PALMETTO – Across the U.S., there is no shortage of run-down small and medium-sized towns that used to be far more prominent than they once were. Through most of the 20th century, these towns and small cities often had regional brands connected to them, the most prolific being agricultural produce brands. In truth, brand differential [...]

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MATHEWS, Va. – For brand archaeologists, the best dig site is Cracker Barrel. They are fascinating museums of America’s business history, not to mention their gift shops filled with old-time brands. Here pictured in a restaurant near Jacksonville, Florida are cans of Tidewater Long Wearing Motor Oil. We thank Catesby Jones of Peace Frogs for [...]

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ALMA, Arkansas – Each summer, my grandmother in Somers, Virginia would save the watermelon rinds after we ate watermelon on the patio of the farmhouse. I never could understand it; you want to eat the flesh, but the rind? Bitter! That was until I tasted watermelon rind pickle. Yes, they were watermelon rinds, and they [...]

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Part of the reason I love brands is because I studied them at the Irvington Country Store. When I was 15, in 1979, my father bought a country store in Irvington, Virginia on the Northern Neck. It was a cool country store, and he did the right things with it, including bringing in deli sandwiches [...]

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LOS ANGELES – What guy doesn’t want to be Jim Rockford? Well, perhaps living in the trailer was a bit tiresome (how come they let him keep it in the parking lot?), but the rest of the life as L.A. private eye is way cool. It would be fun to drive about L.A. in a [...]

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We got a call from actor Jeffery Jones (no not the one in Ferris Bueller) who told us a story about Ranch Style Beans, and the Ranch Style Beans Factory, in Fort Worth. Jones lived in the projects of Fort Worth, right near the Ranch Style plant, and it was an early childhood memory.The actor, [...]

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I do like scrapple, though I don’t think anyone I know now actually eats it, so I just don’t have the courage to bring it in the house. It’s one of those things that if you overthink, you lose the appetite. I do remember as a child being served it in right fashionable suburban houses [...]

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It is time for food for the New Year. One such staple of the holidays in the South are chitterlings, or chitlins. Growing up, of the animal parts, I would eat souse and scrapple, though never chitterlings. Souse is, of course, a head cheese made of the brains of a pig. It is eaten as [...]

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Boston papers are reporting the sad news. Brigham’s is closing its last store in Boston. The ice cream company has been an icon of Boston since 1924, and locals and tourists have seen it as a part of the Boston identity. It’s a great regional brand, and much beloved. The chain was purchased in June [...]

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New York is, of course, a great tourist destination. But with vacancy rates going up, it needs a spurt. Recently, The Fantastiks came back. That’s quite interesting. And then a version of the old Horn &  Hardart Automat returned, in the format of Bamn! It got us thinking. What are the other tourism opportunities out [...]

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