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

If you are in any way connected to the business of the Yellow Pages anywhere in America, we had a frightening thing happen in my neighborhood this week. This Saturday, a white van drove around the neighborhood very slowly and began dropping things on stoops. The white van was droppingMORE HERE

There is a new Time Inc. service called Maghound. With Maghound, you get a subscription to all the Time magazines, and you can pick and choose which ones you like. The logo is cool. While we wish Maghound well, we hope it doesn’t go the way of that other uber-TimeMORE HERE

It’s the brand Thum. We thought this was a hilarious brand that we found at Walgreens. We didn’t know parents still worried about thumb-sucking, but glad the product is out there. Just paint on fingertips. And it doesn’t cause nausea or stomach upset.MORE HERE