- China Hires Foreigners to Manage Forex Reserves
- Cutting Jobless Will Take Time: White House's Summers
- GE, Vivendi Agree to Value NBCU Stake at $5.8 Billion
- Tuesday's ISM in Focus as Bulls Call for Turn in Dollar
- Arrest Imminent in Florida Ponzi Case: Report
- Cramer: Dubai Can’t Sink These 6 Dividend Stocks
- White House to Crank Up Pressure on Mortgage Industry
- Treasury Threatens Banks, Not Borrowers
- Good Sign for the Economy: 'Greed' Makes a Comeback
- Treasury Threatens Banks, Not Borrowers
- We're Approaching a Market Bubble: Portfolio Manager
- Hershey Shares: What Options Are Saying
- Nov. 30: Unusual Volume Leaders
- Why Careful Shoppers Are Great for the Box Office
- Blue Nile CEO: 'We're Having the Best Cyber Monday Ever'
- Best Online Retailers to Buy Now: Internet Analyst
- ESPN The Magazine’s Body Issue: A Financial Success
- Cyber Monday: The Last Vestige of Dotcom Hype
MOST SHARED
- Timeless and Time-Tested Warren Buffett Watch Predictions
- Dubai World Set to Restructure About $26 Billion of Total Debt
- Dubai Stocks Could Fall a Further 30%: Charts
- Good Sign for the Economy: 'Greed' Makes a Comeback
- Dubai Markets Open Sharply Lower for Second Day
- Should Homeowners Be Able To Walk Away From Mortgage?
- Bove: 26 Banks May Need To Raise More Capital
- Blue Nile CEO: 'We're Having the Best Cyber Monday Ever'
- Treasury Threatens Banks, Not Borrowers
- Notre Dame Fires Charlie Weis After 5 Seasons
Text Size 
 |
We didn't plan it this way, honest. But it's a good thing our No. 4 state, Georgia, is just two states away from our number five state, North Carolina. That's because thunderstorms and a power failure at Charlotte-Douglas airport forced the cancellation of our flight to Atlanta, which meant we had to drive to our Tuesday location.
So here I sit, after a four-hour drive, eating a nice Georgia peach cobbler from room service and thinking about how road trips have changed over the years.
When I was growing up, no family trip was complete without taking a factory tour (that, and a visit to a local zoo--my dad loved zoos--but that's another story). I'll never forget the Kellogg cereal tour in Battle Creek, Mich., and the flattened, un-filled box of Apple Jacks that I got to keep. I kept it for years. Or the scent of the chocolate at the Hershey plant in Hershey, Pa.--which I can still smell--at least in my mind--to this day.
But there are very few factory tours left anymore. Kellogg stopped giving tours in 1986, concerned about liability and corporate espionage. And Hershey, citing large crowds, gave its last tour in 1973 (this means I got my whiff of chocolate just in the nick of time!).
Today, factory tours have been replaced by multi-media "brand experiences." And that brings us to today's destination, the new World of Coca-Cola Museum in downtown Atlanta. It's a 92,000 square foot facility that opened in May. The WOCC, as they call it, takes visitors through "Milestones of Refreshment", a Coca-Cola tasting lounge, and a real, functioning bottling facility. That's a good thing--at least the WOCC has some "manufacturing" to it. And if the Coke folks have done this right, a whole generation of young Coke drinkers will have their brand loyalty solidified. Will it work as well as those aromas in the Hershey factory in the 1970s? We'll have to check back in about 30 years.
Print
Email
- Ever wished your cab driver would stop chatting and just get to where you're going? Well, that moment is closer than ever.
- UPS is giving its customers the option to offset its carbon emissions when sending a package.
- Romania's presidential campaign has been rocked by a video that may show the president striking a 10-year-old boy.
- Raising alligators is hard work, and the fickle taste of rich consumers has just made it much harder, says the NY Times.
- A recent issue of ESPN Magazine was one of its top sellers ever, and it only took scantily clad athletes to make it happen.
- The continued real estate boom in China is partially fueled by a generational flood of newlyweds.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes