Wednesday, April 27, 2022

Sweet and multi-sensorial

Greg Guidotti at Ferrara headquarters in the Old Post Office. 


     For all the decades I’ve been driving through the Old Post Office, particularly during the five years I lived in Oak Park, I’d never actually been inside the sprawling deco complex, not beyond a quick 30-second dash into the lobby to mail my taxes.
     That changed Friday, and I found myself sitting in the sixth floor funhouse splendor of the Ferrara Candy Company headquarters. That itself is an amazing development. There is no way I could ever get inside, say, Wrigley headquarters. Not through any imaginable process that didn’t involve me swimming ashore at Goose Island, shedding my wetsuit, scaling a wall, knocking out a guard, then shimmying through the ventilation system.
     But Ferrara invited me. And as soon as I settled in a conference room, I could see why. They’ve invented a new type of candy.
     “The hot product right now is Nerds Gummy Clusters,” said Greg Guidotti, chief marketing officer at Ferrara, standing before a conference table piled with bags of candy. “You can open it. Give it a look, and try it.”
     He didn’t have to ask twice. I tore open a small bag, suppressed my first thought — “They kinda look like candy coronavirus spheres” — as indecorous, and popped one in my mouth.
     “Essentially it’s classic Nerds wrapped around a gummy deposit,” said Guidotti.
     I wish I could buy bags of Guidotti’s enthusiasm — a seasoned marketing pro, who spent time at Kraft and sold Duracell in Asia — to munch throughout the day. Or better yet, send packages to the PR sorts that I generally have to try to wheedle information from, who narrow their gaze and worry, in a chill voice that sounds like it’s coming from the woman in “American Gothic” — “You want more information about our product? Why would you want that?” It’s such an unexpected joy, to meet somebody who is actually good at what he does.

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10 comments:

  1. "There is no way I could ever get inside, say, Wrigley headquarters. Not through any imaginable process that didn’t involve me swimming ashore at Goose Island, shedding my wetsuit, scaling a wall, knocking out a guard, then shimmying through the ventilation system." That's it, that's what I come here for (every goddam day).

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  2. Also: some of my favorite subjects, Old Post Office, Wrigley & Ferrara Pan. A la NS. I live near the Ferrara Pan factory. There's a candy store there & its like what we know about the Blommer Scent: you can often smell the flavors. Its one of those "not horrible" things that take on more value as things go.

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    1. I also live fairly close to the Ferrara Pan factory just South of the Eisehower and a bit West of Harlem, but during the many dozens of times I've walked by the place, I've never smelled a thing, perhaps a result of my years of French inhaling Lucky Strikes. But before those unhalcyon days, when I attended Mt. Carmel College in Niagara Falls, the scent (barley?) of the Gerber baby food factory was quite apparent to my yet-to-be flawed sniffer. And a few years later, while living in Milwaukee, I was daily inundated with the same unmistakable scent, this time from Miller Brewery. Cradle to grave, one might say, nestled in the cozy smell of barley, which I wouldn't recognize if you stuck it up my nose as a Covid test.

      john

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    2. I've rarely smelled the Blommer factory, though I'm not down by there very often, and I was disappointed when I drove by the Mars factory, even driving into the parking lot trying to catch a whiff and failing to smell anything. But, a la Tate, I could always tell when there was a big brewery nearby, which was a delight!

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  3. I remember when Ferrara Pan used to be in Forest Park.

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    1. I’m pretty sure they still have a plant there.

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  4. Your enthusiasm for these candies, while enjoyable enough to read about, is about as foreign to me as your interest in puppets. I would concede that I'm just an old fogy, but I looked at Wikipedia to discover that Gummy bears were invented in 1922. So, it's not like they weren't around when I cared about candy more -- which was never very much, frankly. Gummy creations of any kind -- nope. Nerds -- nope. A rare Snickers or random chocolates are about it for me. The question is why I'm bothering to mention it.

    That being said, I certainly agree with Mr. Tindall's first comment, and a visit to the Old Post Office is well worth a report.

    "This has doubled the size of the Nerd business." A fine quote, though I had assumed that had happened when you launched EGD! ; )

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  5. Congrats to our host on his National Headliner Awards first place honor for local interest column!

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    1. Congratulations, indeed! As the judges wrote: "Steinberg is a lovely writer whose columns have a strong voice and
      unique point of view, from reminding us of another time when disinformation put us all in danger,
      to an obituary that made us laugh. RIP, Gizmo."

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    2. Thanks. Though I take this as a sign of how thinned out the profession has become. There just aren't any other columnists left...

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