I came across an interesting read on SmartMoney.com a few weeks ago entitled "Chasing Lost Brands," for the complete article click here http://www.smartmoney.com/spending/deals/chasing-lost-brands/.
Products and Brands come and go all the time. Anne Kadet, the author of the article, mentions different name brands for coffee creamer all the way to Flex Shampoo. i used Flex Shampoo back in the day, I hardly noticed when it disappeared.
I want to add to her list a bit.
- Wang Computers- anyone remember that? Emery's main offices are a few streets over from a building that used to be known as the "Wang" building.
- Alta Vista: one of the "original" internet search engines.
- Atari. I remember the original "Pac Man" knockoff. I didn't quite get the same Pac Man Fever that I did when I played the Arcade version.
- OLDSMOBILE. GM's Rocket Division. While we're at it, how about now Pontiac (never thought that would happen) and Saturn. Here's an interesting factoid about Oldsmobile; GM let the registration on the name expire. Guess who owns it now- Toyota.
- American Motors. Let's be honest; this company made some pretty foul vehicles. The Gremlin, I think it's sister vehicle- the Pinto. We did manage to salvage the Jeep though.
- Coming soon to the list- MERCURY (to follow in the steps of it's much lesser successful stable mate, Mercur (which only existed from 1985 to 1989).
Phone Industry:
- Verizon Wireless is one of the major players now- but in their lineage are names like: Airtouch Cellular and Mobile One.
- Anyone remember Ameritech? Actually in that whole exchange, AT&T would have become lost had it not been a more known name than the company that bought it: SBC.
- Not necessarily a brand name- but Pagers. I wonder if they even sell those anymore.
Airline Industry
- PanAm: once the lone giant in the skies. I think it has come back in some manner as a regional carrier, but definitely not the powerhouse it was.
- Trans World Airlines (TWA)
- Eastern Airlines
- US Airways would be known as America West- had US Air not been a more known name
- Piedmont
- People's Express
- too many to write
- Coming soon: Continental Airlines
Banking Industry
Not to be immune from disappearing "inks"- the last 2-3 years have erased many brands from existence. Lets comb through this:
- IndyMac: I think this was the one that got the ball rolling in 2008
- WaMu: Washington Mutual. Gone.
- Bank One. Gone; actually before that it was known as Winters Bank (based in Dayton, OH)
- Old Kent: Now part of 5/3 Bank
- Home Savings & Loan... and along with it the FSLIC (Federal Savings & Loan Insurance Company)
A little closer to Cincinnati:
- Provident Bank
- National City (who bought the above)
- People's Community Bank
- Oak Hills Bank
- Coming soon to the list: Franklin Savings (or Cheviot Savings)... stay tuned.
Not to take this back to an overall advertisement for the Credit Union which I serve. But to toot our own horn here for a moment- the listings above are just a microcasm of LARGE companies that have come and gone, let's not even get into the Enron's and Lehman Brothers of the economy. Emery FCU started in earnest back in the 1930's as an idea that a handful of Emery Industries employees had of "People helping people." A small idea worked and it grew. And it grows today. Lets be honest, the ride that we've all been on in the banking industry since 3rd quarter 2007 has not been fun. We've seen a lot of colleagues in the Credit Union industry (as yes, our colleagues in the Banking industry) fall; some very hard. We've been hit with our share of setbacks, direclty and indirectly- BUT we've navigated the storm and have remained a very strong organization with our eyes squarely focused on road in front of us. though the storm is still buffeting the shores, we feel like the hurricane eye has passed and the storm will be passing soon. We are still here to serve our Members! We are still lending! We are still helping our Members achieve their goals; everyday! Despite the mess that the industry dragged us through, we still have yet to turn in a negative growth year in the last decade (perhaps longer- i didn't look past 1999). Some very powerful names in the banking industry have had to shut their doors in the last few years; we get to open our doors each day to ask our Members, "what can we do for you today?"
Now, before I close- I am a 37 year old male that lived on his own for two years before getting married back in 2000. During that time I got experienced in doing, among other things, my own laundry. And like a true creature of habit got to like a certain fabric softner that Downey made. It was a translucent blue color and came in a blue bottle. I didn't know what I was talking about, but I swore by the stuff.... I haven't been able to find it in YEARS!