The 104-Year-Old Godfather of the Shmatta Industry Who Turned $1,800 Into Billions | Joseph Schaffer

Harley Finkelstein:
Joe Schaffer.

David Segal:
This man's from another time.

Harley Finkelstein:
First of all, he's about to turn 105 years old. I don't think we've ever done anyone that's been over 100, right?

David Segal:
Yeah. He was born in 1921.

Harley Finkelstein:
First guest over 100 years old. I heard the story that when we were doing our research that in the heyday, Chabanel, which is the Montreal Garment District, which for a long time was the Garment District in North America, Joe Schaffer, in the heydays, '70s and '80s, used to drive up and down in a Rolls-Royce.

David Segal:
Yeah.

Harley Finkelstein:
And everyone would watch this. Not with envy and not with any type of jealousy, but rather it inspired an entire generation of incredible entrepreneurs that built some of the greatest companies on the planet in the apparel industry. It inspired them to think bigger.

David Segal:
All right. All right. The king of Chabanel, everyone.

Harley Finkelstein:
Joe Schaffer. Let's go.

Harley Finkelstein:
Let's start at the beginning. You were born in 1921 in Poland. You came to Montreal in the 1930s. Did you have any entrepreneur role models growing up? Did you know people that were starting businesses when you were a kid?

Joseph Schaffer:
No. We came to this country. My father worked for Bronfmans, night worker.

Harley Finkelstein:
He was a night worker?

Joseph Schaffer:
He got $18 a week.

Harley Finkelstein:
Okay. He worked for Seagrams or worked for the family?

Joseph Schaffer:
Seagrams.

Harley Finkelstein:
He worked for Seagrams. Okay.

Joseph Schaffer:
Worked for them a number of years, but he got $28 a week. He went into peddling.

Harley Finkelstein:
He was a peddler.

Joseph Schaffer:
A lot of Jews in those days were peddlers.

David Segal:
Was your father able to make a decent living peddling?

Joseph Schaffer:
Yes. Kind of what we call living then. Not good living. No. But my father saved dollar by dollar. When it came my turn then I got a job.

Harley Finkelstein:
Where?

Joseph Schaffer:
In Montreal in a dress company, a low-end dress company. And when I came in for some reason or other, I had that feeling of fashion and this and that. And they recognized it. They were big, but big money they didn't make. They sold cheap.

David Segal:
What did they recognize in you? What did you have that immediately made you good at what you did?

Harley Finkelstein:
Was it chutzpah?

Joseph Schaffer:
I was just a little brighter and something than the other guys that worked.

Harley Finkelstein:
Yeah. Did you have chutzpah? Was that it?

Joseph Schaffer:
I had nothing. I never worked in anything like this before. I was young. I went to school. I was a very good student.

Harley Finkelstein:
At what point do you decide then, as you're working, to go out on your own? Tell us about that.

Joseph Schaffer:
To go?

Harley Finkelstein:
To build your own business, to go out on your own.

Joseph Schaffer:
I became a shipper and a salesman, and I took stock. And there was a demand for goods, and I went into one of the chain stores.

David Segal:
Yeah. And so you went to a chain store. You sell 2,000 units, which is a big deal.

Joseph Schaffer:
But my guy that I worked for never sold 2,000. Some people go in business and know what they're doing. Other people go more than others.

Harley Finkelstein:
And that was you. You were able to figure out business quickly. It came naturally to you.

Joseph Schaffer:
Something what was in me. I recognized a good store. I recognized a good style and where to sell the style and all that. That was my strength. Where I got it from, I don't know.

Harley Finkelstein:
You don't know.

David Segal:
Joe, is that something you can teach or do you have to be born with it?

Joseph Schaffer:
Born with it. You can teach and you can make it too, but they haven't got this... They have to know. Something that you guys have in you that you can't buy it.

Harley Finkelstein:
Can't teach it. It's in you. The reason that David was asking about the idea of a peddler is because what you call peddler, we call entrepreneur. It's the same thing. You guys were hawking schmatas. He's hawking tea and I'm hawking software. It's the same thing. We're just doing it in a different way.

David Segal:
At that time.

