SEATTLE – All the world’s a stage for the Pike Place Fish Market, and all the fishmongers are merely players. They have their entrances and their exits, and one fishmonger in his time may throw many a wild Alaska king salmon.  

Not to mention sockeyes and silvers, halibut, rockfish, ling cod, true cod, black cod and those wild Alaskan king crab.
It’s all in a day’s work at this lively and entertaining fish market, where the fishmongers’ rule of thumb is to play and make the customer’s day.

“I’d like two and a half pounds of fresh halibut,” said one customer. The fishmonger taking the order yelled out “two and a half pounds of halibut” as he began wrapping it. Several other fishmongers quickly echoed “two and a half pounds of halibut.”
And so it goes, every day, with every order.

On the sunny Friday before Thanksgiving, the fish were flying, much to the delight of shoppers and passersby just pausing to watch.

Pike Place Market itself runs for blocks, with dozens of shops competing for shopper dollars, with homemade cheese, Washington State grown fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts and fresh baked rolls, baguettes, pastries and breads. Foot traffic is heavy, with local families and scores of out-of-town visitors loading up on food, art, candles, pottery and more, then stopping for coffee drinks and a snack or meal at one of several espresso shops, including the original Starbucks across the street.

But Dick Yokoyama, manager of the Pike Place Fish Market, wasn’t worried about the competition. “If they’re not buying now, they will buy later,” he said. “We offer the best quality seafood. You can have fun while you shop, and we’ll make your day.”
Yokoyama, born and raised in Seattle, has been working since 1975 at the fish market, owned by his older brother, John. Hard at work at 7 a.m., a paper cup of coffee at his side, Yokoyama is all smiles and full of energy in his small office, down the hall from the open-air display cases of seafood kept consistently cool with tubs and tubs of crushed ice.

He knows the space in front of those display cases will soon be crowded with shoppers eager to purchase kings and cohos, king crab legs, oysters, calamari, Dungeness crab, mackerel, tilapia, steelhead and more.  

Some customers stop to examine the most unusual catch, a large monk fish. Yokoyama or fellow fishmonger Keith “The Bear” Bish, behind the counter, often wait until a customer gets very close to the monk fish, then pull a hidden line attached to make the monk fish jump back and its mouth open. The customer may jump too, but soon joins the rest of the crowd in laughter. It’s all part of the ambiance.

Many are there, first and foremost, to shop. And there are decidedly more shoppers here than at another nearby fish market.
“My customers are looking for quality,” Yokoyama said. “They don’t come looking for cheap fish. My fish are expensive. No number-twos.”

His message to Alaska fishermen is simple: catch more fish. At this time of year, the market gets $30 a pound for fresh troll-caught king fillets from Southeast Alaska. “I can’t get enough,” he said.

While pleased with fishery management policies that limit the harvest, assuring Alaska more sustainable fisheries, Yokoyama is quick to turn elsewhere to meet customer demand. This weekend, Yokoyama said, he can’t even get enough farmed Canadian kings. “As we go further into winter, the more farmed fish I have to buy,” he said.

The market also buys large king crab harvested from Russian waters. “It’s the same animal,” Bish said, comparing the crab to those harvested in Alaska waters. “The only difference (in taste) is in the way it’s cooked.” The market can buy frozen Russian king crab “and we sell everything around the holidays,” he said.

“We are selling Russian king crab now because we are getting bigger legs.”

Along with a long list of salmon, white fish, raw and cooked shellfish and specialty fish, Pike Place Fish Market sells an array of smoked salmon products, sauces and spices, T-shirts, sweatshirts, hats and duffle bags – but mostly, they sell attitude.

Founded in 1930, the Pike Place Fish Market competed for years with other fishmongers in the blocks long Pike Place Market area along the Seattle waterfront. Back in 1986, working with business coach and consultant Jim Bergquist of bizFutures, the fishmongers of Pike Place fish Market decided they’d rather be world-famous fishmongers. To get there, they determined they had to be committed to their customers’ needs, rather than to just selling fish.

As a result, Bergquist told fishermen at Seattle’s 2006 Pacific Marine Exposition Nov. 17, they’ve sold more fish than ever. “When you give people the freedom to choose, they buy it,” he said. The new marketing plan, in a nutshell, was to “play, make their day, be there and what’s your attitude.”

To demonstrate the success of the teamwork philosophy, Bergquist divided his audience of several dozen people into two groups and gave them each a salmon to pass quickly from one to the other. The winning team, he promised, would get a good prize. As the fish were passed, strangers in each group developed instant team spirit, cheering loudly for their side.

Once the winning team was decided, Bergquist had each member of the winning group partner with one from the losing side to get their reward: a hug from the other side.

The team spirit approach for Pike Place Fish Market was so successful in transforming company attitude that the fishmongers became stars in a training film about business teamwork, a film which has so far been translated into 39 languages and used as a teaching tool worldwide.

They have been featured in Spike Lee’s commercial for Levi’s jeans, on NBC’s “Frasier,” MTV’s “Real World,” and ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

In a CNN special report in 2001, CNN identified the three most fun places to work in the United States. World Famous Pike Place Fish came in No. 1.

“You don’t have to throw the fish, (but) you have to have the commitment,” Yokoyama said. “We’re dealing with people, with service.”

“Early on our bizFutures coach encouraged us to commit ourselves to becoming ‘world famous’ and we have accomplished this – not by spending any money on advertising, we’ve never spent a dime, but by being truly great with people,” said owner John Yokoyama “We interact with people with a strong intention to make a difference for them. We want to give each person the experience of having been served and appreciated, whether they buy fish or not. We love them.

“We know that it’s possible for each of us as human beings to impact the way other people experience life,” he said. “Through our work, we’re out to improve the quality of life for everyone. We are working inside the possibility of world peace and prosperity for all people.

“This is our commitment. That’s who we are. It’s what we do,” he said.

Margaret Bauman can be reached at margie.bauman@alaskajournal.com.