April 30, 1996: Country Fresh Dairy and D&W Commissary

Left early for our first tour at Country Fresh Dairy.  It started in 1946. It's #1 seller was vanilla ice cream.   The #2 flavor was butter pecan.   The flavor, 'Moosetracks' was the most expensive to produce.    About 60 truckloads of merchandise went out per day.    They made cheese, ice cream, sour cream, yogurt, and ice.   It was machine, not labor efficient.

The 2nd stop was to the D and W Commissary.  They made all subs, soups, and potato salads for all of the D and W delis.   They also did the catering for conferences.   The actual days for making the products were Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  Tuesdays and Thursdays were devoted to set up.

The bus got stuck in the mud, so we had to wait an hour for a tow truck to come and dig the bus out.    Meanwhile, we stayed in the lunchroom of the commissary.   We cancelled the D and W Floral Central tour due to the bus incident, so I didn't have to do the thank you on behalf of the Food Marketing program at WMU.

The 3rd stop was to the D and W Brenton Meadows store.   This store was gorgeous.   Everything from the store to the backroom was neat and orderly.
They posted the department goals and sales every hour on a bulletin board.   We had a lovely lunch courtesy of the deli.

Our last stop was to Brooks Beverages in Holland.  They've been around 62 years and made 7-Up, A and W, Dr. Pepper, Snapple, Lipton tea, Gerber, Amway, and Meijer brands.   This plant ran 7 days a week with 6 switches of products made a day.    They used the perpetual inventory system.   The pop can bottoms were made first, filled with liquid, and then the top was put on.  All materials were sent to Brooks beverages and then packaging was finalized.

After the tours, we watched the movie, 'Tommy Boy' on the bus on our way back to the hotel.   Took a nap and then went swimming in the pool.  Met a guy from Saginaw who had a daughter named Amy.    Also, met a woman who planned to move to Atlanta, Georgia.
Had a nice chat with them, as well as my roommate, Fontrise Charles.  She said a kid she knew worked for Keebler for 8 months and put 50,000 miles on his car.