Maxwell house coffee had courtesy cars in Peoria? That's just too strange to make up

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/vintage-shots-from-days-gone-by.428585/page-6083#post-12932974

Steve just found this very interesting, and filled me in on this situation of courtesy cars and coffee brands:

That “Courtesy” car was not owned or used by the Maxwell House Coffee Co. It belonged to the George O. Pasquel Company (GOP) of Peoria.

 Founded in 1946, the George O. Pasquel Co. is Peoria’s oldest institutional food and equipment distributor, and still supplies local restaurants and the general public with a wide variety of food and kitchen supplies. Coffee is still their biggest-selling item, although they do not sell Maxwell exclusively anymore – in fact, they now have their own private label of flavored coffees. 

George worked as a “road salesman” for Standard Brands in Peoria, peddling their coffee for 18 years before starting his own business with three strikes against him (according to his then boss): “One, you’re an Italian immigrant; Two, you never graduated from eighth grade; And three, you have no money.” George did it anyway by borrowing $5,000 from a Greek immigrant friend, who happened to be the cafe manager for the Hiram Walker distillery in Peoria.

Now, after many, many changes in the business, his son Peter (born in 1940) runs the company. Some of the changes cost them customers as larger institutions went for the lowest bidder, as opposed to the best quality. They now no longer supply local hospitals, and only a few nursing homes. They used to be the main supplier of the local school district (hence the advertising photo in the high school yearbook) and even the local jail. Caterpillar, which had been the company’s biggest customer from the 1940s through the ‘70s, had their own in-house people running their cafeterias, and they bought locally (several truckloads a day, in fact). But Caterpillar, most hospitals and school districts switched long ago to mega-distribution companies (think SYSCO

Today the company can still deliver and install “ranges, refrigerators, coolers and other machinery necessary to get a large kitchen up and running.” They can outfit the restaurant front of house as well, with everything from the furniture to the plates and utensils. Then they will happily supply you with the foodstuffs – that being the Nugget brand of canned foods, paper goods, frozen food and produce. Nugget is a high-quality brand that gives you more food (product) in its drained weight, as opposed to its net weight (product plus liquid) than other brands.

Now, for the courtesy car - that is - if you are still reading. The car would belong to the “road salesman” (route salesman) who, as a courtesy, would stop by your office/school/cafeteria/restaurant and check your inventory for you, then write up your order for you – thus sparing you the time and effort. Usually, these route salesmen drove sedan deliveries, and not windowed wagons such as your 2-door 1955 Chevrolet 210 Handyman.

While GOP supplied everything, companies such as Boyd in Portland (coffee and spices) and Farmer Brothers in Los Angeles (coffee and tea), serviced local companies direct. For example, if you had an accounting firm and you offered coffee service to your employees, Boyd or Farmer Brothers would supply your needs right down to the coffee pots, without any employee having to make a store run. If the percolator breaks, give Farmer Brothers a call and you will have a new one delivered within an hour or two, if not faster. Farmer Brothers was established in Torrance, California.

the George O. Pasquel Co., like Farmer Brothers, also sold to companies that served coffee to their in-house employees and would drive around servicing those clients (think Charles Chips). Beer distributers did the same thing when courtesy serving their clients such as your Mom-and-Pop grocery stores.

As in the case of the George O. Pasquel Co. and the Massa Distributing Co., the company name was on the door, while the best-selling product’s name was writ large behind it.

Thanks Steve! You've filled in a niche of car enthusiast knowledge! 

for everything online about the George Pasquel company:  https://www.meanwhilebackinpeoria.com/blog/2018/2/28/takin-care-of-businessgeorge-o-pasquel-company-yesterday-and-today