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Craig Christensen - The Candy Store


I think some people are expected to shape lives in important ways.  Teachers, church leaders, managers, family members and even community leaders are in positions to shape lives and we often expect that from them.  Sometimes, however, there are people that you would not expect to have a major impact but who shape a life without knowing it.  Craig Christensen is one of those people for me.  One simple act nearly 20 years ago has had a huge impact on my life and I’ll bet that he does not even remember it happening.

Craig was one of the kids in my neighborhood growing up.  I met him when I was about nine and we were friends until my family moved away when I was fifteen.  During this time we were your average neighborhood buddies.  We played sports together, jumped on trampolines, I jumped off of his roof a few times, we went on camping trips with the scouts and hung out at the Jr. High.  I remember going to his house to play Mortal Kombat on the Sega Genesis since we were not privileged to have access to such choice entertainment at home.  Craig was a good guy, kind of an everyman’s kid.  He was kind, smart and fun to be around without being too crazy and rambunctious.  It was his mom that helped clean out my finger when I nearly chopped it off playing with knives.  They were that kind of family.

Anyway, to understand how he impacted me the most you have to know what was going on in my life at the time.  At age ten I started my first job delivering the newspaper.  It was not the paper that people subscribed to, it was the advertisements that came out twice a week to all of the people who did not want to get the newspaper.  So twice a week I would go around and throw unwanted newspapers on the doorsteps of people who generally didn’t care to have them.

On one of my first days on the job I had something horrible happen to me.  A kind old man on 2160 West saw me delivering the papers and came out and gave me a tip.  He gave me three dollars for delivering the junk ads to him.  I was so excited, I was only making about fourteen dollars every two weeks so this three dollars would go a long way.  You may think this is a great thing, a blessing not a horrible thing.  The only problem is that here in my first week or so on the job I got the ONLY tip that I would ever receive as a delivery boy.  This tip filed me with anticipation that it would be a regular occasion for an old guy to come out, thank me and give me money.  So every time I delivered I would go out looking for people to tip me and I would come home empty handed.  This and the fact that winters where cold and filled with snow made the fourteen dollars seem all the more harsh.

I came up with a great idea to change my economic situation so that I would not have to rely on tips to meet my growing financial obligations.  So at the age of eleven I took all that I had saved, about fourteen dollars, and decided to invest in myself.  I walked the one and a half miles from my house to the Reams grocery store and bought as much tangy taffy as I could afford.  I got three boxes for that amount and ended up paying $.13 per taffy after tax.  I walked home prepared to sell these candies and decided to stop at Craig’s house on the way home.  He always had money and was good for at least a couple dollars.  I was right, he bought several dollars’ worth of taffy at $.20 each.

I ended up selling all of the candy in a couple of days and making enough a decent margin, but I knew that at $.20 cents I could not compete for long against the grocery store prices.  I convinced my mom to take me with her to Costco where I could buy the candy in bulk and reduce my prices.  At Costco I got about twenty dollars’ worth of candy including Airheads, Now and Laters and some kind of pirate blood gum balls that were for sale for Halloween. It only took a week or so to sell everything that I had bought and it became apparent that this was a winning proposition.  Ultimately I spent several months buying candy in bulk, mostly from Sam’s Club that had a better candy selection, selling it with decent margins and then reinvesting the money I made to expand my offering.  I expanded to include Laffy Taffy, Splashers Bubble Gum, mint patties, Double Bubble and mini Butter Fingers.  Each of these sold well but my best product continued to be the Airheads.  I was buying them for $.073 cents apiece and selling them for $.10 so the margin was not as good as the Double Bubble which I bought for $.014 and sold for $.05 but I sold a huge quantity.

Eventually my little business grew to require a capital investment in a large Rubbermaid wagon so that I could easily store my inventory and quickly move it to the designated street corner where I sold each day after school.  The business did very well, I was turning over $50-$60 in product every two weeks and I was making $30-$40 in that time on the investment.  This went really well until I got tired of the gig and decided to sell my entire inventory and get out.  I took the money out of the business to pay for scout camp and to buy a handful of small pets and their supplies.  I had saved up a couple hundred dollars and figured that I was good for a while.  I was already about twelve so I was ready to retire.

This plan was great except that in a few months after squandering a lot of the money I found myself needing to get back into the business.  I had pets to feed, sodas and Magic cards to buy and I needed to get back into the grind.  The problem was that I only had a few dollars left to my name and I was not going to be able to buy the $50-$60 in candy that I needed to get the business going again.   The problem was compounded by my parent’s divorce at the time that left them strapped for cash and unable to lend me money.  So in my time of need I turned to Craig.

As I said before I always knew that Craig had money.  He was on a great allowance plan that taught him about investment and ensured that he always had a bit of money lying around.  So I went to Craig and asked if I could borrow the funds that I would need to get the store back up and going.  I was able to persuade him to lend me $100 to get going with incredibly favorable terms.  I would pay one dollar of interest for every month that the money was not paid back and I would guarantee that the money would be paid back within six months.  Now Craig was smart enough, even at 12, to know that this was not a great for to him.  But he consented anyway and it has had a huge impact on my life.

I was able to invest that entire $100 into candy which meant that I could also add Cool Ranch Doritos and beef jerky, both of which sold for $.50 with more than a 100% markup.  It put my business back in order and I was once again able to provide myself with a modest income.  During this time I could sell around $35-$45 in an hour after school.  I did this five days a week and with good margins I was able to take pretty good care of my adolescent needs.  One month after the loan I was able to pay Craig all of his money back, with a dollar in interest and continue successfully replenishing my inventory.

This business lasted a total of about three years and provided hundreds of dollars in income to me at a time when my parents were going through a divorce and things where frankly pretty tight.  The financial benefit to me, to be able to pay for scout camps and soccer tournaments and field trips made a big difference to my mom.   Yet I don’t know if the greatest impact to me was the money that I was able to make during that time.  Yes I was able to buy a chinchilla and yes I never went without Sprite when I wanted one, but the money did not have a lasting impact on me.

What Craig gave me with his $100 loan was the chance to learn incredible lessons about myself, about work, business, debt and independence.  I gained tremendous confidence as people like my grandmother took to calling me their little entrepreneur.  I gained a love of business and making something from nothing.  I learned the rush of success that comes from taking risks and working hard.  These are all things that are incredibly central to who I am and to the success that I have had in my career.  These are lessons that a lot of young people learn by selling lemonade and cookies with the help of their parents, but for me it was Craig Christensen that had a huge impact on my ability to learn these lessons.

I don’t really keep in touch with Craig, other than that we are Facebook friends, but I will always be grateful to him for taking a risk on me and giving me a chance to be successful.  Craig has shaped my life.
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