From Startups to Giants: 60 Amazing Facts About American Companies

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26Flavor Packs

Flavor Packs

Tropicana OJ is owned by PepsiCo and Simply Orange by Coca Cola. They strip the juice of oxygen for better storage, which strips the flavor. They then hire flavor and fragrance companies, who also formulate perfumes for Dior, to engineer flavor packs to add to the juice to make it “fresh.”


27. When the Camaro name was unveiled by General Motors in 1966, 200 journalists present asked Chevrolet managers what it meant. They replied, “a small, vicious animal that eats Mustangs.”


28. When PepsiCo entered India, the Indian government stipulated part of its local profits be used to purchase tomatoes. This requirement worked for PepsiCo because it also owned Pizza Hut at the time.


29. The FedEx logo has won over 40 design awards and was ranked as one of the eight best logos in the last 35 years. The white arrow in the logo was an intentional design choice, created by blending two different fonts together.


30. Wal-Mart loses around $3 Billion a year to theft. In 2015, $3 billion dollars lost due to theft constituted only 1% of Wal-Mart’s $300 billion revenue.


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31Boeing Banned

Boeing Banned

Boeing was banned from bidding on contracts for US spy satellites after one of their contracts went over budget by at least $4 billion before it was ultimately canceled and given to Lockheed Martin.


32. In 2009, General Motors declared bankruptcy, took billions in government bailout money and issued new stock for the "New GM," with no compensation for the old shareholders now worthless "Old GM" stock.


33. In 2012 Wells Fargo fired a customer service representative for putting a cardboard dime in a laundry machine when he was a kid back in 1963.


34. Wal-Mart once pulled Midge, a doll in the Barbie line, from the shelves due to concerns she was pregnant with no wedding ring and it would promote teen pregnancy.


35. In the 1920s and 30s, Procter & Gamble (originally known for soap and candles) sponsored several radio shows, those shows becoming known as “soap operas.”


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36UPS Route

UPS Route

UPS drivers don’t take the shortest routes. UPS has special software which optimizes each route by eliminating as many left-hand turns as possible. As a result, UPS claims it uses 10 million gallons of less fuel, emits 20,000 tons of less carbon dioxide and delivers 350,000 more packages every year.


37. An algorithm developed for Target to predict who was pregnant in order to optimize advertising predicted a specific teenage girl's pregnancy, even before her family knew about it.


38. General Motors once hired prostitutes to attempt to seduce Ralph Nader in order to discredit him in his campaign to force the automobile industry to include seatbelts in its cars.


39. In 2011, a man killed his wife inside the Wal-Mart she was working at. Rather than close the store, they chose to just rope off the gore-splattered area while police investigated.


40. Dr Pepper is owned by neither PepsiCo or The Coca-Cola Company, but are instead only distributors. This is why you can find Dr Pepper in both Pepsi and Coke soda fountains and vending machines.


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41FedEx Early Days

FedEx Early Days

In the early days of FedEx, CEO Fred Smith took the company’s last $5,000 to Las Vegas and won $27,000 gambling on blackjack to cover the company’s $24,000 fuel bill.


42. In 1996, Pfizer may have killed 50 kids in Nigeria while improperly testing experimental anti-meningitis drugs.


43. The only employee of Goldman Sachs to go to jail in the aftermath of the financial crisis was Michael Lewis, an employee that Goldman Sachs specifically told authorities to arrest for stealing computer code the employee helped write. He was arrested 48 hours after they informed authorities without a warrant.


44. In 1987, a man named Steve Rothstein took advantage of the AAirpass (a promotion by American Airlines that let people pay a one-time $250,000 and have a lifetime of unlimited flights) and quit his job so he could fly continuously. This ended up costing the airline more than $21 million.


45. When the Sears catalog began to be printed on glossy paper instead of “regular” paper, the company received complaints because people found it harder to use as toilet paper.


46Norway

Norway

Norway stopped investing money into Wal-Mart after determining that the company is guilty of “serious violations of fundamental ethical norms.”


47. The removal of Skymall magazines saved American Airlines an estimated $350,000 per year in fuel costs.


48. Comcast has won the “Worst Company in America” award twice, first in 2010 and second in 2014.


49. In the 1960s, General Electric sold some new-fangled color TV sets that emitted excessive amounts of radiation. This is where the myth that sitting too close to the TV will make you go blind came from.


50. One air crash, Delta Flight 1141, was caused by the pilots talking about another air crash, Continental Flight 1713. They were so distracted by their own conversation that they forgot to lower the flaps. The other air crash they were talking about also involved too much non-relevant discussion.

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