We've only just begun....

December 13th brought a few things for Pike Place Fish Market. Doug Strauss, a longtime fishmonger, school teacher, basketball coach, and now foundation administrator was throwin' crab and shoveling ice as if he'd never missed a beat. Holiday shoppers milled about in the snow as Faith the two-legged dog and her family showed up! The weather and the atmosphere was one thing to remind us but so is that ominous stack of shipping orders watching over our display awaiting their trip through the maze of UPS to the doorsteps of thousands.

The holidays here bring a large amount of shipping orders, which means pallets of boxes, mountains of tape and cardboard, and but a small army of committed and intentional fishmongers at 86 Pike Place.
"The foundation keeps me so busy, but it's a lot of head work and a lot of sitting in front of a computer...so when I got the call from Sammy, I said 'I'll be there,'" said Doug. "I want to work and shovel and move!" And not only did he not miss a beat with the mechanics of fish and crab aerodynamics, but Doug always brings some inspiration to the crew with who he chooses to be for others in life and when at the shop. "Pumped to be back at the PPFM for a few days!"

The UPS trucks will be at our mercy starting today so look out. We have fresh crab and both wild and farm raised King Salmon, times are good! Ship it early folks, as much as we love UPS, we don't want people sitting at their dinner table waiting for that beloved, brown truck.

Alan Gordon of the LA Galaxy

American soccer stars throw a fish during MLS Cup 2009

From our first exposure to maybe our biggest yet

Back in the early 90s, the Goodwill Games came to Seattle. The Goodwill Games, over the course of its 16 year existence, helped launch careers of a couple thousand athletes from over probably 100 countries. It was a brainchild of Ted Turner as a way to ease Cold War tensions and did a lot of good in the world. Serving also as one of the launching off points of the "world fame" of Pike Place Fish, the Goodwill Games helped bring a whole heckuva lot of attention to a group of well-intentioned authentic fishmongers. Any Fishguy or BizFutures presentation you hear from us these days includes the story of our bi-weekly dinner meeting back in the late 80's where we said "let's be world famous fishmongers" and we all laughed.......only to have Goodwill Games cameras in our faces throwing fish and then every following day having strangers show up asking "where do they throw fish?"

Well it's now almost 20 years after such exposure and not only are we on film for a sport, but Friday November 20th put us on a stage with the world's game of "futbol" or in the US: Major League Soccer. Playing host to the MLS Cup between Real Salt Lake and the LA Galaxy, Seattle began opening it's arms this week when soccer games burst out in the street from guerilla marketers and people NOT wearing cleats on the street felt to be in the minority.

With all due respect to the Goodwill Games, this is not a gathering of people playing games to "ease tensions" or to "spark discussion", this is the most popular sport played on the planet. ESPN and US Soccer Legend John Harkes will broadcast what they shot today to approximately 122 countries. The MLS is a league that plays host for players from all corners of the globe. These players play for American cities, European clubs, African nations, and from Universities all over. Basically, we have cameras here every day but Friday there were about 30 cameras that were legit media outlets filming us throwing fish to soccer stars. Funny stuff. We usually have people catch a fish, wash their hands and maybe get a picture. Today, we had custom made aprons from the MLS, we had about 3 cameras behind the counter and 25 out front all filming for TV and we had two pro players Chris Seitz and Alan Gordon essentially trying to "score" a salmon past the other as a sea of people clogged up the entire corner of 1st and Pike yelling about the match on Sunday. There were industry-types and marketing specialists sweating as these dead animals hurdled through the air and flashes lit up everyone's face like we were shooting a feature film. "First class you guys, thank you!" said the marketing team from MLS. I think they expected a bunch of surly and bitter dudes who would resist crowds but they got the fishguys from Pike Place!

The history of soccer and it's place in America always seems to get a bum-rap but since it's arrival in Seattle there has been nothing but uproarious welcome and enthusiasm. The Seattle Sounders made the playoffs as a first-year expansion squad and sold out every single match setting a new MLS record for attendance at over 30,000 seats per game (most MLS clubs only get about 11,000 per game). I write this on Friday and usually do these updates when inspiration visits. The match isn't until Sunday so watch out for more and know your chances of avoiding the fishguys in the media is getting more and more slim. Soccer is getting exciting and that we could be part of all this before the Cup is pretty exciting. Keep here and on facebook for a video of all the happenings from the weekend.

Auctioning ourselves off like pieces of.......Fish!

On Saturday, October 10th, veteran fishmongers Ryan "Yoko" Yokoyama and Chris "Cheddar" Bell stood proud for us fishmongers at Pike Place and helped raise some excitement for the local Seattle non-profit People for the Puget Sound and their annual Harbor Lights Auction. Amassing over 575 guests at the Fremont Studio here in Seattle, the auction had both live and silent items up for bid, including ours which was a dinner for 10 people to be cooked at a place of their choice. Yoko and Cheddar ran throughout the crowd in those goofy orange pants throwing those tasty salmon all over that auction making us a tough act to follow. "I wanted Governor Gregoire to catch one, but instead I chucked it right over her head!" said Cheddar.

"I think it's great to get out and support people like PFPS because what they do is support what we do to keep the waters around here healthy. We don't have a business without the advocacy that they provide," said Yoko. "It's our livelyhood really."

Cheddar added "yeah, it's a little odd sometimes to run around while people are eating and throw fish so close to them but hey, it breaks up the reality a bit and everyone gets to have fun. 's really not that different than what we do at the market. Kinda nice to take it somewhere else and be so well received."

The Harbor Lights Auction and the "Party for Puget Sound" raised more than $236,000!
People for Puget Sound is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, working since 1991 to restore and protect the Sound and Northwest Straits. The Puget Sound Business Travel Association is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and is the collective voice of business travel mangament in Western Washington.

Peace One Day

This gathering of commitments is exactly the kind of thing we get excited about with our intention of Peace and Prosperity for all as an idea whose time has come. With our new "brochures" that talk more about who we are what we stand for than what we sell, we wanted to spotlight this day and film!

Heat in July, not much news there!

Man the news sucks! I'm not sure how to say it in blog-speak or how to "properly" do it but the news media just sucks sometimes. Whether it's propagating negativity about our "poor" economy or making us all believe that we should be affected by something completely unrelated, they continually choose to focus on negativity.

News is news and we realize a lot of people aren't completely jazzed by what they do everyday and need something to chew on over dinner, but we at the fish market are not like that. We are who we are because we acknowledge these things as elements that make up the whole thing and choose a more positive and fun path. Back in December when the city of Seattle was held hostage by ice and snow and all the reporters couldn't write about anything but our mayor's apparent inability to act, we were doing jumping jacks in our Grundens, driving to the airport and creating a package brigade so people got their fish for the holidays.

Today it was pushing 103 degrees and we were opening up our cooler for local businesses supplying them with ice, having oyster shooter parties out front,(even Mariner's First Baseman Russell Branyan showed up yesterday to hang out and throw a fish( and selling fish like it's July and we are world famous Pike Place Fish. The local news station was down the way at our competitors spot drying their tears because their apparent "woes" for the heat was news. Guess what, they didn't come to us because we were too busy selling! "Oh, Pike Place Fish has a crowd and they're throwing fish because they're selling fish, let's go and report on how lame business is down the way because of the heat!" Wow. Once again, generating what we want and how we want to experience the day will always win. The weather will do what it wants (shovel more ice!), whether it's icey and 4 degrees or sweltering and 103, we only have the choice to be who we want when it happens. We separated ourselves again today and man did the beer taste good at 6:30 when we closed!