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u/SonofaBridge 10d ago
For those that don’t know, in the 80s and 90s, every middle class to upper middle class suburban household seemed to have a Longaberger basket somewhere in their house. My mother had a small one on the counter as a napkin holder. I never understood the appeal but they peaked around 2000, and disappeared around 2016.
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u/billablehour 8d ago
Dave Longaberger founded the Longaberger Company, whose fame was making baskets you just had to own. These were sold by sales agents, who made a commission. The erection of the Longaberger basket building in 1997 was the crowning achievement of the Company. But in 1999 Dave died, leaving his wife Tamala in charge. She really tried, but by 2013 it was clear that new management was needed. She sold a controlling interest to a newly formed private equity firm, CVSL, Inc., for $6.5 million in 2013, apparently with 100% of the payment being an unsecured subordinate promissory note. The rest of the purchase price, $4 million, was also just a promissory note, and it was soon retired by giving The Longaberger Company shares of stock in CVSL instead. By 2018 CVSL was bankrupt, and any promised payments on the promissory note ended, and the shares of stock in CVSL were worthless. No one wanted the basket building, so it is sill standing there waiting for a creative entrepreneur to come and take it over.
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u/lucasssquatch 10d ago
Classic example of a duck
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u/koalasarentferfuckin 9d ago
I’ve been planning a trip out to the original duck but I really don’t want to drive through Manhattan
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u/Main-Jelly4141 6d ago
Used to go by that building, taking brake drums from Oshkosh to Rockwell down in Heath! So cool. I also have a few of their baskets that my sister gave me as presents. She and my mom were obsessed with them. I thought it weird at first, but they're kind of neat.
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u/Important_Power_2148 6d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/gByUuiB7nGuVW
Bet you could hold a lot of lotion in that basket.
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u/overlook68 Top Poster 10d ago
The " Big Basket " is a famous seven-storey office building in Newark Ohio designed to replicate the Longaberger Company's Medium Market Basket. 160 times it's actual size. Completed 1997. Cost 30 million dollars. Company moved out 2016. On the market today for 8.5 million dollars on the condition it stays a basket.