He was equally loath to lose Ben Rosner, who had finally retired from Associated Cotton Shops. Rosner’s underlings had made fun of his toilet-paper-pickin’ ways. Sure enough, as soon as they took charge, Associated fell into the tank. For months, Verne McKenzie slogged back and forth to New York’s garment district, peddling its soggy carcass.10 Finally, he found some buyer willing to pay half a million dollars to haul away the remains of a business that only recently had earned Berkshire as much as $2 million a year.
