How It All Began

May, 1992

Caplan's very close friend, Laurence Rosenthal, ("Lol"), a native cockney from the east end of London, often told stories of his youth selling "plasters in a tin" at the Petticoat Lane flea market with his father.

In his thick accent, Lol would laugh about the gigantic Petticoat Lane market. He often told how you could get pick-pocketed entering the market and see your wallet for sale before you left the grounds.

Caplan was involved in buying and selling medical supplies, and Lol asked that he get 80 cases of "plasters" to sell at a Canadian flea market and invited him to join him. Caplan had never been to a flea market and it sounded like fun. They loaded up Lol's red jeep and strapped a table to the roof rack.

The first day was to be at Stouffville Farmers Market, a quaint old outdoor market some 30 miles north east of Toronto.

Caplan and Lol arrived bright and early, contacted the market manager and rented a spot 10' x 10' for about $40 for the day. They set up the table, loaded it with boxes of bandages, put up a hand wriiten sign, and waited. People strolled by, glanced at them and kept walking. No buyers.

It was a beautiful sunny day, and the crowd were happy to be out in the country after the long Canadian winter's hybernation.

The shoppers didn't buy bandaids. As a matter if fact they laughed at Caplan & Rosenthal, and other vendors gave friendly advise to not give up their day jobs!

The boys starting giving out free samples of the bandage strips to try and get some attention, but to no avail. People actually said things like "I don't bleed" or "I don't ever cut my self."

This was very discouraging, until an elderly woman who had refused their free sample stumbled in a pot hole and fell a few steps after she has refused the free bandaid. She got up bleeding. She returned to their table and Lol in a thundering loud English accent yelled out "Bandaids…. 2 boxes for $5."

She purchased, and the boys learned their first marketing lesson. Lol's loud English accent became a fixture at all the markets the boys visited.

Undoubtedly their immediate neighbours grew tired of the yelling, but it got the attention of the passersby and sales grew.

Everyone it seemed, turned to look for the loud Englishman!

His thundering voice became their trademark in the early flea market days for the vendors who became know as "the bandaid guys"

Even though the first day was a total disaster, not to mention a money loser, the two got together that night and discussed strategy. Caplan indicated he had broken cases of various medical supplies at his warehouse, and indicated they should increase their product offerings and see what happens.

Back to Stouffville for Sunday, with a bigger product selection including Tensor bandages. Caplan forgot to look up the cost, so they decided to try the stretch bandages at $1 each for any size, to gauge the public's reaction.

Rosenthal yelled out, "TENSORS $1 each!" A crowd surrounded the table as people bought every last Tensor. Drug stores were selling the same items for $4 and more.

They had a winner, or as they called it, a piece of the puzzle. Back at Caplan's office on Monday it wasn't long before the depressing news. They made money on the 2" and 3" tensors, but lost money on 4" and 6". 4" and 6" were the bigger sellers as people wanted the most they could get for a buck.

This was before the dollar store craze, but the boys knew $1 was magic. Everyone would part with a buck.

They realized even at the flea market one needs to do market research.

Caplan contacted every medical supplier he could and asked for samples of their products. These samples got laid out on the table the next week, to watch for the public's reaction. Amazingly they bought a little of everything. People even asked for specifics, that the boys wrote down and then called suppliers for samples. The first few weeks were all sample sales.

Operating room towels, those 12" x 12" green or blue towels everyone sees on T.V., became a featured product. Tea towels as Rosenthal called them, only a dollar. Disposable O.R. bowls and basins became Tupperware alternatives. Again, only a $1.

The boys became more and more enthused as sales grew. Chatting with other vendors they learned of other markets that were popular, and it wasn't long before the boys were packing that old red jeep and travelling all over. During the summer there was a market almost every day in some part of southern Ontario.

Their attitude was slightly different than other vendors. They would never go and look at a venue to decide if it was for them. They felt walking around a flea market told them nothing. They had to set up their tables, and put out the goods to find out if a particular market or event was "a piece of the puzzle" If you were going to give up the day and burn gasoline to get there, you might as well try and make a buck!

Caplan found the products, Rosenthal was the marketing voice.

The boys approached the flea markets with professionalism and they always thought big. It wasn't too long before they split up so as to work 2 locations at the same time. Lol had an old truck and asked his sister-in-law's baby sitter, Barney, if he wanted a job as Lol's helper.

The band-aid guys were now employers. Throughout Canada and many parts of the USA, the truck would get loaded with goods, and the adventures would begin.