Comments on: Red Owl, Family History, and Company Relationships

By: Jeff, former Senior Bag Boy at Red Owl

Jeff, former Senior Bag Boy at Red Owl — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 03:54:38 +0000

Kerrie et al:

First, the Red Owl confession — I too have a Red Owl Vest, nametag AND snappy bright blue clip-on bow-tie that I’ve had for over 30 years. The Owl was my first job and got me through high school and college in the Twin Cities. I also still have my “5 year anniversary” key fob and a “We’re the Meat People” button. Not sure why I have the button, but, the other stuff is important for the same reason that I have my original copy of Sgt Pepper and set of LPs from the Minnesota band Gypsy. This is “formative years stuff.” People like the memories that the stuff generates.

As to the general issue of keeping/wearing company swag — for me it’s really still tied to the emotional connection. I kept a couple of things from my first years with IBM — my first real job. The weirdest thing I have is a core sample from the floor of the plant where I worked. It’s all that’s left now that the building has been razed!

I was laid off earlier this year after nearly 7 years with a major computer company. I had lots of shirts and a few other items. All gone — there is no emotional attachment from that experience. I kept the winter coat I got when I worked maintenance duty during ice storms — am too cheap to replace that so far.

P.S. I still have the employee purchase program computers though — gotta have something to use to get to this wonderful blog!

By: business services

business services — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 06:17:45 +0000

I hate company swag, even that from current company, and wear it in the garden where it is bound to get trashed.

By: PrincessTG

PrincessTG — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 02:42:01 +0000

Many family members on my father’s side worked in the paint business, some even owning and operating their own stores. My father worked for Mautz Paint (Madison, WI) for 25 years before they were bought out. There was a mascot known as Benny the Painter and my father still has many items with both the mascot and logo. I have a sort of verbal dyslexia and routinely switch letters around in words when I talk. I used to walk around as a child saying Pautz Maint, Pautz Maint. My dad works at Pautz Maint. I hate the company and the president is a prick and coward. But the logo reminds me of dad with paint smeared on his clothes and black fingernails after a hard day out on the sales floor.

By: Leslie

Leslie — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:28:13 +0000

The only company swag I’ve kept is from my Planters Peanuts days – there’s something about Mr. Peanut that I liked even as a child, and my kids love him even though they weren’t even born when I worked there. The company I work for now…can’t wear their logo, because there’s an advertizing ban on our products. I do have some swag with branding (vintage) but don’t wear it publicly.
.-= Leslie´s last blog ..Monogrammed fun! =-.

By: jeff

jeff — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:34:40 +0000

I once made a lot of room in my closet when I purged about 2 dozen logo shirts from the company I got laid off from. They were seriously shirt happy – new product launch – shirt; tradeshow – shirt; company event/party – shirt. So much so that a newly hired VP of marketing made a video to introduce himself at a company meeting and riffed on the shirts (everyone he met gave him a shirt). Didn’t feel I needed them after I got laid off. But I kept the t-shirts – good for sleeping, working out, etc.

When I was a recruiter for a software company I went to a university job fair for The Society of Minority Engineering Students. The event was held 2 weeks after the main campus job fair for all students and it wasn’t advertised. My 3 engineers and I stood there along with the teams from about 30 other companies with virtually no attendance. Everyone spent the day trying to give away all our logo stuff (I had T-shirts and was very popular) so we didn’t have to ship it all home.

By: Robert LaGow

Robert LaGow — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:22:20 +0000

My dad worked for the Border Patrol and Immigration Service (pre-DHS, thankyewverymuch) for 30 someodd years. Needless to say, we didn’t really wear much of the branded merchandise from his work — not without mom taking the patches off first. “I don’t want you wandering by a construction site and getting hit with a shovel” was her reasoning.

By: class factotum

class factotum — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:07:55 +0000

Kerry, re the shirts. I can see why vendors don’t make women’s sizes. After all, there are hardly any women in the workplace.

RE Midwest. My husband and I were on a Midwest flight a couple of years ago. Right before we landed, the pilot announced that this was the crew’s last flight — they had all been laid off. It was horrible: the flight attendants were crying and I wanted to cry with them, knowing how demoralizing, horrible and scary it is to be laid off. I was so impressed at how professional they had been during the flight, even though they knew it was their last. I hate what has happened to Midwest.
.-= class factotum´s last blog ..The Right Thing To Do =-.

By: HR Mark

HR Mark — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:58:35 +0000

During the open house of a client’s expanded machine shop all visitors were presented with an aluminum coaster. An area for the cup was machined out and a plain cork insert was glued in the bottom, the client’s name was engraved around the top of the cup circle, my name was engraved across the bottom, and four cork feet glued to the bottom. It has travelled with me from office to office over the past 15+ years and will continue to follow me.

I agree with some of the others that logo wear is great for yard work and painting!!

By: George Pollock

George Pollock — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 02:51:48 +0000

I have many items with the logos of the newspapers I’ve worked at. I have T-shirts, keyrings, a tape measure, badge retractors, pens, pencils, promo buttons … I have a lot of stuff from the paper I was laid off from in April. It was kind of fun using in public the stuff from “THE PAPER” of the area — when I worked at “THE PAPER.” Made me feel like something of an “insider,” even if tons of the the stuff were given away. The “layoff paper” stuff doesn’t make me bitter, BTW. I suppose that’s a good sign.

By: Julie

Julie — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 02:01:42 +0000

I used to work for a office furniture dealership, and the toy semi-trucks with our main vendor’s logo were highly prized. Since being laid off in March, they’re not that charming to me & will probably be passed onto someone’s child. I also worked for The Bombay Company as a PT 2nd job for 10 years, and get quite nostalgic when I see the furniture/decor in someone’s house. When the chain closed I took my apron with me & now like to wear it for housework. Reminds me of the many friends I made working there.
And I’m ALL about the Red Owl, my parents are from Shawano County & the only grocery store in town was a Red Owl.
.-= Julie´s last blog ..TED.com Tuesday #5: Jeff Han demos his breakthrough touchscreen =-.