Harley Finkelstein:
How does Algo get started?

Joseph Schaffer:
My father put together dollar by dollar. When I told him I want to go into business, he says, "I've got $1,800."

David Segal:
Wow.

Joseph Schaffer:
"They're yours."

Harley Finkelstein:
Wow. He believed in you.

Joseph Schaffer:
I don't know why he gave me $1,800 that he had. But that wasn't enough, or maybe that was enough. Where I worked, there was a fellow who sold piece goods as his own. He had a connection with one of the big piece goods making suppliers. And other people who made the work saw me there and the way I worked, talked to them, and they wanted to put in the money, they should go in business.

David Segal:
Business with you.

Joseph Schaffer:
And I had agreed. But the fellow that sold piece goods, he still said, "Joe, where do you go? You're not like him. Don't get it. Come with me. You go in the business. I got fabric. I'll give you fabric." Sounds reasonable. And he had a name. I couldn't get a name because the government closed that. For a while, you couldn't open new...

Harley Finkelstein:
You couldn't open a new business?

Joseph Schaffer:
No.

Harley Finkelstein:
Wow.

David Segal:
Really?

Joseph Schaffer:
You couldn't get it. You got to get a permit.

Harley Finkelstein:
Okay. And he already had this?

Joseph Schaffer:
This guy had it. So I took him and he was supposed to bring in $1,800. I brought it in. My father gave to me. I went to the bank. I became friends with the bank. I liked to drink, but they liked better, the drink. So I used to buy them. He became the head of the bank in this area. And he was in my board when I went public.

Harley Finkelstein:
Wow.

Joseph Schaffer:
He was the finest guy you've ever met.

Harley Finkelstein:
Amazing.

Joseph Schaffer:
Let me go back. I saw the opportunity. He couldn't make it. So I said, "I'm sorry." I shook hands with him. As he's going, I went and took it on my own. I went into the bank and I told them word for word the truth, no gifts. And that's how I live all my life.

Harley Finkelstein:
Wow.

Joseph Schaffer:
I never took a dollar from anybody. And I never put anybody in jail who didn't pay. I lost it, take a loss.

David Segal:
Before you had customers, your father gives you $1,800.

Joseph Schaffer:
Right.

David Segal:
The bank is willing to loan you on finished goods that are pre-sold to customers. You still got to buy the equipment, right? You still have to be able to make clothing. Do you know how to make clothing at this point?

Joseph Schaffer:
No. No.

David Segal:
Right. So how'd you figure out how to make it?

Joseph Schaffer:
My sister was an operator. She sewed the clothes.

Harley Finkelstein:
She knew how to operate.

Joseph Schaffer:
But it wasn't a problem. You were able to get people to come to work. I put in 12 machines that I got credit on.

David Segal:
Sewing machines?

Joseph Schaffer:
Sewing machines. And they weren't electric. They became electric later. And my sister made samples for me. I hired a so-called designer. He was a one-time pattern maker, but he became a little designer because I brought the clothes for him to make. One day... Mixing the stories, but-

David Segal:
That's okay.

Joseph Schaffer:
I didn't have a car. I came by, not the bus, but those days we had-

David Segal:
Street car.

Joseph Schaffer:
Street car. Apparently you went to... I buy street car. I get off the street car, and with my feet I jump over, take a look in the window. There's a picture with a woman on it and says, "Cute, hey?" So I said, "Yeah." I went back. I figured I'll make it. And I tell this guy... He says, "I made a pattern for this." He worked for the company, but it was a bit of a mess. So I said, "Yeah."

Harley Finkelstein:
Make it for me.

David Segal:
Knock it off. Yeah.

Harley Finkelstein:
Make it for me.

Joseph Schaffer:
"Go and make it." Came back and made it. I sold that. I sold over a couple of years, a few thousand.

Harley Finkelstein:
Wow.

Joseph Schaffer:
It was simple [inaudible 00:09:52] beautiful shaped-

David Segal:
Your first runner.

Harley Finkelstein:
Let me ask you something though. As you talk about this, Joe, do you think your success came from work ethic or was it more about your eye for what would sell?

Joseph Schaffer:
Sales comes after you got the goods.

