Smile Enterprises

> "*What if there was a store which had everything you ever needed all in one place? Wouldn't that be fantastic?*" - Wallace Wackett
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## About

Smile Enterprises (or Smile) is a massive conglomerate corporation based in Smileton County. It owns the County essentially in entirety, controlling the economy, media, lifestyle and even the law.

The company's original main goal is to simplify shopping by having a single chain of stores that sell every product, as opposed to separate stores selling different products. This is (supposedly) to make shopping more convenient for people.

## History

The company was begun in 1928 by Wallace Wackett, a young entrepreneur who wanted to 'make shopping simpler'. He opened a single store in Smileton's High Street, selling products from many other companies.

The store was an instant success, and more were opened around the county. This meant Smile Enterprises could purchase and brand more and more of it's own exclusive items, meaning they would no longer be sold anywhere else, therefore making the company an only other choice.

Smile Enterprises continued to grow tamely, until Wallace's son, Wilbur Wackett, took control of the company. This made a great change in how the company was run, and it became more aggressive in terms of market competitiveness. Wallace soon became reclusive shortly afterward, having said to be 'retired'. Wilbur ruthlessly expanded the company, bargaining with every other business around in order to take their place. Smile Enterprises became so large that other companies were either driven out of business or had no choice but to be bought by them.

Every item in Smile Stores became Smile-branded, and the company soon became large enough to even control the county's government and council. The Smileton Metro System and Pringleton Housing Estate were commissioned by Wilbur to make citizens feel more 'convenienced', and the Smileton city centre soon became the home to the Smile Skyscrapers, where the company's headquarters were situated. Following the sudden shutdown of the metro and the disappearance of the brothers' parents, the Smileton Tram Service was opened instead.

Up to present date, 2014, Smile has grown even further, even having the power to create laws specific to their tastes (known as Smile Laws). These prohibit any company or private business within the vicinity of the county from operating without the purchase or entire sponsorship of Smile Enterprises, as presented in the episode Change The Channel. Despite the county-wide dominance of the company, everyone is oblivious towards the fact that it controls everything, and seem to have accepted Smile as an everyday thing.

The history description on the series website explains it more in depth:

"

***How it all started***

*Smile started in 1928 as Smile Corp by first director Wallace Wackett, who after being bombarded by confusing commercialism from too many shops decided to make shopping simpler for everyone - he would open a shop with everything in it! The idea took off instantly, and Smile Corp was a huge success.*

***What happened next?***

*Smile continued to grow, but not enough! When Wallace Wackett retired and his smart son Wilbur Wackett took over as director, Smile finally had the chance to make a better world. With his brilliant new ideas and schemes, Wilbur took Smile and made it even better. Soon, every shop in Smileton County (Smile's home town) was a Smile Store - so much easier for everyone! Every product they sold was Smile-branded - so much simpler for everyone! Fortunately, everything in Smileton County was soon either taken over or thrown out, and the people cheered as new technology they had never had access to before was brought in from the world; every house could have a computer connected to the Internet, systems and buildings could be replenished and modernised - it was fantastic!*

*After all this, in a bid to stop any more of those nasty companies from coming back in, Smile Enterprises created Smile Law, a people's law to keep everyone safe!*

*Now, with Smile TV, Smile Web, Smile Products, Smile Travel and thousands of other branches, Smile Enterprises' good name is known and thanked by people all over Smileton County, as **the company that bought the world for us**!*

“ - Source (from archive)

## Workforce

### Regulations

Here are the very strict regulations all employees must follow:

*WORKFORCE REGULATIONS*

*NOTICE: SHOULD ANY OF THE FOLLOWING BE BREACHED, THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS MAY CONSIDER THE REMOVAL OR DEMOTION OF YOUR PLACEMENT.*

*• Workers are not permitted to share ANY information or data gathered while on the premises of a Smile Enterprises Business site. This includes conversations between other workers.*

*• Any form of external communication is prohibited to all workers except members of Level 5 staff. This is all information transferred telephonically, electronically, mechanically or otherwise outwards from a Smile Enterprises Business site to a non-Smile Enterprises Business site.*

*• Lateness is not permitted unless provided with proper circumstance. Illness, grief, injury, vehicular delay or otherwise are not acceptable circumstances.*

*• Illnesses are not a permittable circumstance for failing to arrive for work. If you are ill, you must wear a Smile Illness Mask to prevent spreading your illness. These Masks are provided at the front desk should you require one, and the cost will be deducted from your pay.*

*• Should there be an acceptable circumstance for you to not be in for work between the required hours, you will not recieve any pay. This term is not negotiable.*

*• All workers will rise when the Director or an Executive enters a room. NO EXCEPTIONS.*

*• Obstruction of other workers or otherwise disruption of the work services will result in a fine or demotion, accidentally or purposefully.*

*• In the event of a fire or other emergency, members of Level 5 staff, the Director and the Executives must be let through first. In the event of a severe weather event or atomic war, the Smile Shelters will only be available to members of Level 5 staff, the Director and the Exectives.*

*• Workers will be fined if water provided by the Office is consumed more than five times in one day. This does not count tea, which is supplied to no limitations.*

*THE GLORIOUS DIRECTOR WILBUR WACKETT THANKS YOU FOR YOUR CO-OPERATION.*

These regulations are by no means lenient, and being fired from a Smile Enterprises job in Smileton County practically means you have to move to another town to get another job, since everything is Smile-owned.

