I grew up Coca-Cola. My dorm master at Woodberry Forest School, Mr. Richard Glover, was Pepsi. He served Pepsi on Turner Hall, had Pepsi stock, and he loved Pepsi. In our many discussions of the relative merits of the brand that went on for seeming hours as I drank PepsiMORE HERE
Remember the great blizzards of 1966, 1993, and all those other Nor’easters? They made for the need for snowmobiles. Lots. But over the years, fuel prices, competition, and warm winters have put many snowmobile brands off the market. Some brands, like Arctic Cat, returned. The Arctic Cat company was once popular, went bankruptMORE HERE
Perhaps finally, during this Trump administration, the penultimate Reagan-era vehicle, the Jeep Grand Wagoneer, will return. The idea has been under discussion for some time. In the FCA 360 blog, the company said that Fiat Chrysler will invest roughly $1 billion investment to retool and modernize the south plant ofMORE HERE
WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS – Ran across this ad in an old Life magazine, and it made me immediately think of how much the auto market today might never understand the motorcar brand Plymouth. Pictured here, a drawing of a Plymouth in front of The Greenbrier, the West Virginia resort. Plymouth, a ChryslerMORE HERE
Connecticut Presbyterian minister, writer and investor C.R. Wiley is a thought leader in the area of old style rural conservatism. While reading his other great stuff on the website The Imaginative Conservative, I saw a great piece of his about his favorite New England brands. A recommendation for a brand is evenMORE HERE
Occasionally it is fun to look at a disappeared brand that was prominent on shelves. Such was the pain pill Vanquish. It is still made by Bayer, and competes with Excedrin, Anacin and Goody’s as an aspirin, acetaminophen and caffeine constructed pain reliever. It’s quite a competitive and genericized categoryMORE HERE
DETROIT – Don’t sell the meat department of the family grocery store to keep the business afloat. There is a horrible thought floating about General Motors. GM would depart from manufacturing in Europe, sell off Opel to a neighbor like Peugeot, and perhaps grab Jeep and shut down the rest of the non-glamorous,MORE HERE
NEW YORK – One of the many niche defunct brands in men’s accessories was His Lordship. Back in the day when many men regularly wore cuff links, studs and tie tacks, smaller companies like His Lordship sold custom crafted jewelry. In the case of His Lordship, it was mostly nautically themed items, mostlyMORE HERE
SAN ANTONIO – Sears has opened a new spin-off concept, the Die Hard Auto Center. Of course, Die Hard is a strong Sears brand, and this news is just coming off Sears’ sale of Craftsman for an astounding $775 million to Black & Decker. Currently, Sears Holdings is on trackMORE HERE
There is a large amount of room in the marketplace for small, regional, handcrafted fashion and craft brands. One of the many surviving leather companies is J.W. Hulme of St. Paul, Minnesota. They make excellent leather goods, including bags, briefcases and wallets; it’s a luxury approach with a simpler, less fashionMORE HERE