WINTER HAVEN – Last weekend, the legendary theme park Cypress Gardens closed for four months while management said it would refocus on its water park and historic garden. In the process, it would drop its roller coasters and rides. This temporary shut down is not the first closure for theMORE HERE

For lovers of Drake’s, that cake started by Newman E. Drake in 1988, we worried that the name Hostess has attached itself to Drake’s. Devil Dogs, Yodels, Coffee Cake, Yankee Doodles and Ring Dings can only be associated with Drake’s. Brooklynites need to protest! Drake’s is a Brooklyn brand, throughMORE HERE

Here, two Southern Belles at Cypress Gardens in Winter Haven, Florida. We will be coming up with ideas to help reinvent the Cypress Gardens brand. Sunday, November 16, 2008 was the last day the park opened. It is set to re-open in four months with a more focus on itsMORE HERE

We found some Sweet Sixteen doughnuts at Publix today. There were BIG changes we noticed, and we are not happy. If you are a fan of Merita Sweet Sixteen, you will be VERY upset by the change in packaging. Read about them at www.brandlandusa.com.MORE HERE

We love this British cars. Sunbeam was a car brand started by John Marston Co. Ltd of Wolverhampton, England, in 1888 that made cars, bicycles and motorbikes. The brand was later associated with Chrysler, and shut down in the early 1980s. Visit our main site www.brandlandusa.com/ for in depth stories.MORE HERE

Not mad happy. But mad furious. There is no defense for what Interstate Brands, the parent company of Merita, has done to Merita Sweet Sixteen. A very wonderful person in our house brought back a bag of Sweet Sixteen doughnuts. They are now Hostess Sweet Sixteen. Anyone from the SouthMORE HERE

At Christmas, everyone needs boxes and tins. In fact, all through the year, we need storage. Yet we throw out un-useful packaging boxes that have to be recycled. And then we buy more boxes and containers for packaging. Recycling is expensive, and it uses energy and produces waste during collectionMORE HERE

Do you miss Webster’s ketchup? That was a brand of the Eastern Shore of Virginia. How about Huff & Puff Cat Food? It was a Northern Neck brand of cat food, made from menhaden bits from trawlers in Reedville. Read our story on Northern Neck of Virginia brand names. VisitMORE HERE

We were cleaning up and realized we had TWO brands of spray starch in the house. Two. Is there room in the market for TWO brands of this stuff? A can lasts all year, doesn’t it? And what a funny thing to actually sell, as spray starch is really justMORE HERE

In slowdowns of years past, many retailers owned their own charge card portfolio. That meant something powerful. A retailer could talk directly to its consumers, without someone like GE as an intermediary, and run specials, reduce financing or in general juke up sales. This option has gone from most retailers.MORE HERE