Harley Finkelstein:
Sales comes after you got the goods.

Joseph Schaffer:
I didn't hire salesmen for the West. I did not hire sales for Toronto. I bought the boys to work in, and they went. I wanted to give them 100%. You buy a salesman. Your schmata is... They have 10 lines. And they had a good job. And I had somebody who went out and had nothing else but themselves to sell. And it worked. It worked. And I made very nice goods.

Harley Finkelstein:
You made good product.

Joseph Schaffer:
Very good product quality-wise and fashion-wise.

Harley Finkelstein:
And you allowed your customers to make money.

Joseph Schaffer:
But this was a small country. When I went into business, there was 11 million people, all over-

Harley Finkelstein:
Million people. Yeah. A quarter the size of Canada today.

Joseph Schaffer:
... 6,000 miles. But nobody did a million dollars. The guys that did a million dollars, who have high price, but I sold a dress for $10 wholesale.

Harley Finkelstein:
Can we talk a bit about... We're going to jump around a little bit and that's okay. We think Chabanel is so interesting. And we've actually had a chance to learn about the history of Chabanel. My first business was a T-shirt business on Chabanel. I sold T-shirts to universities. We're fascinated by the concentration of entrepreneurship in Chabanel. Most people say you are the founder of Chabanel. They call you the king of Chabanel.

Joseph Schaffer:
And I owned it.

Harley Finkelstein:
I know you did. You built it.

Joseph Schaffer:
I owned it, but I was smart enough not to build it myself. I took in a guy, a partner who built [inaudible 00:12:09] and I gave him 20%. Money he didn't have. I already had money. The first building I built was near the Toronto Dominion Bank on Sainte-Catherine and Peel. I built with my partner, and the competitor. The competitor had more points than I had, but I needed space. So I decided I saw Chabanel was coming up, and one of the big, very popular maker bought a place in there. So I went and I bought a piece of land.

Harley Finkelstein:
You bought a piece of land in Chabanel?

Joseph Schaffer:
On Chabanel.

Harley Finkelstein:
Yeah, on Chabanel.

Joseph Schaffer:
And I looked for a partner, and I found a religious boy partner. He had built a couple of buildings on Sainte-Catherine Street with money he didn't have. I had money already. When I built on Chabanel, I was a rich man already. I was in business very many years. But other than the dress business, I went in for my brother-in-law into a fabric business. And he went out West and we were amongst the first that went out West. We bought fabrics [inaudible 00:13:54] and sold it. Listen to me. I never had short of money. I thought I was short of money, but I made it. You see? My first job was to build money. I didn't need every-

Harley Finkelstein:
Your first job was to build money. Before even building fabric or making product, you needed capital.

Joseph Schaffer:
I had capital.

Harley Finkelstein:
Tell us more about that. Yeah, tell us about that.

Joseph Schaffer:
And besides capital, the banks loved me because they were small too. In 1911, Bronfman came here with $25 million. That was a lot of money. What was 25 million? But it's a good start. I had the banks behind me. They pushed me to buy and do this so they could give me money. My own money, they lent. Every partner I took and many partners, not one, not one put in one cent.

Harley Finkelstein:
Wow.

Joseph Schaffer:
No partner of mine. First, they didn't have it.

Harley Finkelstein:
They didn't have it. Yeah. You were finding young partners.

Joseph Schaffer:
But I gave them a job, not a big pay job because I didn't have a big pay job. I gave them a living one. When they made money, we decided because of them, I split it.

Harley Finkelstein:
Why did you do that? Why did you give out equity to so many partners? That was a model that today is very popular. But in those days, the idea of bringing in these... You had the big company and you'd bring in these partners in each division, but you would give them ownership in the business. How did that even come up? How did you think about that?

Joseph Schaffer:
It's by the ownership that they left their job and came to me.

Harley Finkelstein:
They left their other job to come to you because they were not owners there, but they would be owners with you.

