20 Unknown Facts & Stories About World’s Biggest Companies

Knife manufacturer, Victorinox, claims never to have had to lay off an employee. To avoid this they set aside profits during boom periods to supplement recessionary periods, as well as temporarily contracting employees to other companies as outsourced labor during recessions.

2. A Florida-based beer company named Saltwater Brewery has created fully edible 6-pack rings from brewing byproducts such as wheat and barley; the rings are just as strong as the plastic variety, yet completely digestible and biodegradable.

3. There is a company named Creative Home Engineering that specializes in making hidden rooms for your home. One requires a chess board played in a certain combination to unlock.

4. The Michelin Company, which awards prestigious star ratings to restaurants goes to extraordinary lengths to maintain the anonymity of their restaurant inspectors, even advising them not to tell their parents about their line of work.

5. Geneva Steel, in an effort to show the company's importance to the local economy, paid its employees bonuses in $2 bills, which then started showing up in local businesses.

In 2014, a Chinese company rewarded its employee of the year with Yui hatano, a Japan adult video actress.

7. On the first day of business for shoe company Vans, the owners forgot to have cash on hand for a change. The 12 customers that purchased shoes on the first day were all asked to return the following day to pay for their shoes and all 12 did.

8. There is a company that provides private flights for individuals who want to join the "mile high club". For $425.00 you get a 1-hour flight, chocolates, champagne, and a curtain.

9. British banking giant HSBC admitted to laundering billions of dollars for Colombian and Mexican drug cartels and violating a host of important banking laws (from the Bank Secrecy Act to the Trading With the Enemy Act), but there were no criminal charges and no one went to prison.

10. Hitachi once produced an ATM that heated bills to 200°C to kill any bacteria, then ironed them before dispensing.

A company named Acxiom gathers information on some 700 million people, with up to 1,500 data points per person, for ultra-targeted marketing, down to the list of people who buy particular brands of cereal in your local supermarket.

12. Mars Inc. does not support the practice of deep-frying Mars bars in batter, as “deep-frying one of our products would go against our commitment to promoting healthy, active lifestyles.”

13. An insurance company had to stop using their cartoon mascot Erin Esurance because she yielded too much fan-made porn. When searching Esurance online, porn would come up first.

14. In 1925, General Electric, Phillips, and other light bulb manufacturers colluded against consumers and created the 'Phoebus Cartel'. The Cartel conspired to reduce the 1925 light bulb life expectancy from 2500 hours down to only 1000 hours and at the same time, to increase the price per bulb.

15. In 1993, a company called "Space advertising inc." attempted to launch a giant billboard into low earth orbit. From earth, the billboard would look almost as big as a full moon. After the project was canceled, a bill was introduced that banned any further space advertising.

In 1994, Verizon received $2.1 billion in tax breaks to wire every house in Pennsylvania with 45Mbps fiber internet connection by 2015. Half of all households were to be wired by 2004. When deadlines weren't met Verizon kept the money. The same thing happened in New York.

17. A Biotech firm named Pembient has managed to 3-D print fake rhino horns that are genetically identical knockoffs. The company plans to flood the Chinese rhino horn market at one-eighth of the price of the original, undercutting the price poachers can get and forcing them out eventually.

18. New Line Cinema gambled their entire company on the success of the Lord of The Rings franchise, by committing to all three films for more than $270 million up front.

19. LifeLock, an ID protection firm, ran a promotional in which its CEO, being so confident in the service, made his Social Security Number public. This resulted in him being the victim of identity theft 13 times, in addition to a $12 million company fine for false advertising.

20. Kroger uses infrared sensors to track customers in their stores; an algorithm then decides how many checkout lines need to be open to reduce wait times.