The birth of the ‘Pike Fish Market’

Pike Fish Market was a small shop located in the corner of the Pike Place Market in Seattle,
Washington. In 1965, John Yokoyama came across the opportunity to buy this shop, which later
became one of the most successful Fish Market. The former owner of Pike Fish Market was not able
to drive its success and hence sold it to John Yokoyama for $3500, who soared the business of the fish
shop.

‘Pike Place Fish’ - An engaging and entertaining Service model

A wholesale company called Pike Place Fish was created with an investment of $300,000. When Pike
Place Fish in Seattle set out on a quest to become “globally famous," they teamed up with Jim
Bergquist, President of Creative Business Futures, their long-time business coach, since 1986. He
assisted them to create a creative environment. Since then, Jim and his associates have been working
directly with the owners and employees of Pike Place Fish to affect environmental change.
Individuals consciously took responsibility in choosing their team, which helped to create a dynamic
synergy that drove a cultural transformation and generative learning. Pike Place Fish created a vision
for the company – ‘a world famous fish market’. There was one catch, which was there would be no
advertising done as the cash in hand was on the lower end.

Selling fish, became an afterthought for the company. Engaging customers and impacting their moods
and lives positively became the main philosophy and priority. The customers, if treated like family,
rather than ignored, would actually like spending their hard-earned money at the fish shop. Providing
a fun and great experience to the customer at the shop would also ensure customer retention as they
would return to the shop. Buying fish became an entertaining experience rather than a monotonous
exchange.

“Flying Fish” was one of the tactics used, which entailed making the customer catch the fish instead
of walking all the way to the weighing scale. This also turned out to be an efficient method as it saved
the time to perform all the routine tasks in an old-fashioned manner. This idea born out of efficiency
became the calling card of Pike Place Fish. It was often that large crowds would gather outside the
shop just to watch the employees throw around fish and get entertained through the same. A part of
the company’s philosophy was to make people stay, whether or not they were there to purchase fish.
They tapped into the crucial element of customer relationship which set them apart from competition.

This led to the fish sales skyrocketing, people stopped relating the shop as only a place to purchase
fish. The employees were interested in knowing about their customers which made them feel truly
appreciated. This in turn led to the fish sales tripling just overnight on the first night. The ‘customer
first’ philosophy had turned Pike Fish Place into a national phenomenon. Renowned US magazines
like Fast Company Magazine and People’s Magazine began publishing articles about the fish shop.

The success of the Fish shop also led to prominent success for John, who also became a successful
motivational speaker. As a result of this engaging and entertaining service model, Pike Place Fish
became the #1 tourist attraction in Seattle and was also ranked the Number One of the best places to
work at, since a part of their philosophy was to also take great care of their employees.
Employees like Mike Kim and Justin Hall worked loyally for Pike Fish Market for a long time and
enjoyed their work thoroughly because of the philosophies of the shop where they were too, just like
the customers, treated like family.