Thirty-Six Bright Hopes

 

William Mills Wrigley, Jr. was born in Philadelphia in 1861. In 1891, with only $32 to his name, William moved to Chicago and started a business selling Wrigley’s Scouring Soap. He offered a number of premiums as incentive for housewives to buy his soap. One of these was baking powder. When he realized the baking powder was actually more popular than the soap, he switched to selling baking powder. William offered two packs of chewing gum with every can of baking powder sold. Again, he discovered the premium was a bigger hit with his customers than his base product. He began to focus on the manufacture and distribution of chewing gum. In 1893, Juicy Fruit debuted. Today, Wrigley’s Gum is the world’s largest gum manufacturer. The company currently sells its products in over 180 countries and districts, operates in over fifty countries, and has twenty-one production facilities in fourteen countries.