Product 19 was a breakfast cereal made by Kellogg’s….and Introduced in 1967….which consisted of lightly sweetened flakes made of corn, oats, wheat, and rice….and marketed as containing all required daily vitamins and iron necessary for maintaining a healthy diet. The product was discontinued in 2016.
Kmart is an American big box department store chain headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. The chain’s management purchased Sears for $11 billion in 2004….then formed a new corporation under the name Sears Holdings Corporation….as Kmart was transferred to the new Sears Holdings Corporation. At its peak in 2000, Kmart operated 2,171 stores including 105 Super Kmart Center locations. By the 3rd quarter of 2017, the Kmart store chain had 510 store locations with only one Super Kmart Center location remaining (which is now set to be closed in April 2018).
The Miller Brewing Company was founded in 1855 by Frederick Miller….after he immigrated from Hohenzollern, Germany in 1854 with a unique brewer’s yeast. Initially, he purchased the small Plank Road Brewery in Milwaukee for $2300. The brewery’s location in the Miller Valley in Milwaukee provided easy access to raw materials produced on nearby farms. In 1855, Miller changed its name to Miller Brewing Company, Inc…..which remained in the family until 1966….when it sold to the conglomerate W R Grace and Company….who eventually sold to Phillip Morriss….who then sold it to South Aftican Breweries….as it became SABMiller….which it remains today.
The first Red Lobster restaurant was opened on January 18, 1968, in Lakeland, Florida by entrepreneurs Bill Darden and Charley Woodsby. Originally billed as a “Harbor for Seafood Lovers”….the first restaurant was followed by four others others throughout the southeast United States. In 1970, General Mills acquired Red Lobster as a five-unit company. With new backing, the chain expanded rapidly in the 1980’s ….and entered Canada in the late 1980’s….in many cases by buying Ponderosa restaurant locations. On March 29, 1994, Bill Darden died, after an extended illness, at the age of 75….and in 1995, Red Lobster…. along with Olive Garden and other sister chains…..became part of Darden Restaurants, Inc….and during that time, General Mills decided to release Darden into an independent, publicly traded corporation.