SHAPIRO’S DELICATESSEN
By Duncan
Where and when did Shapiro start? Going all the way back. The Shapiro ancestors owned a grocery store in Odesa, Ukraine. (1795). Louis and Rebecca Shapiro arrived in Indianapolis from Russia in the early 1900s.
Shapiro’s has been in business in Indianapolis for 119 years. Let’s not nick-pick here about the start date. The considered opinion is that Shapiro’s started as a grocery store (1905) in Indianapolis at 808 S. Meridian Street, and it’s still in business at the same address.
In or around 1935, after the end of prohibition, Shapiro’s began selling beer and corned beef sandwiches. Of course, they added a few tables, chairs, and a steam table. And Shapiro’s is what it is today. If you have not eaten at Shapiro’s Kosher Delicatessen, you have not experienced the service, the food, and the ambiance of an “Institution” in Indianapolis.
January in Indianapolis is a quiet time for me. The holidays are over, and the only things that grab my attention are the weather and football. I do have some interesting friends who call. One of them is Aaron. He and I were introduced to each other by Bloor Redding. This was not an introduction I was looking forward to. Due to a failure in banking, two savings and Loans were being merged into one. I was being asked to guide or teach Aaron the mortgage loan business.
Aaron was under the impression his current duties at the merged S&L would never end. However, I wasn’t sure my tenure would continue either. It was a tough time for all Savings and Loans. Let’s face it: we are all expendable. We are only sales grunts with a grasp of general math: add, subtract, multiply, and divide. In the sales field, a pleasant personality helps a lot, too. So smile when using your calculator.
Aaron was calling on funeral homes to convince them to park their money in his Savings and Loan. My job was to let Aaron know (as gently as possible) that he would have a new position within the merged business. His services as a funeral confidant would no longer be of value. I was to make him a productive mortgage man.
I will admit that Aaron was and is a very malleable fellow. He took the news in stride and listened very carefully to the world of mortgage lending. Realtors controlled the buyers of Residential Real Estate. Realtors were the ones who could send a client to any mortgage company they had faith in. Get to know Realtors. And ask for the business.
As in any merger with another business relationship between new employees becomes complex, every employee is trying to protect their own turf. In some cases, friction between employees can happen if one employee is a little too aggressive. With mortgage lending, a Saving and Loans can’t afford to sit behind the desk waiting for the phone to ring. With a dozen other mortgage companies asking for the Realtor’s clients, we had to change our business model, and be more aggressive.
As you may be aware, there are no Savings and Loans anymore. They all went out of business. Banks begin buying other banks and the lending landscape changes drastically. The world of the Subprime mortgage becomes the new model. And nearly caused a worldwide catastrophe.
Years passed and we all ended up at other opportunities. Not by choice, but by running for cover. Jumping ahead a few years. The dust has settled. And it’s time to reach out and contact some of my old mortgage loan personalities and talk about “The Good Old Days.”
During that merger of the two S & Ls I talked about above, I contacted four other mortgage loan guys who all worked at that failed S & L. Aaron Koenig, Robert Cheek, Richard Meranda, George Burch, and of course, myself. Everyone agreed we should have lunch once in a while. We called ourselves the “G-5.” That stands for a Group of Five mortgage guys.
It started like this, in order to have everyone show up at lunch. It was loosely agreed that one person out of the five, would pick the lunch venue, and pay the lunch bill for everyone attending. That way, if one person didn’t like the restaurant that was chosen, they got to pick next month's restaurant and pay the bill.
I will admit we initially went to some pretty shaky/nasty places for lunch. We may have been big shots in the money game, but when the lunch money came out of our pocket, that was a different story.
Robert Cheek, George Burch, Stephen A Duncan, Aaron Koenig, Richard Meranda.
Aaron’s name started with the letter “A.” So he got to pick the first restaurant where the “G-5” would hold our first meeting. Keep in mind that Aaron is paying the bill for lunch. His choice was a strip joint in downtown Indianapolis called the Red Garter. Everyone decided to attend the first meeting of the “G-5.” That was an experience I will never forget.