Joseph Schaffer:
They were nothing there. I told them, "I'll build a connection for you with all the big chains. They're all my friends and they need my goods." That's what I did for them. But they made their own. They worked their own. Some came two. When two came, I gave them a little more than the one, but they got the money. And I'm not going to check you. My brother once told me, he came along and said, "Joe, some of these guys go to the Orient and they look after themselves." I said, "Benny, if you want more than one store, you got to close your eyes to this. If you want that nobody should steal from you, you make your own store."

Harley Finkelstein:
Yeah. I want to repeat that because I want to make sure I'm clear. When you were told that some of these partners might be having side deals when they were going to the factories in Asia, you didn't care because you felt like you were all making more money anyway. If they were skimming a little bit, it didn't matter?

Joseph Schaffer:
I know what you mean, side deals, little bit take. And now you see, I found out after I closed, a couple of guys that I liked started. How did I know? I put the American guy with my guy in the [inaudible 00:17:42]. The American guy, I still go. And I saw this... One day, he sit here from Chicago. He says to me, "Did you ever get any money from this [inaudible 00:17:57]?"

Harley Finkelstein:
He said, "No, I didn't. I didn't know there was money from that thing."

Joseph Schaffer:
I found out. But he gave me enough. When I told my brother, "If he's losing, listen [inaudible 00:18:10]."

Harley Finkelstein:
Right. But if we're all making money, then it's okay.

Joseph Schaffer:
All that money. Yeah.

David Segal:
Joe, I want to go back to one thing that you said that was so interesting. You said, "My job is to get the money first and foremost." And then you clarified and said the capital. In those days, it was about winning over the banks. The banks had the capital. How did you win over the banks? Why did you get the capital?

Joseph Schaffer:
First of all, I was very friendly with them. They would come to my office after 5:00 and I would open up. And a lot of them, one in particular, he died and I went away. I never said something to them that I didn't deliver. I didn't tell them that I'm going to do this. I first had it. When I had it, I told them. I was honest with them. Never a bad line was put in.

Harley Finkelstein:
They always got paid with you and you always did what you said you're going to do. So you built a trust relationship with them?

Joseph Schaffer:
I still do. And some people... I lost a 22 building downtown because they jerked around with me. I had 22% and I lost the building.

Harley Finkelstein:
Wow.

Joseph Schaffer:
They stole it from me.

David Segal:
Who? The bank?

Joseph Schaffer:
No, no, my partners who had the rest. My partner really died. His son was left. And his son and the others, they were losing money and they got paid from the... But they took pay. They never gave me. "Ah, you'll get it tomorrow. You'll get it this..."

David Segal:
How did you handle when the deal went sour and you had bad partners?

Joseph Schaffer:
I never had bad partners. They made them sour for themselves. You can call it bad, you can call it what you want. As long as they made what I thought I should have made. After that, I closed my eyes.

Harley Finkelstein:
Yeah. So that's back to the whole skimming thing that like, "Look, if you expect you're going to make a certain amount, you get that amount." Whatever happens beyond that, you're okay with.

Joseph Schaffer:
My brother never made money for me and never bought anything. Everything that was bought that I made big money on, my brother never knew about it. I'm selling a piece of property. Not yet. 12 acres outside of Toronto for half a billion dollars.

Harley Finkelstein:
Wow.

Joseph Schaffer:
My brother even didn't know that he owned it. And for 50-odd, I got so much money. I started with 9.5%.

Harley Finkelstein:
Wow.

Joseph Schaffer:
That's how I got into it.

Harley Finkelstein:
Incredible.

Joseph Schaffer:
After that, every five years, raise, raise, raise.

Harley Finkelstein:
And you always participated?

Joseph Schaffer:
The partner, he raised. Not terrible, but he raised. By the time I got it, and after 50-odd years, figure out what rate I got-

Harley Finkelstein:
Couldn't believe it. It's a billion dollars.

Joseph Schaffer:
It was amazing.

Harley Finkelstein:
Amazing.

Joseph Schaffer:
By sheer luck, nobody came to buy it. I had two, three more I bought. When I say I bought, my-

Harley Finkelstein:
Partner.

Joseph Schaffer:
... partner bought total of $6 million for all I did. We had to pay three million and three million, we got the mortgage.

Harley Finkelstein:
Wow.

Joseph Schaffer:
That's what it was. There was no buyers. And $3 million was a lot of money.

