WORKING IN L.A. / THE PRODUCE MARKET : A Pre-Dawn Link in the Food Chain

The worst thing about the job is the hours.

Chuck Johnson gets up about 11:30 p.m., arriving at work by 1 a.m. His bedtime is 5:30 p.m.

Carmen Palominos starts his workday about an hour later than Johnson, but he still averages only about five hours of sleep. During the World Series, the games ran late so he got to bed late and his average dropped to two hours.

For Paul Dukesherer, George Nunez and Mike Cardenas, it’s much the same story.

Johnson, Palominos, Dukesherer, Nunez and Cardenas are salesmen, part of an army of fast-talking, hard-bargaining, amiable men who invade the clammy pre-dawn world of Los Angeles’ produce markets six days a week to hammer out the deals that put fruits and vegetables on your table.

Standing behind little podia stationed every 75 feet or so along the 800-foot produce docks at the city’s 7th Street, 9th Street and New Market produce centers, they ply their trade by telephone and in person, buying from farmers and brokers and selling to grocery chains, mom-and-pop stores, trendy restaurants, fast-food joints and the people who hawk melons out of the backs of pickup trucks.

For much of the day--from noon to about midnight--the produce markets are vast, empty places.

A few janitors push brooms along the downstairs docks and a handful of struggling artists use upstairs offices for studios and crash pads, but that’s about it. Vickman’s, a restaurant that caters to the produce crowd, shuts down shortly after lunchtime.

At 11:30 p.m., the renaissance begins.

Trucks of every size start rumbling down the darkened streets south of the Civic Center, laden with avocados from Fallbrook, oranges from Porterville, cantaloupes from the Imperial Valley and onions from Lancaster.

The trucks cram the lanes between the loading docks, and by 1 a.m. the docks themselves are overflowing with stacks of bulging cartons and crates. Scuttling between the stacks and the trucks are squadrons of athletic young men with handcarts who carry out the bidding of people such as Johnson, Palominos, Dukesherer, Nunez and Cardenas.

It’s capitalism in its purest form--a world of supply and demand, where the profit margin is slim and the competition is fierce.

“Everybody’s selling the same stuff at about the same price,” Cardenas said. “What makes it work is the relationships you build and the service you provide.”

“What it boils down to is personality,” Johnson said. “It’s how well you relate to your customers.”

Nunez said that because of seasonal changes in climate in different growing areas, produce goes through annual cycles, with each type of fruit and vegetable varying in availability, quality and price throughout the year.

“The difference between a successful company and one that’s not so successful is the salesmen,” Nunez said. “If they’re good, they know what to buy, when to buy it, what to pay for it and how much to charge. They don’t buy too much of something and they don’t buy too little. The whole thing is a balancing act. . . .

“It all comes with experience,” he said. “If you stay in control, you can make a profit. If you lose control, you can lose big.”

By 2:30 a.m., the trading is surging back and forth at full swing. For the next eight hours, if they’re having a good day, the salesmen will be lucky to have time for a coffee break.

Little outfits such as Garden Produce Co., which handles lots as small as a few dozen ears of corn, may move as little as $8,000 worth of produce in a day. Big ones such as the J. Hellman Produce Co., which can deal in tons at a time, will handle at least $250,000 worth “or we’re in trouble,” said Johnson, who works for the company.

By 10:30 a.m., business is winding down. Over at Vickman’s, people are bellying up to the service counter for cups of coffee and slabs of the storied strawberry pie.

“We make a good living,” Johnson said, “but these hours are hard on our families, and Sunday is the only day off. There’s not a produce wife anywhere who likes these hours.”

Dukesherer agreed.

“But with these hours, I can get my hair cut any day of the week,” he said. “And I love the work.

“If you give up sleep, you can spend a lot of time with your family,” he said. “And Saturday nights are big. We have a lot of fun on Saturday nights.”