“It was December 8, 1951. I was having it kind of tough with five children. I was a wholesale grocery salesman, making $65 a week. I augmented my income by making bleach water down In the cellar. I also had a couple of vending machines, but that didn’t quite pay the bills. One day they came to foreclose on my house because I was three months behind on my mortgage. I told them I was starting a new job. I saw an ad in a magazine and went for a job interview for Saladmaster in Springfield, MA. So I started knocking doors. I took me 5 weeks to make my first sale.”
Chris started pitching over 50 years ago on TV. Two years into his career he went on television and made a name for himself … and the rest is history. Over the years Saladmaster has made Chris and Alice Nahatis “comfortable”, as Chris calls it. And as for the pitch that made him famous, it came about entirely by accident. Chris was starting out and landed himself a spot on TV, back when TV was still in it’s infancy. He paid $50 to go on the Oliver Tender show, but was told “No sales pitches!” However, when they asked Chris on camera, what is Saladmaster, he immediately began demonstrating the Saladmaster Machine pulling vegetables out of his pockets before they could stop him. Thus grew a sales pitch like no other.
For 60 years, Chris has operated his Saladmaster Dealership from the home he grew up in. Chris remains a “company man” through and through, “Harry Lemmons gave me an opportunity and I never forgot that. I told him I would never leave Saladmaster, and I have been true to my word”.
Over the years the orders continue to pour in. “At 86, people as me when am I going to retire. When my work is a job, I’ll retire. But as long as my work is play, I have no intention of retiring.”
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