David Segal:
Why'd you keep the faith? A lot of people would've thrown in the towel and said, "I'm not continuing to put more money into this."

Harley Finkelstein:
Going back to Chabanel and the garment industry, the schmata business, what do you think? Is the schmata business still going to be a good business industry long term? Do you think it's always going to be good? You're the godfather of Chabanel. What do you think?

Joseph Schaffer:
The Orient ripped that apart.

Harley Finkelstein:
How so?

Joseph Schaffer:
First of all, these buyers, today, $100,000 is nothing. And they sell. They go out. The big companies today in their business, I name a few of this, they buy big. Take the guy that I always go to Florida. What's the name of that? The big chain?

Harley Finkelstein:
Costco?

Joseph Schaffer:
Costco. You know how much he buys a shirt? How many pieces he buys?

Harley Finkelstein:
A million?

David Segal:
Hundreds of millions. Yeah.

Joseph Schaffer:
Millions. And his make is phenomenal.

Harley Finkelstein:
Kirkland.

Joseph Schaffer:
Quality is excellent. And he sells us just... How do I know? My daughters buy me the shirt. I go there too.

Harley Finkelstein:
Amazing.

Joseph Schaffer:
I'm ashamed to buy. See?

Harley Finkelstein:
So she buys it for you. So you're saying that there's no way to compete today-

David Segal:
With that scale.

Harley Finkelstein:
... with that type of scale and that type of manufacturing supply chain?

Joseph Schaffer:
No, he starts to sell Costco [inaudible 00:24:08]. But my friend, who you know, Eddie Wilson, his son and this-

Harley Finkelstein:
Jacqueline and Mark.

Joseph Schaffer:
I thought I knew. It's a different world.

Harley Finkelstein:
I know.

Joseph Schaffer:
He don't see it. He don't make it. All he gets is a check.

Harley Finkelstein:
He just gets a check. Well, look, at that scale, in modern business, he has to make everything overseas. It goes directly from the factories, directly to the distribution centers, right to the stores. Yeah, they don't see it. They're not making it anymore.

Joseph Schaffer:
You should go in business.

Harley Finkelstein:
I'm thinking about it.

Joseph Schaffer:
You know exactly how it works.

Harley Finkelstein:
I do.

Joseph Schaffer:
It's unbelievable.

Harley Finkelstein:
So do you think that Joe Schaffer today, if today in 2025 you were a 30-year-old entrepreneur, business owner, could you have done what you did building Chabanel the way you built it and building Algo?

Joseph Schaffer:
I don't know if there's room for a startup. It's easy. There is room. Always room for everything. But then there was easy then. First of all, there was a lot of small stores. They would buy. Someone didn't pay so well, but they got shipments and all that. Today is a tough market because the big guys own it.

Harley Finkelstein:
We heard a story where one of your partners came to see you. Eddie came to see you and said, "Joe, I lost $50,000 on deal." And you said, "Eddie, don't worry. I lost more today than you did." And you let it go. There's a certain way that you've done business that invites people to hitch their wagon to you, but also just to be your partner for a very long time.

Joseph Schaffer:
I never got rid of a partner.

Harley Finkelstein:
Never?

Joseph Schaffer:
Never.

David Segal:
Wow.

Joseph Schaffer:
Never. I treated them right and they got a little extra.

Harley Finkelstein:
You [inaudible 00:26:26] little extra.

Joseph Schaffer:
As long as they delivered.

David Segal:
But wait a sec, Joe. Never got rid of a partner. You had dozens and dozens of partners. What did you do with an underperforming partner?

Joseph Schaffer:
I didn't look for non-performing. I had good people in the office. Jack Wilson, Saul Jankowski. They were top people. When they found out something like this, they got rid of it. It never came into my eyes.

Harley Finkelstein:
Good. So you brought in partners that when there was a problem, they would fix it.

Joseph Schaffer:
They would take it. But I didn't have any problems.

Harley Finkelstein:
But you got very lucky then to have partners like that, Joe.

Joseph Schaffer:
Right. But I gave the partners extras. When came to bonus partner and if he owned 22%, I gave them 30%.

