Further Adventures with SPAM®
Posted in Family Fun, Food, Museums, Travel | By Guest Author | Tags: Travel, US Domestic Travel
By Guest Author Joan Koczor
As you pull into Austin, MN, you begin to see billboards along the highway advertising the Spam Museum. The billboards say things like “The SPAM® Museum– Even we don’t really understand,” and “The SPAM® Museum– Yes, we do answer the ingredients question.
SPAM® Museum's retro 40s and 50s look
This sense of humor carries over into the actual museum, the shrine to the canned meat that is produced and packaged right there in Austin, Minnesota, otherwise known as Spam Town, USA.
The museum is in a renovated K-Mart building. The renovation on this building has barely left a trace of the original use. In fact, the actual shell of the structure is all that is left of the old K-Mart. Windows, doors, walls, ceilings, and the entire exterior have all been completely overhauled.
A renovated K-Mart is now SPAM® headquarters
The SPAM® Museum opened in this location in September of 2001. Prior to existing in this location, the museum was a small 800 square foot space in a retail mall in Austin. When it was time to move into a bigger and better space, there were several options available.
They chose the old K-Mart for two reasons that seem to be prevalent in every big box purchase: location, and price. The abandoned K-Mart was in a prime location in town, easy to get to from everywhere, and happened to be just a half a mile from other Hormel offices.
And the cost efficiency was a factor, as it usually is– it is generally cheaper to renovate the big box than it is to build from the ground up. The building is 33,000 square feet- 16,500 for the SPAM® Museum, 16,500 for official Hormel offices. There are 35 employees in the museum, and about 200 employees in the offices. Roughly 100,000 people visit the SPAM® Museum every year, and the guest register from last year shows people from all 50 states in the USA, every province in Canada, and 53 countries.
In the Museum
They say you shouldn’t play with your food, but in this case, playing with the food is what it’s all about!
A wall of SPAM®
The Cyber Cafe – an interactive exhibit about – you guessed it! – SPAM®
Tags: Travel, US Domestic Travel