Wayne Huizenga-- Part 3: Owned Waste Management, Inc.

Harry Wayne Huizenga was born in the Chicago suburbs on December 29, 1937, to a family of garbage haulers.  He attended Calvin College in Grand Rapids , Michigan, but dropped out and began his own garbage hauling business in Pompano Beach, Florida, in 1962.

He would drive a garbage truck from 2 am to noon each day, then go shower and go out and solicit new customers.  He eventually bought out several competitors expanding throughout South Florida.  In 1968 he merged with the Chicago sanitation company his uncles owned, creating Waste Management Inc. which eventually became the world's largest trash company.

That was his method of operation -- becoming the first national player in industries dominated by small and local operations.  he resigned from the company in 1984 and was paid $100 million in stock.

--Cooter

Made in the U.S.A.-- Part 1

From the April 22, 2013, Time Magazine by Rana Foroohar and Bill Saporito. Interesting article on the comeback of American manufacturing, sort of. But, I found the graphic at the beginning of the article about items still made in the U.S. and since when: PYREX, 1915, SHARPIE 1964, SLINKY 1945, NEW BALANCE SNEAKERS 1938, TABASCO 1868, MRS. MYERS CLEAN DAY 2000, LOUISVILLE SLUGGER 1894, WEBER GRILLS 1952, RED WING SHOES 1905, CRAYOLA 1903, STANLEY 1843, STETSON HATS 1865, KETTLE (chips) 1982. Very Interesting-- Cooter

Ten Really Old Companies Still Operating Today

From the August 12, 2011 Listverse.

10.  Sotheby's--  1744--  auctions
9.  Twining's Tea--  1706
8.  Lloyd's of London--  1688--  insurance

7.  Sveriges Riksbank--  1668--  Swedish bank
6.  London Gazette--  1665--  newspaper
5.  Royal Delft--  1653--  pottery
4.  Fiskars--  1649--  Finland--  iron

3.  Haig--   1627-- Scotch whisky, Scotland
2.  Grolsch--  1615--   beer--  Netherlands
1.  Beretta--  1526--  guns

That's Some Kind of Old.  --Cooter

Ten Brands That Will Disappear in 2012

From 24/7 Wall Street in Yahoo! Finance.

These are brands expected to end by the end of next year.

1. Sony Pictures
2. A&W restaurants (started 1919)
3. Saab Auto (started 1949)
4. American Apparel
5. Sears

6. Sony Ericsson
7. Kellogg's Corn Pops
8. My Space-- once the world's largest social network (Never belonged to it, but don't belong to that Face Book thing either.)
9. Soap Opera Digest
10. Nokia-- largest handset company

They have their reasons for each one. Check out the article.

I'd Really Miss A&W. Love Their Root Beer and Dogs. --Cooter

What's in a Name: Get to the "Shack"

The August 9th Chicago Tribune had an article "What's in a Name" by Wailin Wong talking about when companies change their names and why.

RADIO SHACK said its changing its name to just The Shack in order to become more relevant as a lot of people don't even know what radio is anymore. Hey, can I download it?

PIZZA HUT was originally going to be Pizza Shack, but they didn't have enough room on the sign, so iot became Hut.

OLD NAME-- NEW NAME, AND WHY

KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN-- KFC--to push its non-fried offerings. Fried is very limiting. Hey, we grill as well.

GALVIN MANUFACTURING CORP-- MOTOROLA--As an update of its image to emphasize a hit product, in this case, Motorola was a hit car radio introduced in 1930. Dropped founding family name, Galvin in 1947.

MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC INDUSTRIAL CO.-- PANASONIC CORP.-- Matsushita was founded in 1918 and wanted to unify its image under its popular Panasonic brand. I always thought it was just Panasonic. Change became official just last year.

VALUJET AIRLINES-- AIRTRAN AIRWAYS-- ValuJet acquired AirTran in 1997 and took that name, no doubt to forget about the 1996 ValuJet crash near Miami that killed all 110 aboard.

Guess I Have to Update the Cooter's History Thing Blog Name. How About "The Coot's Hoot?" --Cooter