Harley Finkelstein:
Wow. So you gave up equity when they deserved it?

Joseph Schaffer:
I know they need money. I didn't need money. When I got that money, where did I put it? To the bank, in the stock market, and land.

David Segal:
Joe, you make it sound so easy. Why didn't everyone have this partnership philosophy?

Joseph Schaffer:
They didn't give them properly. Probably, they worked as bosses. I didn't act as a boss.

Harley Finkelstein:
You acted as a partner.

Joseph Schaffer:
A partner. He's a partner, he's entitled to this. And I had all kinds. I did. I just told you that this... But when I saw the guy was making for me a million and a half a year, and if he stole it, I expected less than a million and a half. And he made, he gave me, especially in the Orient. One of the Orient people that I put in, I got a billion dollars.

Harley Finkelstein:
I know. We heard all about him. Alan, I think his name is, right?

Joseph Schaffer:
Right.

Harley Finkelstein:
Yeah. No, that's one of the stories. We did a lot of research for this interview and one of the stories that keeps coming up is one about partnership, long-term partnership. But second, that the people that worked for you all became incredibly wealthy, all made a lot of money.

Joseph Schaffer:
Yep.

Harley Finkelstein:
They all made a lot of money. I want to ask you something. How old are you now?

Joseph Schaffer:
Who?

Harley Finkelstein:
You. You're 103?

Joseph Schaffer:
Four.

Harley Finkelstein:
104. Excuse me.

Joseph Schaffer:
I'm closer to five than to four.

Harley Finkelstein:
You're almost 105 years old. We heard a story that in the heyday of Chabanel, the glory days, that Joe Schaffer in his beautiful suits would drive up and down Chabanel in his Rolls-Royce. And that visual, that symbol of you driving down Chabanel in your Rolls-Royce inspired everybody to work harder, to become more successful, to grow their business. You created ambition there.

Joseph Schaffer:
Maybe.

Harley Finkelstein:
That's what we were told. And I believe that. When you look back on the legacy that you've created, forget Algo, but just Chabanel, the Garment District, the Canadian entrepreneur business world, what do you leave? What is the legacy you think you leave here?

Joseph Schaffer:
I'll tell you, I never told anybody, I wanted to get a bank in Canada, the bill.

David Segal:
The Order of Canada.

Joseph Schaffer:
The Order of Canada.

Harley Finkelstein:
The Order of Canada.

Joseph Schaffer:
Yeah.

Harley Finkelstein:
Wow.

Joseph Schaffer:
And somebody came to see me. I don't know if that's true or not or whether I forget that. But why did he come to see me? I was finished 10 years for Combined. I worked. I made more money for Combined than any one person.

Harley Finkelstein:
This is Combined Jewish Appeal, CJA.

Joseph Schaffer:
When Charles Bronfman opened the first night, he always opened the first night, I saw every big giver myself. And I saw people that were old from the build giver that I made sure they come. And I told people who they were and they liked it. I think we owed them something. They paid for years. People gave money. Those that had, gave maybe not enough, but nobody ever gives enough. The oldest story in the world.

Harley Finkelstein:
Yeah. So that's it. For you, it's charity. For you, it's the community that is your legacy that you're most proud of?

Joseph Schaffer:
That's right.

David Segal:
Joe, there is a young Joe Schaffer listening to this right now who you described this innate God-given ability to just get it. You understood business. You understood how to buy, how to sell. What do you tell young Joe Schaffer? What do you say to this person? This person listening may not have any money. What do you tell them to do? What's your wisdom for that?

Joseph Schaffer:
The first thing I tell them, be honest.

Harley Finkelstein:
Be honest.

Joseph Schaffer:
That will get you somewhere. When you're honest, they'll listen to you. Don't be a fancy guy. Don't do this. Don't take. Honesty is the best policy. That's what helped me. It helped me with the banks. It helped me with the people. When I did something-

David Segal:
Joe, before Harley closes, you mentioned Sam Bronfman's funeral. Tell us about Sam Bronfman. What did he mean to Montreal in the community?

Joseph Schaffer:
Sam was a tough [inaudible 00:32:59].

