Youre in Bad Hands with Allstate is a site put up in August by Paula Moran, a self-employed jewelry maker in the tiny town of Franklin, N.

FORBES: Lawsuit.com

And then there is Fazioli, a tiny piano maker founded in 1978 in the northern Italian town of Sacile.

ECONOMIST: A tale of three piano makers

Burn it off by pounding the cobblestoned streets of Vieux-Lille (the old town), perhaps with a sinful stop-off at macaroon-maker Patrick Hermand on rue Basse.

BBC: The best French border towns

For example, clothes from Columbia Sportswear, a maker of fleece jackets and sweatshirts, are popular in Herberger's small-town stores in Minnesota.

FORBES: Businessman with a politician's touch

In 1903, Milton S. Hershey broke ground in the town that would bear his name, but success was not immediate for the young candy-maker.

FORBES: The Evolution Of Company Towns: From Hershey's To Facebook

The origins of the luxury carpet maker can be traced back to Thomas Whitty, who began making carpets and rugs in the town in 1755 using what became known as the Axminster method of weaving.

BBC: Axminster Carpets factory

President Barack Obama is visiting the western Michigan town of Holland Thursday for the groundbreaking on the latest factory: Compact Power, a subsidiary of Korean battery maker, LG Chem.

FORBES: Michigan's Next Boom: Electric Car Batteries

In Windham, a town of about 3, 000, where the crumbling library was recently condemned and the largest employer is a brick maker with a payroll of about 150, the mayor said residents badly needed the oil company windfall.

WSJ: Shale Lifts Prospects in Ohio