There are a large number of helpful websites that detail retail history. While Wall Street has finally understood the dangers lurking in American retail, these websites have been detailing what has been happening, some of them for the last decade. Many of them also have ideas and answers and solutions, shouldMORE HERE

As American companies have abandoned their legacy and sold out or turned into ever larger monopolies, new companies, often non U.S., have reaped the great rewards. One such story is Rockwell, which was one of the stellar brands of the United States space program, and best known and most trusted industrialMORE HERE

TALLAHASSEE – A reproduction Trans Am, signed by Burt Reynolds, has been a hit on social media and in car shows this spring. The $115,000 car, a specialty item modified from a new Chevrolet Camaro, is a modern interpretation of the car that  gained fame in the hilarious Jackie Gleason, SallyMORE HERE

Many believe that a brand is all about contriving some image for a commodity, and once you do that, to a particular degree of coolness or hipness or edginess, you have a brand. That is wrong. Instead, what is important is good taste, authenticity and eternal values. Seeing today’s newsMORE HERE

In the 1970s and 1980s, the little rounded atomizers of Neo-Synephrine were ubiquitous in medicine cabinets, a bulbous white bottle with a colored top, in either blue or green. Perhaps this is just a false memory, though it really does not matter, that my first grade teacher, tended to haveMORE HERE

Sometimes, the best things are not necessarily the most expensive, or easy to find. Such is the case of the Bic Round Stick Grip, a pen that may be one of the best pens ever. Of course, Marcel Bich & Edouard Buffard’s original great pen is the 1950 vintage Cristal,MORE HERE

Texaco would do well to craft a strong separate identity from Chevron. For years, Texaco had separate brands like Havoline oil and Marfak lubrication, and a connection to the wealthy through its support of the Metropolitan Opera.
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HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. – Kmart, a unit of Sears Holdings, has struggled for the last two decades. In the last two years, management has tried to give the brand focus, all the while suffering from old stores and less viable locations. This month, more bad news came as more storeMORE HERE

Kodak is taking a route back to move forward as it reintroduces the Super 8 camera. In a press release, the company said it had built a “roadmap” that includes a range of cameras, film development services, post production tools and more. “It is an ecosystem for film” said JeffMORE HERE

WEST CONSHOHOCKEN – The Ritz cloth brand was originally founded in 1892 by the John Ritzenthaler Company. This lower Manhattan (aren’t so many great brands founded there?), was started by John Ritzenthaler, a German immigrant, who gave the products the name Ritz Cloths. Cheese cloth is one of those productsMORE HERE