The Pike Place Fish Market was purchased in 1965 by John Yokoyama. Yokoyama was a former employee of the fish market, who bought the store to make enough money to afford the car payments on his new Buick Riviera. At first, Pike Place Fish Market was unknown outside of the Seattle area. Yokoyama and his staff decided to change that in a meeting with a business coach in 1986. Prior to the meeting, the Pike Place Fish Market was near to bankruptcy. Consultant, Jim Bergquist, was helping them to conceive of ways to save the business. A fish market employee at the meeting suggested that they not only save the business, but make it "world famous". They had the idea of flying and throwing fish and having games with customers. They thought that staff were enjoying their work so that customers would as well. In an interview, Yokoyama stated, "We took a stand that we were going to become world famous. We just said it and it became so."