In 1917, a small meat-packing company made its debut on the corner of 17th and Douglas Street. The shop, formerly a carpentry business called Table Supply Company, was transformed into Table Supply ‘Meat’ Company by its thrifty new owner, B. A. Simon. With the help of his son Lester, Simon shaped the business into a well respected meat company that specialized in servicing restaurants, hotels and the Union Pacific Railroad with prime cuts of beef.
    In the 1940’s, Lester’s teenage sons Fred, Alan and Steve joined their father and grandfather in the meat business. With the extra hands and a booming market, the Simon family worked to keep up as Table Supply Meat Company grew. In 1952, Lester attempted to further expand the company by selling directly to consumers through mail order. Even though the “mail order venture” was successful, the company was limited to selling to individuals who had easy access to the railroad lines. At that time there was no shipping container that could keep individual orders of meat from spoiling as they traveled long distances away from the railway stations.
    The Simon family knew if they solved their shipping problems they could serve thousands of customers across the country. In the early 1960’s, Fred began experimenting with packaging methods, shipping containers and dry ice. Because no specialized container had ever been created, Fred went directly to the refrigerator manufacturers and asked for smaller cuts of insulation. By 1964, Fred’s efforts paid off and he presented a polystyrene cooler small enough to individually ship a customer’s order that kept the meat adequately frozen for 7 to 8 days.
    Fred’s ingenuity was a turning point for the Simons and Table Supply Meat Company. Within two years the family moved the company to a larger location on 96th Street and changed its name to Omaha Steaks. Fred’s new shipping container helped Omaha Steaks grow from sales of $2.5 million in 1964 to $450 million in 2005. Today, Omaha Steaks is internationally known and respected because of the strong values, vision and creativity of Fred Simon and his family. 

                                                                             — Elisabeth Richert
DCHS Volunteer

Sources:
Vertical Files, Douglas County Historical Society Library Archives Center
DCHS Video Interview Series 2009  "I Remember": Fred Simon