Page 36 - Business Facts

Kit Kat is only a Hershey product in the US. It’s Nestlé everywhere else.

Kit Kat has had a long history dating all the way back to the 18th century, when mutton pies called Kit-Kats were served at the political Kit-Cat Club. The origins of today’s product go back to 1935, when a York based candy maker called Rowntree’s trademarked “Kit Kat.” The Kit Cat, as it was called, was produced for a while, before being discontinued. Eventually, it relaunched and was relabeled as “Rowntree’s Chocolate Crisp” before being renamed to its modern title.

In the 1940’s Kit Kat was exported to Canada, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. That was actually when the still used “Have a Break, Have a Kit Kat” line came around. In the 1970s, a new distribution factory was made in Germany to meet European demand, and to better handle distribution, agreements were established for Hershey to distribute in the US, and Fujiya to distribute in Japan.

In 1988, Nestlé purchased Rowntree’s, buying Kit Kat with it. Nestlé managed to take global control over the brand, except in North America, where Hershey still had the licensing rights to Kit Kat, which it still utilizes today. 

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Craigslist has a “best of” section for the most unusual posts.

It seems a little strange that such a professionally assembled and managed service would have such a thing, but if you’re stuck inside on a rainy day, flipping through the “best of” section makes for some pretty good reading. If you’re a frequent Craigslist user over 18, it’s something you can get in on. 

All postings are nominated by users, and can often be very offensive, as well as sexual, graphic, and most importantly, not always funny. The section is frequently updated, and some posts from June include the following: 

On June 17th, a posting went up for a VW Bug partway through the modification process to look like Gene Simmons (of KISS fame). You can see it pictured on the right. 

June 16th shows a post for a free birthday hat for a dog, and warns that it shouldn’t be used on lemurs, but is fine for red pandas or llamas One of the most clever is a post from the 6th in the “women looking for men” section where a woman posted about her encounter with a “handsome black man,” who was none other than President Barack Obama. 

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There is a company that sells peanut butter slices.

As you can see in the picture, they’re a bit like Kraft Singles, the pre sliced and packaged cheeses. They’re packaged in a similar way, with individual peel-off sheets of peanut butter.

They’re called P.B. Slices and share their name with their company. The company was based in Guthrie, Oklahoma, but doesn’t appear to be active anymore. The slices have been sold in Arizona, Hawaii, California, Nevada, and Washington. In a 2001 interview, PB Slices’ inventor disclosed his inspiration for making them.

He said that, like pre sliced cheese, pre sliced peanut butter is more convenient and makes lives less stressful. He added that the idea came to him when a friend’s mother was complaining about how spreading peanut butter can tear bread.

Each PB Slice is 170 calories, making it maybe not the best peanut butter option.

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The Empire State Building makes more money from observation deck ticket sales than from renting office space!

One hundred and ten million people have visited the observation decks of the empire state building. It is the one of the most visited outside observation decks in the world. 

With such a huge number, it’s slightly less surprising that the empire state building actually gets more money from selling tickets to the observation desk than it gets for rent of its offices. 

The Empire State Building has two outside observation desks: one on the 86th floor and one on the 102nd floor. The deck on the 86th floor is the main one, is fairly large, and boasts a 360-degree view of the surrounding city. It is the observation deck included in the general admission. 

For an additionally price, visitors can also continue up to the 102nd floor as well. The deck is smaller, but much higher up. Because the Empire State Building is such a popular attraction to visit, it gets horrendous lines. Visitors can expect long lines out on the sidewalk, in the lobby, in the ticket selling line, at the elevator, and waiting to get out of the elevator onto the deck.

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Wendy’s Founder Dave Thomas started out helping with franchises at Kentucky Fried Chicken. His ideas really helped grow the company.

Founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, Col. Harland Sanders, was trying to expand KFC into different areas when he met Dave Thomas. Dave Thomas was a head cook with a restaurant owned by the Clauss family at the time. Col. Sanders was trying to convince the Clauss family, and other successful restaurant owners in Fort Wayne to franchise with KFC. 

Dave Thomas came up with some ideas that were essential to KFC as a business. For example, Thomas came up with the crispy chicken bucket. The bucket became a symbol of KFC and immediately recognizable to consumers. It also had the added bonus of keeping the chicken crispy and less soggy. Thomas also developed the trademark sign, simplified the menu, and recommended that the Colonel star in his own commercials. 

Thomas was so effective he was sent to save 4 failing restaurants in Columbus, where he greatly increased sales. Dave Thomas would take what he learned working with KFC to develop his own restaurant: Wendy’s. He named the restaurant after his daughter Melinda, who had the nickname Wenda. He was successful and Wendy’s would be the 3rd most popular fast food restaurant. 

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