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Name Brands that disappeared


RPM

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Once an American powerhouse, sold to Phillips in 1974, then resold to Funai but repo'd after they breached contract. Defense group was sold to Hughes Electronics then to Raytheon. They spun off the sonobuoy operation to form Under Sea Systems Inc (USSI). In 1998, Raytheon sold USSI to a British defense consortium named Ultra Electronics. 

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27 minutes ago, EuroHorn said:

 

I remember finding a bag of those at a family gathering and thinking they were real candy as a young kid.  They tasted like plastic and feet.  And yes, AIDS will suppress your diet.  

Can we count Pan Am Airlines as a "brand"?  Wasn't it the largest airline on the planet at its peak in terms of both passenger count and market cap?  

I realize stores aren't the same thing as brands per say, but didn't realize until yesterday that there are less than 20 K-Marts and 20 Sears left in the United States and it'll be half that in a year's time.  I mean Sears was fucking huge, bigger than Amazon is today in terms of market share.  

For tangible consumer brands, I'd have to go with Oldsmobile.  It was an after-thought brand under the GM banner when most of us were coming up, but it was a massive line both independently owned and under the GM flag for a full century before the full wind-down began.  35 million cars and SUVs sold all-time.  At one point by the  1980's, 1 in 3 American households had owned an Oldsmobile at some point in their past/present.  Other than maybe pickup trucks in some geographic markets in the U.S., that'll never be matched again.  

 

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Dr. Porkenhiemer's Boner Juice.

 

Actually, the "disappearing brands" is interesting.  A good friend of ours has acquired several well-known but defunct or almost defunct brands.  Reviving/combining them with other product lines is the plan.  So, don't rule out seeing things like "Magnavox" make another run at relevance.

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8 minutes ago, Scheiss Meister said:

My first taste of beer was a sip of my granddad's Jax that I snuck while bringing it to him from the fridge while he and my dad watched football on TV.

My story, and brand, as well.  Jax was very popular in SE Texas in the 60's and very early 70's.  Loved beer from that first sip . . .

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32 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Sears was first knocked to the ground by Wal-Mart, and then was knocked out of the ring by Amazon.

It's always hindsight but too many big brands refuse to adapt because they see the adaption as hurting their traditional brand. Then you're Sears with only a handful (15?) full-sized stores left.

What's funny about this is Sears was the Amazon of the late 19th/early 20th century. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sears

Quote

 

Before the Sears catalog, farmers near small rural towns usually purchased supplies, often at high prices and on credit, from local general stores with narrow selections of goods. Prices were negotiated and relied on the storekeeper's estimate of a customer's creditworthiness. Sears built an opposite business model by offering in their catalogs a larger selection of products at published prices.

By 1894, the Sears catalog had grown to 322 pages, including many new items, such as sewing machines, bicycles, sporting goods and automobiles (later produced, from 1905 to 1915, by Lincoln Motor Car Works of Chicago [no relation to the current Ford line]).[14] By 1895, the company was producing a 532-page catalog. Sales were over $400,000 ($12 million in 2021 dollars) in 1893 and over $750,000 ($20 million in 2021 dollars) two years later.[15] By 1896, dolls, stoves, and groceries were added to the catalog.

 

 

Rosenwald brought to the mail-order firm a rational management philosophy and diversified product lines: dry goods, consumer durables, drugs, hardware, furniture, and nearly anything else a farm household could desire.

Sales continued to proliferate, and the prosperity of the company and their vision for more significant expansion led Sears and Rosenwald to take the company public in 1906, with a stock placement of $40 million ($1.2 billion today).

 

 

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2 minutes ago, Scheiss Meister said:

Do you remember the "Jax! Fahbacher!" commercials, or did I just imagine those?

Yes, I do remember those.  Actually, it was my father's beer, not my grandfather's and I did not have to sneak the first sip.  I was raised in that eastern European beer culture that begins in west Fort Bend County and runs west out old US 90.  All the kids drank beer at an early age.

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1 hour ago, Armybrat said:

Pontiac. 
DeSoto. 
Packard. 

 

The 1st car I remember my parents having was a white and pink 57 Desoto,  same year I was born.  What an awesome battleship of a car it was.

Edit, and viva la Schlitz, best beer for homemade BBQ sauce ever.

Edited by SHOOTER12
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7 minutes ago, DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt said:

Blue jeans edition:

Z cavarricis 

Garbaeux

I didn’t spell either of those right. 90s kids know what’s up.

Girbaud jeans (80s kids do too since we had them before you)

 

It might be too regional, but Dunlaps was a big name in West Texas when I was a kid.

Copy_of_dunlaps_closing.png

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48 minutes ago, RDCanecutter said:

Baltimore Colts.

 

Well, if you're going to do that, how about Houston Oilers

🤬

 

40 minutes ago, 0xdeadbeef said:

Once upon a time, Computer Shopper was the king.

If you're too young or you weren't a Nerd, you may not have even known this existed.   

Behold, shopping for computers and tech gear before the age of amazon.com:
EXylj8dXYAAzw-P.png

For better or worse this went the way of 56K Modems. 

I loved the ads in A+ (in the 1980s) and PC Magazine and PC Computing, but Computer Shopper was where you went to find all the components. It was the Fry's of the 1990s.

 

Come to think of it, how about that Frys Electronics. :(

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