3M Ditches Clocks to Avoid Time Change Costs

The cost of changing 1,000 wall clocks at the company's headquarters cost an estimated $35,000 a year.

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MAPLEWOOD, Minn. (AP) — While most everyone wishes they could turn back time, one of the largest corporations in the country is sick of it.

Minnesota-based 3M is taking advantage of the end of daylight saving time and removing about 1,000 wall clocks at its 400-acre Maplewood campus. For decades, nearly two dozen people worked in 12-hour shifts for two weekends a year to adjust the time and put in new batteries.

Plant engineering supervisor Tom Berg tells Minnesota Public Radio that the cost of the time changes averaged about $35,000 a year. Berg says this is a way for the company to be more efficient and get rid of something it doesn't need.

A few of the timepieces are being donated and the rest recycled.

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