An apple a day...

[SarahTay]

Apple surpasses Google to become the world's most valuable brand.
http://mashable.com/2011/05/09/apple-google-brandz-study/





Clearly the price raise and tax hike on cigarettes isn't slowing anyone down...
I did not know but Florida's state tax on tobacco is the fifth-lowest nationwide at only 34 cents.

[BridgeTroll]

See what shipping your manufacturing to China does for you? 

[copperfiend]

After looking at these rankings, I have one thing to say:

USA! USA! USA! USA!

[Doctor_K]

See what shipping your manufacturing to China does for you? 

Yup.

[ChriswUfGator]

Point-blank, I'd be willing to pay more to have things produced here.

Chinese manufacturing is one reason computer components are such crap nowadays. The first PC I ever had, an IBM 386 desktop, STILL WORKS FINE! Of course it can't run anything, but it works. Average lifespan of a consumer-grade hard disk today is a few years, you couldn't take a disk manufactured today and stick it in a garage and come back in 10 years and have it work. The quality decline is amazing. Of course, the reality is technology moves at such a fast pace that nobody cares about longevity because as long it lasts a couple years it doesn't matter, since the whole setup will be obsolete and replaced by then anyway. But still, equipment produced here was of much higher quality than the Chinese-made stuff we get now. Not that I guess it really matters.

[JeffreyS]

China has caught up enough now that a small increase in tariffs would create a meaningful shift in homeland manufacturing.

[Lunican]

Amazon beat out Walmart as the most valuable retail brand.

[cityimrov]

Let's see, do any of these brands have their HQ present in Jacksonville?  How about Florida?