Obscurity, much?/Businesses

Even among businesses, there are obscure products or even obscure businesses.

A few restrictions on this page:

* Just because a fast-food item's on a secret menu doesn't automatically make it obscure. There needs to be some evidence that most people don't know the item even exists. Let's just say if it's on a "Top 10 Secret Menu Items" list, it probably doesn't qualify for this trope.
* With the exception of legacy examples (documented before January 1st, 2023), the item in question should be discontinued (or, for certain fast-food items, taken off the regular menu, but still sold) without much of an audience before it can be documented. Regional examples can still be documented, however.

* In the soft drink industry:
	+ New Coke, to those born in the late 90s and onward, due to the backlash the drink got in the 1980s.
		- Not even Coca-Cola wants to talk about New Coke anymore and The Coca-Cola Company's CEO tries to forget about it. In other words, Coca-Cola's trying to make New Coke completely forgotten while hyping up Classic Coke (which was since renamed back to just "Coca-Cola"). However, some employees of Coca-Cola know about New Coke and the backlash it got.
	+ The Sierra Mist formula was once thought up as this after Sierra Mist became Mist Twst. This lasted all but two years before this became subverted, and then Pepsi started up *another* lemon-lime flavor by the name of "Starry" in 2023. Time will tell if this would bring Sierra Mist into obscurity for good.
		- The drink itself is this outside of the United States, likely due to it never being exported (and Pepsi have no reason to in areas where they license the rights to the 7-UP brand anyways).
	+ *Fanta Klare Zitrone*, the former German name for what is now known as Sprite, is obscure in its original form (aka the pre-Sprite formula).
	+ If you live outside the southeastern United States, you might have not heard of Sun Drop at all, or just heard of it while visitng the southeastern US.
	+ The first release of Crystal Pepsi. Later releases of said drink were done just for a limited time.
* In the retail industry:
	+ The merger of Kmart and Sears being without government influence, while big in the news at the time it was announced, was a sign of both company's troubles and obscurity in part of the US. The fact that they're still closing stores post-merger (and even after being saved from bankruptcy twice in the case of the former) is a sign that the company is beginning to go into obscurity, if not maintaining a loyal customer base. Time will tell if this example may end up outdated in the future.
	+ Blockbuster, LLC filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy, but soon closed all corporate-owned stores, leaving 51 locations; all but one have since been closed as of 2023. With the only one left being in Bend, Oregon, most talks about Blockbuster nowadays happen to be about its rise and fall and/or the last Blockbuster in the world.
	+ Toys "R" Us' bankruptcy averted this, thanks to being one of the largest bankruptcies in the world. You know it's big when *Geoffrey himself* appears on Jimmy Kimmel Live! for a sketch about the toy store's demise. It got to the point where ex-employees expressed their anger towards the company when "Geoffrey's Toy Box" was announced.
* In the candy industry:
	+ British chocolate candy Smarties (not to be confused with the American tablet candy of the same name) aren't sold in the US because of a combination of this and the American tablet candy. This is actually the *main reason* M&Ms (a similar chocolate candy) have little to no competition (assuming Hershey's "Pieces" line isn't counted as competition) in their native United States.
		- The American Smarties barely avoided the same fate outside its native United States by being called "Rockets" in places where the chocolate Smarties are sold.
	+ The Wazoo bar is an interesting example, not just because of its general obscurity to the public, but because of the manufacturer going bankrupt. While Topps emerged unscathed from this disaster, what popularity the candy had did not. In fact, until Chadtronic released the Cursed Commercials episode including its commercial, no one outside of the United States even heard of it, let alone got the opportunity to have tried it.
* In other food industries:
	+ McDonald's has had some crazy obscure ideas which have since been discontinued. McPizza was probably the biggest example, since McDonald's ended up *upgrading* a lot of kitchens in order to make it. The problem? Pizza Hut, which has served pizza *from the very beginning*, *dominated* the fast-food pizza market in the United States (Domino's, Little Caesars, and Papa John's also took large chunks of the pizza chain market to themselves), so with not just one, but *four* pizza chains taking up most of the sales for fast-food pizza, McDonald's cut their losses and discontinued it from all but a few defiant stores by the end of the 1990s. Eventually, McDonald's forbade the outstanding locations from serving it even as a secret menu item so they can wipe it off the map entirely.
		- McHotdogs. Ray Croc forbade hot dogs from being sold at McDonald's, and for good reason- after new management took over, McDonald's decided to bring in McHotdogs. It was an *instant* failure, not even selling many if they sold at all. McDonald's cut their losses and discontinued the item for good by the end of the year. So if you haven't heard about them until now... our point exactly.
	+ The Plenta (a size of Starbucks coffee) was unveiled as an April Fool's joke in 2010. Plenty of laughs ensued. As for why it's on this list? It was a parody of the Trenta, a far-more obscure cup size that was put onto Starbucks' secret menu in January 2011.