I'm a bit abashed to admit that despite living in Ohio and having heard of (but never owned) a Longaberger basket, I didn't know much about the company beyond that they had a basket shaped building. When I saw this book, I realized it had been a while since I heard about Longaberger.

The edition of the book I read was updated in 1994. At the close of this edition, they mentioned a 25 year plan that Dave Longaberger had created for the company. I'm not sure how much of that he accomplished. A quick search online revealed that the company was sold in 2013--which surprised me since at least 3 times in this book, Dave Longaberger mentions that he was wrong when he decided to step down and bring in someone with a business degree to run the company (this was a separate event from selling the company in 2013). I didn't get many details except on the why behind that except that the financial and consumer environments had changed. Dave's daughter Tami stepped down from the company in 2015--again not many details were given in the overview article I read. By 2018, it was announced that he company was closing--a far cry from the family atmosphere that Dave and his family tried to cultivate during the company's heyday.

So knowing all that, it was sometimes a bit hard to read this book, especially the last section that dealt with the future.

The book was roughly divided into 3 sections:

The past that talked about how the Longaberger family got into basket weaving and how the company had been started and developed.

The present which talked about the company circa 1994 and the town around it. I believe this section was also the one where Dave talked about some of his business and management ideas.

The future which talked about the plans for the company and other properties/ideas that Dave and his family hoped to develop in the geographic area to continue helping the area. ( )

Interesting story of a family business. ( )