Harley Finkelstein:
Yeah. Everyone said he was tough.

Joseph Schaffer:
He was tough and he wasn't nice. But his son-

Harley Finkelstein:
Charles.

Joseph Schaffer:
... Charles, he came two years ago. He came, "Oh, Kol Nidre. I can't go to synagogue in the mornings because I'm too tired." But Kol Nidre is tonight. I come in. I sit right in front because the woman who was in charge many years ago, when I looked, her seat... I was very good in Combined. I don't think anybody had what I had.

Harley Finkelstein:
Now, I know why I don't have the good seats.

David Segal:
It's a direct correlation with you-

Joseph Schaffer:
She went there and three seats, men's seats were vacant. There was an argument amongst them. One of the big guys at the... He said to everybody, "That seat goes to Joe Schaffer."

Harley Finkelstein:
Wow.

Joseph Schaffer:
And I got it. At that time, you couldn't get a seat.

Harley Finkelstein:
It's still hard.

Joseph Schaffer:
Today, it's a different world.

Harley Finkelstein:
They put me in row Z. I'm in the back.

David Segal:
He's working his way up.

Harley Finkelstein:
I'm working my way to the front.

David Segal:
One donation at a time.

Harley Finkelstein:
I just moved to Montreal about two years ago, so I'm slowly moving to the front.

Joseph Schaffer:
Good, good. It's a beautiful-

Harley Finkelstein:
It's my favorite city in the whole world. I love it so much. I grew up in South Florida in Boca Raton.

Joseph Schaffer:
Are you a Shomer Shabbos?

Harley Finkelstein:
No.

David Segal:
My grandparents went to the Shaarei Shomayim for 60 years. My grandmother laid one of the first stones when we were building it.

Joseph Schaffer:
What's her name?

David Segal:
My grandfather's name was Hy Segal. He was one of the brothers who built Peerless Clothing. Philip, Mo, and Hy. And my grandmother's name was Avi Bloomer.

Joseph Schaffer:
I know both names.

David Segal:
Sure. Yeah, I figured you would.

Joseph Schaffer:
I'm there a long time.

David Segal:
Yeah, yeah. My grandfather was 10 years older than you.

Joseph Schaffer:
He's still around?

David Segal:
No. No. Joe, he died a long time ago. He died. He made it to 90. Not bad.

Harley Finkelstein:
All right. Last question before we let you go. We got to go. Last question. How do we live to 105 years old with as much joy that you have?

Joseph Schaffer:
If I knew that...

Harley Finkelstein:
What's your secret?

Joseph Schaffer:
My secret is I believe in God. Every day or at night, when I feel good, I say, "Thank you, sir." Every day.

Harley Finkelstein:
Wow.

Joseph Schaffer:
And on top of that, you got to have a little luck.

Harley Finkelstein:
You got to have some luck. You do. Joe, thank you for sitting down with us. David and I are very grateful.

Joseph Schaffer:
Thank you. It's a pleasure.

David Segal:
Thank you so much.

Harley Finkelstein:
We are young entrepreneurs. We grew up hearing stories of Sam Bronfman, Aldo Bensadoun, and Joe Schaffer. We did. And the fact that we're finally meeting, it is a great honor for us.

Joseph Schaffer:
Thank you.

Harley Finkelstein:
I mean that.

Joseph Schaffer:
One day, I'd like you to come to lunch.

Harley Finkelstein:
I'd love to go to lunch. I live in West Elm now.

Joseph Schaffer:
Wait, not now. March, February. No, May.

Harley Finkelstein:
May? Good.

Joseph Schaffer:
But now it's empty.

Harley Finkelstein:
Okay. May?

David Segal:
Everybody's in Florida.

Joseph Schaffer:
New people came up. Yesterday I was there. It was a bad day, but I went anyway. First of all, I like a walk. That's part of maybe my... There was nobody there. There are two, three people there still. One is leaving.

Harley Finkelstein:
They're all in Florida.

Joseph Schaffer:
Yeah.

Harley Finkelstein:
So I'll come in May. You got it.

Joseph Schaffer:
That's good.

Harley Finkelstein:
But I'm going to buy. It's an honor to meet you.