The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 33

4 Part I-A Wednesday, June 7, 1989 ADVERTISING TH2IFTY 60TH ANNIVEBSARY SUPPLEMENT 4 mm in Retailer Bought Its Own Plant to Satisfy LA. Craving for Ice Cream Glials 1 7 and have full control of its operation. The new, fully computerized plant in El Monte was completed in 1976. Cost-efficient, easy to maintain, and user-friendly, it reflected Sauer's business intuition as well as his concern for the employee. Many plant employees have been there a long time, and the workplace has a family atmosphere that has even brought retirees back every year for holiday parties.

Thrifty Ice Cream has never melted at the prospect of competition. In the "Great Summer of '87 Ice Cream Taste Test" conducted by the Fresno Bee, Thrifty took the plate against Haagen-Dazs, Skyler's, Baskin-Robbins, Gelato Clas-sico Italian. Burnardo'z. Swensen's and Dreyer's. Taste-testers were selected for their unusual names: Frances and Arthur Cone.

Glade Hirschi, Haley Fudge, Gary Sunday, Pat Pistacchio, Anthony Malt and Christy Topping. All ice creams were purchased in pint-size containers and then put into brown paper bags to assure anonymity. Testers sampled mini-scoops of each of three flavorsvanilla, chocolate and strawberry brand by brand for their flavor, texture and color. When all the licking was completed. Thrifty was No.

1 with 612 points, followed by Haagen-Dazs and Skyler's in a tie for second with 545 points. In fact, Thrifty took first in every single category except, prettiest strawberry color, a category in which Thrifty placed a close second. Perhaps the most revealing point In the spring of 1933. Thrifty sold ice cream, purchased from local dairies, out of a truck at its downtown Los Angeles store. The Borun brothers began a search for the best ice cream at the lowest possible prices, and in 1939 the company took the first step toward producing its own ice cream in order to control specifications and quality.

Hollywood thus became home to the first Thrifty Ice Cream plant The Borun brothers called in George Sauer to take on the renovation of the plant, formerly owned by Borden. The plant began production of the first Thrifty Ice Cream in 1940. Sauer continued as the ice cream plant manager. In 1957. a need for an assistant manager arose.

As Jerry Sauer recalls, "Mr. Borun said to Dad, 'Don't you have a son who's going to dairy Dad was hesitant and said he didn't know if I'd come we'd never worked together before." But the Boruns had faith in the Sauers, and the relationship was forged. For nearly 50 years. Thrifty Ice Cream was synonymous with the Sauer family name. Jerry Sauer had originally dreamed of owning a ranch.

After studying sheep husbandry at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, he considered the financial risks of ranching and changed his major to dairy manufacturing. In 1967, the younger Sauer took over the responsibility of managing the plant. It was then that he was offered "the dream of any man in this industry" orders to build a plant from the ground up THRIFTY Continued from Page 3 ots bad begun. Property damage to 6.000 buildings was estimated at $40 million. Los Angeles, like the rest of the country, spent most of the '60s and early 70s awakening to the need for social reform.

The vitality of the city flowed close to the surface. LlA continued to attract major corporations and industrial interests, which in turn boosted the opportunities for employment and the pursuit of the American dream. The city prospered and triggered a virtual renaissance of the Thrifty Drug chain. Pharmacy prices were structured to better serve the communities; a limited number of grocery items were put back on the shelves and advertised at special savings, and a massive renovation program was undertaken to enhance shopping convenience. As Los Angeles grew and diversified, so did Thrifty, with a renewed commitment toward customer service and defining special needs.

Have your machine call my machine. We'll modem. snippet of high-tech wheeling and dealing The '80s brought the Olympics back to L.A. for the first time since the Depression. Predictions of doom, endless gridlock, rampant crime and untimely disasters all went unrealized.

The 1984 Summer Games were an unqualified success and a celebration of the citizens' ability to pull together toward a common goal. If the '80s could be summed up in one phrase, it would be "high tech." From satellite dishes to car phones, from fax machines to computerized everything, the '80s saw big business go high tech in a big way. Thrifty was no exception as pharmacies were put on line for instant computer access to all customer records for quick service; checkstands received efficient terminals that replaced outdated cash registers and computerized ordering systems kept a close watch on inventory, so the shelves could be stocked as fully as possible at all times. Due to a need for service to high-density communities. Thrifty formed a second chain known as Thrifty Jr.

smaller, more compact versions of their brethren, but still offering a complete, computerized Please see HISTORY, Page 7 Thrifty ice cream plant manager Jerry Sauer congratulates spelling bee winner with an ice cream cone. Youngsters for generations have come to rely on Thrifty for tasty yet Inexpensive cones. j'ifii" m- of all was the cost of each brand compared. When prices per pint were revealed. Thrifty Ice Cream was at $1.19 compared to its closest competitor, Skyler's, a distant second at $2.25 per unit, to the highest tested, Gelato, at $3.50 per pint.

That was not, by far, the only honor Thrifty Ice Cream received. At the 1988 Los Angeles County Fair, Thrifty garnered more gold medals than anyone else. In the competition, judges from various universities, the Bureau of Dairy Services and ice cream experts from throughout the state put the entries through a variety of different tests. Each test was done blindly, that is, the judges never knew which brand they were rating. If the judges gave a superior, rating in each category, the ice cream was awarded a gold medal.

Thrifty scooped up 24 gold medals. Thrifty Ice Cream has been winning gold medals every year at the Los Angeles County Fair since it first entered the competition in 1954. Prior to 1954, the ice cream was entered at the California State Fair and had been winning gold medals since 1948. Thrifty malt cups and ice cream sandwiches broke into the Dodgers lineup in 1988 by winning a taste test at Dodgers Stadium. A fleet of trucks is ready to rush ice cream to stores in 1940.

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