Companies that used to make it in Massachusetts

By adamg on Fri, 10/27/2017 - 11:55am

Make It in Massachusetts - early 1980s TV campaign

If you're old enough to remember when Ed King was governor, you probably remember his "Make it in Massachusetts" campaign. Eileen O'Leary pointed us to this collection of ad spots from the campaign, featuring a number of companies that no longer make it in Massachusetts.

Topics:

Business

History

Ad:

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Comments

I remember

By Ishmael Jones on Fri, 10/27/2017 - 12:01pm.

We used to sing you can fake it, fake it in Massachusetts.

The good old days.

All I have to say is...

By Oh my! on Fri, 10/27/2017 - 12:13pm.

Caldor!!!!

I'll see you Caldor and raise you ...

By adamg on Fri, 10/27/2017 - 12:25pm.

a Zayre!

Eastern MA bias detected

By Parkwayne on Fri, 10/27/2017 - 1:01pm.

What about Steigers? So classy.

Also Caldor's wasn't a true MA company but a NY import like U-Hub ; )

Pecking order

By anon on Fri, 10/27/2017 - 12:51pm.

I remember shopping at Caldor's (as we called it) and not KMart because, well, we weren't THAT poor. Ah, the vanity of being lower middle class.

Similarly

By BikerGeek on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 12:57pm.

I know people today who shop at Target and say "Well at least it's not Wal-Mart."

I wouldn't call it vanity

By SwirlyGrrl on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 2:30pm.

More like mental survival - albeit at the cost of someone else. Kind of like the horrible trash family in To Kill A Mockingbird are somehow ennobled by their not blackness.

And, of course, once the Duke beat King ...

By adamg on Fri, 10/27/2017 - 12:27pm.

Our state slogan had to change:

And so, kids, that's why our license plates have that slogan on them (obligatory Family Guy version).

To Be Fair

By John Costello on Fri, 10/27/2017 - 12:30pm.

One of the biggest industries in Massachusetts; the Financial Industry / Money Management industry has forced some of these businesses out of existence through pursuit of shareholder value in mergers. The Globe was sold owing to Trusts in the Taylor family expiring. Bank of New England and Shawmut got caught by the real estate collapse of 1988. The ripple of absorbing them by other banks into Bank of Boston and Fleet gave us Bank of America around here.

That being said the economy was in the pits in 1980 around here. It was Reagan's defense build up that sent the economy flying through the western suburbs up and rippled out into the rest of Greater Boston. Southern New Hampshire went from being Podunk to being Podunk with dentistry as a result of the same defense related build up.

If only Digital and Polaroid had been smart. Polaroid wasn't just Waltham. It had a big presence in New Bedford. Digital thought they were going to be the biggest company in the world. They were buying land and buildings willy nilly in the late 1970's. Did you know the Pinehills in Plymouth was going to be Digital's next big manufacturing area?

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs crushed that.

I like it better today than 1980 around here.

Hey, the Globe's still here

By adamg on Fri, 10/27/2017 - 12:32pm.

Although their print readership is no longer anywhere near the million and a half people the ad says.

Yes, but

By John Costello on Fri, 10/27/2017 - 12:51pm.

The Globe as we all now took, excuse me, was sold to the Times and became a NY company until the Low Talker took to real estate back from them and whatever was left of the newsroom.

It is awfully cute to see them having meetings at 53 State now in the area just above the lobby when you are the actual local newsbreaker.

Other missing companies...

By Dave-from-Boston on Fri, 10/27/2017 - 3:54pm.

GenRad (General Radio), Teradyne, First National, Shawmut, BayBank, JHomestock, Boston Whaler

Teradyne still exists

By Ron Newman on Fri, 10/27/2017 - 5:25pm.

They aren't at the Chinatown - South End border anymore, but they're doing fine in North Reading.

You are most certainly correct

By Dave-from-Boston on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 6:31am.

I made an assumption about their existence that was incorrect. Sorry about the error.

Your history on DEC is a bit mixed up

By Dave-from-Boston on Fri, 10/27/2017 - 3:44pm.

DEC, Prime, Data General & Wang were not undermined by Apple or MS - each of them made a strategic decision to stay with mini platform not believing that PCs or laptops would ever have the popularity or horse power to surplant them.

Compounding their miscalculation was their commitment to staying with their individual proprietary SW that required contracted support.

When they were growing, Apple was in trouble because they couldn't hold or gain market share given its product mix. In fact, at one point Jobs was pretty much kicked out of Apple by its BOD - he attempted a come back with his NEXT computer but it never really took off. Evenually he returned to Apple, re-engineered the company and got it on the right path.

The real change came when IBM started with Operating systems that would accept a host of market derived SW and introduced stand alone desktops that Apple began to compete effectively - the rest is history.

DEC tried to introduce desktops but it was pretty much a failure - Ken Olsen said in an interview years later that this missing the market on PCs was pretty his greatest failure.

Ah yes, the Rainbow.

By roadman on Fri, 10/27/2017 - 7:12pm.

Like Betamax and the MiniDisc, a product that ultimately failed because of a "our proprietary technology is best" attitude.

Olsen's famous last words

By perruptor on Fri, 10/27/2017 - 9:02pm.

"Nobody wants a computer in their home."

I bought a DEC PC in 1980 .....

By Freshbarry on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 7:16am.

...or so.....I had a friend who worked for them and they were selling off inventory because they were pulling out of the PC market already......I got it at a big employee discount and paid about $500.00 for a computer that, without programming knowledge (which I had none) couldn’t function any better than a calculator of the time.......

Also Wang Labs

By perruptor on Fri, 10/27/2017 - 8:55pm.

Wang was a huge presence along Rte 495. I worked for a company that was investing heavily in building equipment that Wang said they wanted. When Wang changed their mind, my employer evaporated overnight.

I was there...

By anon on Fri, 10/27/2017 - 12:30pm.

10 seconds into the video where you see the baker do the Thumbs Up next to the large Make It In Massachusetts cake, by chance I was there with my 3rd grade classmates on a field trip in the North End, and we watched the film crew have that baker do take after take, trying to get the right shot. I don't remember which store it was, but him doing the Thumbs Up over and over is what I never forgot!

I remember not only the campaign

By roadman on Fri, 10/27/2017 - 12:43pm.

but also the bumper stickers.

A common protest against King at the time was to cut the "thumbs up" portion of the sticker off and then re-apply it upside down.

The company that I was

By Dave on Fri, 10/27/2017 - 5:06pm.

IMAGE(http://i1.cpcache.com/product_zoom/429466596/make_it_in_massachusetts_bumper_sticker_50_pk.jpg?height=250&width=250&padToSquare=true) The company that I was working for in '81 merged with a PA company, and they decided to shut down MA operations and move to PA. Some employees made up some of the bumper stickers in red with the thumb pointing downward, with the company name and "DIDN'T" across the top. The combined company liquidated by the end of '81.

Trenton

By geep9 on Fri, 10/27/2017 - 2:05pm.

trenton makes, the world takes!

I "make it" in Massachusetts

By Milwaukee Mike on Fri, 10/27/2017 - 2:09pm.

What a coincidence: I "make it" in Massachusetts all the time!

Companies that used to make it in Massachusetts

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