RIP, Twinkies . . .

[Cats]

This is actually gonna hurt my store a bit. We sell SO much of this stuff (our vendor has noted that of all his stores, we are by far the top seller). We're gonna have to find something else to sell there instead, or else al the local pot smokers will be sad : ( (I'm serious).

It's front page news in the local paper, but last night, we still had our normal stock and no one I knew mentioned it, and we didn't sell more than usual. That may change today. The boxes were gone, sure, but that's because they were on sale anyway. All the other stuff was still there.

[AmbrosiaWriter]

Little Debbie and Tasty Cakes are two other "fast cake/pastry" makers and they are not owned by Hostess, so you can see if you can stock those instead or if you already do sell them point the pot people toward those. (Zebra cakes are good, and Tasty Cakes makes a bunch of different kinds of mini-pies that are delicious.)

[ngc_7331]

Twinkies are the best packing foam ever. They're iconic American junk food. Most people grew up eating them. And don't even get me started on Wonder Bread. Everything tasted better on Wonder Bread.
Tasty Cakes are superior though, just because they have the peanut butter Kandy Kakes. Mmmmmmmmm so good.

[daleduke17]

Twinkies are the best packing foam ever. They're iconic American junk food. Most people grew up eating them.

Deep fried Twinkies are the best. So horrible for the body, but dear damn they are good.

[Hyena Dandy]

So, some people will now be able to point to this as evidence that unions are bad.

I guess they'll be using a...

Twinkie Defense?

[Nekojin]

This is actually gonna hurt my store a bit. We sell SO much of this stuff (our vendor has noted that of all his stores, we are by far the top seller). We're gonna have to find something else to sell there instead, or else al the local pot smokers will be sad : ( (I'm serious).

It's front page news in the local paper, but last night, we still had our normal stock and no one I knew mentioned it, and we didn't sell more than usual. That may change today. The boxes were gone, sure, but that's because they were on sale anyway. All the other stuff was still there.

As others have pointed out, it's very probable that someone will buy the Snack Foods brand from Hostess Inc, and resume production of Twinkies, Ding-Dongs, and all the rest, just under a different branding.

[AmbrosiaWriter]

I found another informative poster, people love to make these things.



So please, anyone who thinks it was the fault of those 5000 workers that everyone got laid off and the brand went into liquidation. Think again.

[DGoddess]

Little Debbie and Tasty Cakes are two other "fast cake/pastry" makers and they are not owned by Hostess, so you can see if you can stock those instead or if you already do sell them point the pot people toward those. (Zebra cakes are good, and Tasty Cakes makes a bunch of different kinds of mini-pies that are delicious.)

The Kitty sells the Hell out of some Little Debbies. In my store, we have an endcap for the regular sized boxes and a hutch on one of the other aisles for the big boxes.

We carry a small amount of the single serve varieties, but those aren't doing so hot (just had to pull a bunch of product that had just went out of date.)

Tastykake we also carry but those don't sell as well. Perhaps once we sell out of the Hostess snacks, those will start picking up in sales.

[AdminAssistant]

It's just a matter of time before Little Debbie or another company buys the rights/recipes to Hostess products and begins manufacturing Twinkies and Ho-ho's or whatever.

[Andara Bledin]

I can't stand the alternatives to the Hostess snacks. I don't know what it is, but the rest of them have this nasty taste.

That said, it'll be interesting to see which of their brands get snapped up at the liquidation sale.

I'll likely be seeing the auction notices hit my work email sometime next week. I actually discovered one of our customers had gone bankrupt that way...

^-.-^

[DGoddess]

It's just a matter of time before Little Debbie or another company buys the rights/recipes to Hostess products and begins manufacturing Twinkies and Ho-ho's or whatever.

Speaking of that, my Little Debbie guy (Cousin Brucie) was talkikng about that Friday when he came by. McKee Baking (who makes the Little Debbie treats) considered buying the Hostess company several years ago.

Only thing about buying the Hostess company when it was still operating is that it was a union company (my understanding is that McKee is not union). That being the case McKee would have had to shut down operations in all the Hostess facilities for 30 days to break the union and then resuming production.

Now that the company is shut down that pretty much gets the union out of the way. Perhaps this might be a better time for McKee to come in and purchase the brands?

Be interesting to see what develops.

[Dreamstalker]

"What about the Twinkie?"

I have a box of chocolate-cream Twinkies in the pantry, but I think their sell-by date was sometime in March. We don't have any Hostess or Drake's snacks left on the shelf, and grocery manager says we might get one more shipment as they push out what they have left, but I'm not banking on it. Mom wants me to grab as many boxes of Yodels as I can tomorrow for a friend.

Twinkies were meh for me (they don't quite taste the same as when I was a pup), but Funny Bones...those were soo good frozen.

[draco664]

Parasite killing its Host(ess)

So, Hostess, the owner of iconic brands such as Twinkies and Wonderbread, is no more.

The company had been in financial trouble for a while, and had twice been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the last decade, the most recent in January this year. What with increased competition from foreign imports and an increasingly health conscious public, sales had been lagging. And it doesn't help that most consumers are tightening their spending, foregoing on the little luxuries.

One would imagine that in the current economic climate, the unions wouldn't actively try and kill the company.

Nope.

The company basically told striking workers to go back to work, or they'd be forced to close the doors and sell the company. The bakers union basically called the company's bluff, only to discover that they weren't bluffing.

18,500 jobs gone. But it's not the union's fault. Not at all. No way. It's all the fault of the company decision makers. You know, the ones who said that the company would go under unless the workers went back to work.

[Nekojin]

You might want to read the OTHER thread about this. There's more going on than you seem to be aware of.

[AmbrosiaWriter]

Namely, this one:

http://www.fratching.com/showthread.php?t=7001

Which has plenty of information in it on why it IS the company's management to blame for the closing and NOT the union workers.