Poll of the Day > What are some companies that got their start making unexpected products?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Lamborghini got their start making farm tractors (they still do).

Peugeot got their start making hand saws, coffee grinders, pepper mills, and bicycles (which they still make)

Nintendo was founded in 1889 to make playing cards (they still do).

Samsung got its start in 1938 buying and selling dried fish and noodles.

LG began with selling face cream in 1947.

Toyota was founded in 1926 and originally made automatic looms for producing textiles (which they still make).

captpackrat posted...

Nintendo was founded in 1889 to make playing cards (they still do).

This was my first thought.

Yamaha got started selling reed organs in 1887, then started making motorcyles after WWII.

Hitachi's first product was an induction motor meant for copper mining in 1910, and other products include construction equipment, nuclear reactors, trains, a bunch of different appliances, and the "personal massager" many people associate with the name.

Nokia was a paper/rubber manufacturer.

3M was a mining company (one of the Ms stands for "Mining").

And I think Taco Bell originally was a burger and hot dog joint.

Little Caesar's started as Little Caesar's Pizza Treat in 1959, and they offered spaghetti, fish and chips, shrimp, hamburgers, and fried chicken, in addition to pizza.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/d/d498409c.jpg
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/5/5ce42362.jpg

This is less of a product and more of a service, but Crunchyroll- the largest legal anime streaming platform- got their start as a pirate website.

Which makes their decision to go balls deep on exactly the kind of commercial practices that drove people to pirate anime in the first place all the more heinous.