## Known Branches

### Smile Transport

*(main articles Smileton Tram Service and Smileton Metro System)*

Smile Transport is a branch that controls Smile Buses (seen once), Smile Trams and formerly Smile Metro.

### Smile Tv

*(main article Smile Tv)*

Smile Tv (or Smile Television) is the source for television channels in Smileton.

It produces channels such as Smile Tv News, Smile Tv Nature, Smile Tv Cooking, Smile Tv Weather, etc.

They are probably the only channels available to Smileton. The brothers watch certain channels that contribute and inspire their adventures that happen later on, such as in The Treehouse, when Fred decides to grow a tree in the garden after watching a documentary on them.

### Smile Toothpaste

Smile Toothpaste has only been seen advertised on billboards and posters, and is apparently the main toothpaste supplier for the county. A televised advert was seen in The Great Cat Chase.

### Smile Stores

*(main article Smile Stores)*

Smile Stores are the main part of Smileton, taking up each street and also being the main source of Smile Enterprises' power. They were the start of Smile Enterprises itself, escalating from one shop to dozens, soon owning all the brands in Smileton and also all the areas.

The Smile Store was created by Wallace Wackett to make shopping easier for customers, by putting all kinds of items in one shop so no-one would get confused for where to go. It's popularity obviously was large, and that is why there are so many other stores. The main store is the Smile Megastore, a much larger version of the others and frequently visited by the brothers.

### Smile Cafés

Smile Cafés are the chain cafés owned by Smile Enterprises. Only one has been seen so far when Ted and Bobby went to one to get hot chocolate in The 3 Brothers Christmas Movie Thing.

As shown in the episode, it's drink quality is very low, since the hot chocolates were no more than just plastic put in a cup. None of the managers or directors know about this, so they are very surprised, one of them shutting down the drinks factory because of it.

### Smile Air

Smile Air, or Smile Airlines, is Smileton's private airline company for holiday passenger planes. It may only operate during the Summer. It first appeared in it's own *Holidays Abroad* magazine in The Flying Order advertising its many beautiful tourist destinations.

Smile Air also manufactured and operated the short lived Le Ascenseur, which was sabotaged on it’s maiden-voyage to the Jamberry Islands.

There are hundreds of other miscellaneous Smile brands companies that appear too.

## Smile-owned territory

Smileton County and the Jamberry Islands are privately owned by Smile Enterprises, however the latter is entirely owned by the company to the extent that the islands are completely isolated from other areas.

The possible goal of this is to allow Smileton’s citizens to travel out of Smileton, however not out of Smile Enterprises’ grasp on them.

## Possible influences on culture

Smileton is known for it’s timeless culture reminiscent of the late 1920s. One proposed theory is that Smile Enterprises, being started in 1928, has never changed it’s ways since it’s beginning, evidently still selling clothes, vehicles and so forth evocative of that era, and it’s domination over the county results in the county become evocative of that era too. This also introduces another speculation that wherever Smile is present, a culture of the era rises in the community, for example in places outside of Smileton where Smile is installed, such as London, the Jamberry Islands and Germany. One reason Smile quietly enforces this culture is it brings an effect of nostalgic naivety - that is, people are turned placid and naive due to the old ways they are following and reduction in their modern lifestyle, which proves to be useful for Smile’s domination.

A counter-argument to this theory is that the world Smileton exists in is simply a very dated world. It is evident that many impactful historical events did not occur in this world, such as World War 1, World War 2, the Russian Revolution and the Independence Of America, and this may affect how under-developed this world is because of it. It is also seen in Ted’s flashback in Memories From The Past that 2009 in Smileton seemed to be in an Edwardian or 1910s period, even though Smile Enterprises was yet to become dominant (many different shops, although closed, are still seen in the streets).

## Inspiration

Owen Steel gained inspiration for the idea of Smile from real-life multinational corporates, such as Proctor & Gamble and McDonalds, companies who are “invisibly everywhere”. The idea of Smile being so controlling came from the marketing tactics of both companies, who apparently use the oblivion of their customers to make them buy only what they sell, creating a sense of ‘false trust’.

Owen Steel heavily disagrees with these tactics, and wished to express his strong dislike for them by representing them with the somewhat disturbing Smile Enterprises.

## Trivia

* The company was founded and created in 1928 by Wallace Wackett, but is now currently owned by Wilbur Wackett.
* Smile dominates Smileton successfully by using propaganda and complete media control to brainwash every citizen.