Tour Your Favorite Corporation
Somehow this ends with a John Tesh story
Several years ago, while visiting friends in Atlanta, I visited the World of Coca-Cola museum. I think it cost ten dollars to get in. Near the start of the tour there was a room where you looked at 120 years or so of Coke advertising. They had the first magazine ads, the famous Santa ads, the Max Headroom “Catch the Wave” ads, the first Coca-Cola Classic ads, etc.
At some point in this room it suddenly dawned on me: I just paid ten bucks to be bombarded with advertising for Coca-Cola. That seemed wrong.
The only place along the tour where it felt like I was getting something worth paying for was at the end when I got to taste all the international Coke products that don’t exist in America. I remember an apple lychee version that was pretty good.
Years later, I took my kids to Hersheypark amusement park in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Afterwards, we took the Hershey’s Chocolate Tour. It was more of a ride than an actual factory tour. It took us through rooms set up with little make-believe factory dioramas that were supposed to make you think that’s what the actual Hershey’s factory might look like.
Those visits are more like corporate shows for tourists, but I have visited some actual factories in my life. I remember an elementary school field trip to the Carnation Dairy factory where we got to see how milk and ice cream gets packaged on assembly lines, and afterwards we got little ice cream sample cups with those tiny wooden spoons.
And I’ve visited big factories in the course of my work, like the time I visited the shipyard where naval battleships are built, but going someplace on business is a very different experience than seeing it as a tourist.
I once had a video shoot in Louisville, Kentucky and during some down time my associate producer went to the Louisville Slugger baseball bat factory tour. I regretted not going with him, but I had some work to do. He came back with some cool souvenirs.
Thinking about all this makes me wonder what factory tours might be near me where I live, or that I might visit while traveling for work. Maybe I can squeeze in a visit to, I dunno, the SPAM Museum next time I’m near Austin, Minnesota.
So I put together a map of corporate factory tours and museum-like visitor experiences in the United States. You can find one near you, or near where you’ll be traveling. It’s not complete by any means. If you know of more I should add, please tell me in the comments below.
Click the map for the full list. Here are some of the highlights:
The SPAM Museum
Austin, MN
Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam! With exhibits on its history, cultural impact, and production. Just don’t give them your email address.
Herr’s Snack Factory Tour
Nottingham, PA
https://www.herrs.com/visit-us/schedule-your-tour/
Did you know that Herr’s potato chips were first made in an old abandoned tobacco shed? And there’s an exclusive clip on the season three DVD of The Office where Kevin makes a quesadilla out of Herr's Sour Cream & Onion chips and spray cheese.
You’ll learn so much on this tour.
Ford Truck Factory Tour
Dearborn, MI
https://www.thehenryford.org/visit/ford-rouge-factory-tour/
If you tour the Ford Rouge complex – so named because it’s on the River Rouge – you can actually see the F-150 assembly line where they make America’s most popular truck. Here’s a video where Mo Rocca shows what happens there, in case you can’t make it and love Mo Rocca:
Airstream
Jackson Center, OH
https://www.airstream.com/company/factory-tours/
Maybe you’re not a truck person. Maybe you’re more of an Airstream kinda person. No problem. There’s a factory tour for you, too.
There was an Airstream parked behind the Ralph Lauren store in East Hampton twenty years ago with a decked out interior as an extension of the store people could shop in, and I heard stories that employees... did things... in there after hours. For the past twenty years, I’ve thought about that every single time I see an Airstream. So I think I’ll skip this one, thanks. I’d much rather go to, I dunno, like, maybe the Winnebago factory.
Winnebago Factory
Forest City, IA
https://www.winnebago.com/discover/factory-tours/faqs
You’re more of a Winnebago Person? Don’t worry. There’s a corporate tour for you. But you should know that, as per the FAQ, pets are not allowed on this tour. In all my research for this newsletter, this is the only corporate tour where I saw them mention that pets are not allowed, so I assume this has been a problem for them at some point. I don’t want to hear that story.
Taylor Guitars
El Cajon, CA
https://www.taylorguitars.com/contact/factory-tours
The Taylor Guitars factory was named the 2023 Assembly Plant of the Year by Assembly Magazine, the industry magazine about industrial assembly. This took me down a rabbit hole. I love industry magazines. I mean, come on, who wouldn’t want to read these articles from the latest issue?
Anyway, guided tours are available to see guitar production including woodworking, finishing, and assembly.
Louisville Slugger
Louisville, KY
https://www.sluggermuseum.com/
I missed out on this tour when I was in Louisville. Don’t be like me. Go to the Slugger Museum.
Crayola Experience
Easton, PA
https://www.crayolaexperience.com/easton
Wait, is this just a fancy crayon store? Like the M&M store in Times Square but for crayons? Hmm. I don’t know if it should be on this list. But you can get a crayon with your name on it, so I guess that’s cool. Or is Sam the name of the color?
Corning Museum of Glass
Corning, NY
I laughed when I first came across this one because it sounds so industrial in the quirkiest and kitchiest way. But after looking through the website it actually seems incredible. There’s a lot of both art and science on display here.
Boeing Future of Flight
Mukilteo, WA
https://www.boeingfutureofflight.com
The “world’s largest factory” is open for visitors to see how airplanes get made. Please watch closely and make sure all the door plugs are properly installed.
Caterpillar Visitors Center
Peoria, IL
https://www.caterpillar.com/en/company/visitors-center.html
Among other things, you can go on an Antique Tractor Walk for an “up-close view of some of our most rare vintage machines.” Or you could go to an actual construction site and see Caterpillar machines in action. In fact, if you have a toddler, I highly recommend it. From a safe distance, of course.
