week. On our third Saturday, we were waived down by the Federales on the Mexican side. We parked the pickup in a parking lot and waited for a uniformed officer to come talk( mostly yell) to us in Spanish. Neither Donald nor I were completely fluent, but it became clear that if we wanted to proceed back to El Paso with our pickup full of Pinatas, there was a fee to pay. The mordida would be $ 10. We paid the fee with a smile and proceeded across the Border. The payment of the mordida became a weekly thing. After two weeks, we simply held out the $ 10 as we passed the same border guard every Saturday and he waived us through with a smile and our $ 10. The fee was simply part of doing
international business and while it cut into our profit margin, we were still making a little bit of spending money for our time
A few weeks after figuring out how to clear customs on the Mexican side, we encountered our first import problem on the U. S. side. One Saturday morning, after sitting in the El Paso Port of Entry line for about an hour, we pulled up to the immigration booth on the U. S. side, declared“ U. S.” and expected to be waived on through. This Saturday, however, we were told to pull over to the“ Secondary” loading dock for inspection. We did and the Customs Officer politely asked us to unload all of the Piñatas onto the loading dock. He needed to look for illegal contraband. It was pretty hot and we had struggled to pack the Piñatas perfectly into the bed of the pickup only an hour before at the Piñata factory. Nevertheless, we proceeded to unload the Piñatas. After about ten minutes, the Customs Officer said he had some guys who could help us with the unloading and the restacking for $ 10. It was not so much an offer as an instruction. We begrudgingly paid the $ 10 for the“ Help.” For the remainder of the Summer of 1970, we were helped at the loading dock more often than not. And we paid the $ 10 inspection fee.
Taking $ 20 out of our profit margin reduced our share down to $ 2.50 each. Making $ 2.50 as a shipper on a Saturday was not nearly as fun as making $ 12.50 as an international trader. We tried to pass along our price increase to Kerr’ s Curios in San Antonio but they declined to pay more than the 50 cents we were charging them. Apparently, they had a supplier in Laredo, Texas at the same price.
Unfortunately, as with many businesses importing products into the United States, Boo and Donnie’ s Piñatas went out of
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