J. R. Simplot: a Legendary American Capitalist
by Michael E. Marotta
J. R. "Jack" Simplot -- another legendary American capitalist.
Almost 100 years old (born January 4, 1909), he recently had to give up horseback riding after a fall. John Richard "Jack" Simplot is the founder of the privately-held J. R. Simplot Company, the largest supplier of french fries to McDonald's. In 2006 he was estimated to be the 80th richest person in America, with $3.2 billion. At 98, he is the oldest living billionaire on the Forbes 400.
Simplot moved to the Snake River valley of Idaho as a child and in eighth-grade at age 14, quit school and left home after fighting with his father. (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.) After leaving home, he got a job in a potato warehouse, sorting them with a shaker for nine to ten hours a day for 30 cents an hour. At the boarding house where he lived were some school teachers. The teachers were paid in interest-bearing scrip, which he bought from them for 50 cents on the dollar and resold to a local bank for 90 cents on the dollar. He used the money to buy a rifle, a truck and 600 hogs at $1 a head. He went out into the Idaho desert where he built a smoker. He shot wild horses. He dried the hides and he fed the meat to his hogs. He sold the horsehides for $2 each and the hogs for $12.50 a head. With the money, he became a potato farmer, buying 18,000 acres along the Snake River for $9,000. He was 16. (From Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser)
A negative look at one of the great miracles of our age, J. R. Simplot's story is told in Chapter 5: "Why the fries taste so good." Americans love french fries by the ton. When I think of the fact that a few firms supply 80% of the restaurants, I am amazed by the astounding differences among them. Fat, thin, crinkly, curly, spicy, ... you name it, most large chains have differentiable products that identify them. Arby's "Curly Fries" are the epitome, to me, but the Big Boys and Olive Gardens and Appleby's and the others all like that little touch of branding. Not the soviet model at all, this is the miracle of industrialized individualization. Needless to say, Schlosser misses the point, but the book is still worth reading.
Simplot's ZX Ranch in Oregon is the largest cattleranch in the uSA, being 65 by 163 miles. Combined with with other considerable real estate holdings, "Jack" Simplot's lands are the size of the state of Delaware. He still eats at McDonald's. He has called religion a bunch of hocus-pocus.
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