Nabisco Factory

      The factory in Fair Lawn opened in 1958, and the 110-foot building is the tallest structure in the borough. You couldn't drive by it without smelling the Oreos or whatever was in the ovens that day. Though recently I have driven by and haven't been able to smell anything. Likely this is due to the car fumes on route 208, but I could have sworn we used to be able to smell the factory anytime we went by it. Maybe the ovens have a better filter system. I always thought it was great advertising to let all the smells out so as to encourage consumption.

 

 

     Just like many things of this era, once we figure out a more cost-effective way of doing something we discard our old ways. This iconic building with its ability to provide a pleasing aroma for miles around is so unlike factories built in 1958 or before. or those built today with no aromas at all. Wouldn't it be so incongruous with modern day Capitalism if they had kept this factory where it was and had marketed themselves as being a company known for "polluting the air" with a sense of nostalgia as well as the ever popular confections? I realize there is no chance of the money counters who work at the Brazilian hedge fund which owns Mondelez of having a change of mind. Sadly, they will trot out the old line about share holder value being paramount and forget entirely about the community and customers they serve. My favorite response to people who believe share holder value is the prime objective of a corporation is to ask, "How many executives have ever been prosecuted for failure to enhance the share holder value of the company which employs them?" The answer is none, but go try and convince them of anything else!