John Deere Pavilion
Moline, IL
https://www.deere.com/en/connect-with-john-deere/visit-john-deere/pavilion/
As long as you’re looking at tractors in Illinois, the John Deere Pavilion seems like the obvious next stop. Just don’t try to repair any of the tractors.
Harley Museum
Milwaukee, WI
https://www.harley-davidson.com/us/en/museum
Close your eyes for a moment. Picture the Harley-Davidson museum. Imagine all the things you’d see if you visited. Can you picture it? Now hold on to that image while you click on their “Exhibits” link and get an error that says “We can't seem to find that page.” I’m sure it’s pretty cool, though, whatever it is.
Dr Pepper Museum
Waco, TX
https://drpeppermuseum.com/plan-your-visit/
Okay, pop quiz. Is Dr. Pepper a Coke product or a Pepsi product?
Neither! It’s owned by Keurig Dr Pepper, Inc. ever since the 2018 merger of the Dr Pepper Snapple Group and Keurig Green Mountain companies. I’m not making that up.
And it turns out that Dr. Pepper is not a cola, according to the FDA, but is its own beverage category. And it predates Coca-Cola by a year. Who knew? I guess that’s why it gets its own museum.
Walmart Museum
Bentonville, AR
https://corporate.walmart.com/about/walmart-museum
You know what? Don’t go here. Let’s move on.
Zippo Museum
Bradford, PA
https://www.zippo.com/pages/zippo-case-museum-flagship-store
I wish the Zippo museum actually looked like a giant Zippo. But I guess it has a big Zippo on top of it so that’s close enough. I once read that Zippo has never paid for product placement even though it’s in a ton of movies. It’s just such a cool product that movies want to use it for free.
One surprising thing you’ll learn at the Zippo museum is that Zippo is actually short for Zippopotomus.
I assume.
Red Wing Shoe Company Museum
Red Wing, MN
https://www.redwingshoes.com/museum.html
They have a giant boot in their museum! What else do you need to know?
Or maybe it’s a regular sized boot in a tiny museum. That would be equally as awesome.
Movie Studio Tours
Los Angeles, CA and New York, NY
https://www.paramountpictures.com/studio-tours
https://www.wbstudiotour.com/
https://www.sonypicturesstudiostours.com/tours.html
https://www.thetouratnbcstudios.com/
If you want to see behind the scenes of an actual working studio, skip the Universal theme parks. Pick an actual studio where things are in production, and you may find yourself on the set of a real TV show, or seeing real celebrities.
Let me tell you a story.
In the early 90s, I went with a group of friends to Los Angeles, and while we were there, we took the Paramount Studios tour. The tour guide walked us around the lot and through soundstages that were actually being used to film things. We got to see a set being built for a show called Viper, which was a sort of Knight Rider ripoff about a guy with a super-intelligent Dodge Viper. We stood in the Viper Lair, the main character’s secret headquarters with a design clearly copying the 1989 Batman movie. There’s a reason you don’t remember Viper.
Anyway, as we were on this tour, someone came up to our tour group and let us know that two TV shows were about to start taping, and they needed more people in the audience. But we’d have to leave the tour now if we wanted to be in the audience. The two TV shows were The Arsenio Hall Show and John & Leeza.
Well, one of my dear friends on our trip happened to be a huge fan of Leeza Gibbons. Her job hosting Entertainment Tonight was his dream job. So he really wanted to go see John & Leeza, the daytime talk show she co-hosted with John Tesh. To the rest of us, that sounded like hell. So we made him a deal: We would leave the tour and go see John & Leeza, but he didn’t get to decide anything else we did on our trip.
We got to our seats just as the warm-up guy was getting started. At one point, he asked for a volunteer from the audience. If I was going to be in the audience of John & Tesh, I was going to make the most of it, so I volunteered. He called me up to the microphone and said that if I could sing the full theme song to The Flintstones – both opening and closing credits versions, which had different lyrics – then I would get a prize.
Friends, if you’ve been reading this newsletter then you can probably guess this about me, but if there’s one thing I know, it’s the lyrics to The Flintstones opening and closing credits. So I sang about that modern stone age family from the town of Bedrock. They’re a page right out of history.
When I was done, the audience applauded, and I received my prize: an autographed copy of John Tesh’s newest CD.
I had no interest in John Tesh’s music, so I knew exactly what I was going to do with this CD. I was going to take it back home to Phoenix and see how much store credit I could get for it from Zia Records so I could buy something better.
When I got back to Phoenix, I gathered up a bunch of other CDs that I didn’t listen to anymore and took the stack to Zia. I went to the counter where they went through them all one by one.
After going through my stack, the clerk offered me a few bucks for every CD. But when he saw the John Tesh album, he simply said “No.”
But it’s autographed!
“No.”
But I got it in person at the John & Leeza Show!
“No.”
But I sang the Flintst–
“No.”
I must have brought that CD back to Zia three or four more times, trying to sneak it in with a bunch of other CDs. Maybe it would look good sandwiched between Belly and Elastica. But each time, they sniffed it out and rejected it.
Finally, someone at Zia took pity on me and offered me a buck for my autographed John Tesh CD. I’ll take it!
The moral of the story is that sometimes in life you pay ten dollars to watch advertising, and sometimes life gives you a dollar back.
Now please take a moment to rock out with John Tesh:
And that’s it for another newsletter!
There are a lot more corporate experiences and factory tours on the map than just the examples mentioned above. But even so, I’m sure I left a bunch out of the map. I seemed to mostly find automotive and food related tours, and I’ll bet there are entire categories I didn’t even consider.
Did you ever take a field trip to a company factory? Or do you have a cool one near you that people should know about? Let me know in the comments!
Thanks as always for reading. See you next time!
David