In June, 2009 I pulled an '87 Freeform EX, '83 Huffy Racing 35, and a very rare 1988 Western Flyer Wildcat 5-speed 20" bike, and a motherload of parts out of a swamp.
The Freeform was a shell, spray painted and in dire need of a restoration. It was heavy as all get out. The Racing 35 was under an old boat and trailer and complete rusted out. The only thing "salvageable" was the Skyway Tuff Wheel II mags it had. The Wildcat was actually in pretty decent shape! It still had vibrant decals and paint (though it had several scratches), it even had some of the trim left on it!
Here in the Dayton area, it was Huffman or nothing! The same went for GM. If you didn't buy those products, you didn't support your neighbor that worked at the plant. It was like Studebaker or Chrysler in Indiana, Ford in Kentucky, Toyota in Tennessee, etc. Schwinn was built in Chicago, Murray was built in Ohio and in Tennessee (my first bike was a Murray, we lived south of Nashville at the time). If a company had a plant or dealer network in a certain area, it kind of created a local brand loyalty there by default.