As time passed, the G-5 has seen more than a few restaurants in our time. Richard Meranda passed away a year or so ago. So, now we are down to four members of the group. But we still like to call ourselves the G-5.
In January of this year, Aaron wanted to regain control of the lunch venue. He was focused on Shaperio’s in Downtown Indianapolis. We have since dropped the requirement of one person paying for everyone's meal. It's a “Dutch Treat” now.
The strictest definition of "Going Dutch" is that each person will pay for what they order or consume. However, if you invite “a person” to lunch or dinner, it is still considered dining etiquette in polite society for the person requesting your attendance to pay for the meal.
A group photograph of lunch today didn’t happen. We talked, and I simply forgot to get a group shot. So, I offer the following candid shots of the guys at the big roundtable.
GEORGE BURCH
George ordered a piece of pie and something else. I noticed his cafeteria tray was light when it was all said and done. I asked him what his bill came to today. $15.00.
I ordered from the steam table and purchased meat loaf, a potato pancake, a small bowl of broccoli salad, and a bottle of soda for $19.34.
ROBERT (BOB) CHEEK
Robert (Bob) Cheek ordered a sandwich and a couple of side dishes. His bill came to $27.00.
AARON KOENIG
Aaron went for the ever-popular corned beef sandwich, several sides, and a soda. $35.00. As for me, I need to say it’s hard for me to swallow a $35.00 lunch bill. But we all know that Shapiro is very proud of its product. Shapiro’s have been in business serving their constituents for 119 years. I admit I know nothing about how to run a restaurant.
Corned Beef Sandwich $18.75
Pastrami Sandwich $19.10
Reuben Sandwich $19.75
New York Reuben $19.75
We talked about football, the weather, and the radio wars in the ’60s. I noticed the word “Disintermediation” came up in the conversation. We all worked at the same Savings and Loan back in the late 70s, and the question is, why or how did the Savings and Loan industry go out of business. And the answer, in my opinion, is the word disintermediation. It is a complicated word; I had never heard it before until the industry went down the tubes.
The Banking, Savings & Loan, and Credit Union business is very simple. You rent money from people who save money (general public) and pay them a return on their money. You lend money to people who want to buy something. Here’s the catch: As a financial institution, you need to make more money by lending than you pay to attract the money.
So, an example. Working the savings desk of my old S & L, a little old lady with white hair and a bun on the back of her head is walking in with a four-legged cane. She is as cute as she can be.
Her six-month Certificate of Deposit (CD) is coming due, and she wants to know what I will pay her for her $10,000 over the next six months. Of course, we can only pay the maximum that the Government allows us to pay for a six-month CD. So, 5%. She goes into a rage, she swings her four-legged cane around in a huge circle, and the four rubber legs of the four-legged cane bounce up and down on my desk.
“NOT GOOD ENOUGH SONNY!!!”
“I can get a Government Treasury Bill for much more money than that!!! Give me my $10,000. I’m out of here.”
You see, we were competing with the Government. The Government sets the maximum rates of return for certificates of deposit, and the Government can pay any amount they need to attract money. Our customers pulled their CD money out of our institution. And put that money into Treasures. You can’t run an S & L if you don’t have “da-money.”
Savings and Loans invested short-term money into long-term real estate loans. And that’s how the S & L industry went down the tubes.
I love telling that story. It was a chaotic time. The S&L industry lobbied to have the rules lifted. They got the job done. So we could compete with the government. Interest rates for saving went off the chart. I remember paying a farmer 16% interest on a two-and-one-half-year certificate of deposit. He deposited $100,000 and $100,000 of his wife's money.
The average income from Real Estate loans at the average S & L was around 7-8%.
“A Tale of Two Cities” comes to mind. “It was the best of times, the worst of times.”
