The Ballad of Schwan's Frozen Pizza

01/31/22 • 59 min

2 Listeners

My girlfriend Sarah joins to talk about frozen food, a surprising amount of corporate espionage, and the private company that has a ~70% likelihood of supplying your public school's pizza: Schwan's! The school lunch contract biz is more intense than you'd think. Please follow @BustedBizBureau everywhere!

Marvin M. Schwan, John Radzilowski, Immigrant Entrepreneurship 2018
Schwan, Marvin in front of an original ice cream truck, ca. 1977
Ketchup as a Vegetable: Condiments and the Politics of School Lunch in Reagan’s America, Amy Bentley, Gastronomica 2021
Judge Allows Lawsuit to Proceed in $870 Million Schwan Heir Case, AP News 1996
MARK SCHWAN AND PAUL SCHWAN VS LAWRENCE BURDGOF ET. AL, APPEAL FROM SECOND JUDICIAL COURT, MINNEHHAHA COUNTY, SOUTH DAKOTA
Corporate Spies: The Pizza Plot, Adam L. Penenberg and Marc Barry, NYT 2000
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF MINNESOTA Schwan’s IP, LLC, and Schwan’s Consumer Brands North America, Inc VS Kraft Pizza Company
Potato politics, with a pizza side, David Rogers, Politico 2011
Washington pizza sauce fight has deep Minnesota ties, Brett Neely, MPRNews 2011
Leading School Food Supplier, Schwan’s Food Service, Serves Up Industry’s First Portfolio of Products to Meet Proposed USDA School Meal Rules, BusinessWire 2011
City Schools’ Food Program Struggles with Pizza Problems, City Limits 2016
Schwan's Co. v. Cai 12-2-2021

Marvin M. Schwan, John Radzilowski, Immigrant Entrepreneurship 2018
Schwan, Marvin in front of an original ice cream truck, ca. 1977
Ketchup as a Vegetable: Condiments and the Politics of School Lunch in Reagan’s America, Amy Bentley, Gastronomica 2021
Judge Allows Lawsuit to Proceed in $870 Million Schwan Heir Case, AP News 1996
MARK SCHWAN AND PAUL SCHWAN VS LAWRENCE BURDGOF ET. AL, APPEAL FROM SECOND JUDICIAL COURT, MINNEHHAHA COUNTY, SOUTH DAKOTA
Corporate Spies: The Pizza Plot, Adam L. Penenberg and Marc Barry, NYT 2000
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF MINNESOTA Schwan’s IP, LLC, and Schwan’s Consumer Brands North America, Inc VS Kraft Pizza Company
Potato politics, with a pizza side, David Rogers, Politico 2011
Washington pizza sauce fight has deep Minnesota ties, Brett Neely, MPRNews 2011
Leading School Food Supplier, Schwan’s Food Service, Serves Up Industry’s First Portfolio of Products to Meet Proposed USDA School Meal Rules, BusinessWire 2011
City Schools’ Food Program Struggles with Pizza Problems, City Limits 2016
Schwan's Co. v. Cai 12-2-2021

Previous Episode

iO Theater

KP joins to talk about origins and dramatic sudden closure of iO theater. How can you make a sustainable business off of adults playing pretend? Turns out it’s pretty hard. This episode has everything: improv comedy, wage theft allegations, desecration of human remains. Twists and turns everywhere! Follow KP's incredible project @they.call.us everywhere!!!

Footnotes:

Behind the Laughs: Community and Inequality in Comedy, Michael P. Jeffries
The Funniest One in the Room: The Lives and Legend of Del Close, Kim “Howard” Johnson
Chicago Comedy: A Fairly Serious History, Margaret Hicks
Skullduggery, Tad Friend, The New Yorker
Comedy Guru Charna Halpern Carries On, Achy Obejas, Chicago Tribune
The First Comedy Strike, Richard Zoglin, Time Magazine
This Unsung Comic Guru Turned Her Passion For Improv Into a Profitable Business INC Magazine, 2016
iO Co-Founder's Controversial Sexual Harassment Comments Spark Debate, Mae Rice, Chicagoist
iO Chicago’s move is more than a new address, Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune
iO makes a big move into founder Charna Halpern’s ‘dream theater’, Brianna Wellen, Chicago Reader
What We Can Learn From Improv Theaters' PPP Loans, Seth Simons, Paste Magazine
The Death of an Improv Theater: Mismanagement and Neglect at iO West, Seth Simons, Paste Magazine
Chicago Comedy Institution iO Theater Is Closing, Melena Ryzik, The New York Times
iO Past, Present, and Non-Future, Jack Helbig, Chicago Reader
The Case for Unionizing Comedy, Seth Simons, The Outline
Laughs Can Be Cheap at a Comedy Theater, Jason Zinoman, NYT
She’s the Hidden Architect of Modern Comedy, Jason Zinoman, NYT

PS. Sorry Seth Simons, I think I said your name wrong like 8 times in this episode. I misread it so many times. Forgive me, bestie.

Next Episode

eBay

How far would you go to protect your company’s reputation? Is it box-of-live-spiders far? Is it cross-country far? Is it re-enact-a-B-list-80s-movie far? Emily Lindsey joins for this very crime-y episode about the eBay corporate cyberstalking scandal that goes further than you’d imagine. This episode is absolutely nuts; it’s got blogging, it’s got schemes, it's got people who make a preposterous amount of money trying to do crime. Can’t miss this one! Follow @BustedBizBureau everywhere!