Hostess going out of business. For now, no more Twinkies, Wonder Bread, Merita Butter Bread...

[Uncle Lupe]

Hostess is all about how you buy them. Cupcakes need to be bought in the 2-packs, not by the box. And always go for the ones on the back of the shelf, as those are the freshest. Twinkies doesn't matter either way since those are good for like 5,000 years. The Donettes are better by the package and bag. By the box, they tend to be a bit stale. Ding Dongs tend to be better by the box, as the 2 packs always tend to fall apart.

Why the hell do I know this?

If stocked properly most products are better bought from the back.

 

[The Mom]

I wish I had a dollar for every Hostess Twinkie, Cupcake or Ho Ho that was in my school sack lunch back in the '60's and '70's.

And this is a problem today. Many school systems will not allow these (or any other "unhealthy") products in student lunches, so parents aren't purchasing them anymore. I grew up in a time when the standard packed lunch was a sandwich, piece of fruit, and some sort of cake product.

There were a few overweight kids, and a rare morbidly obese one - I think there was one in our 2100 student high school. But, we played outside constantly, and dinner was healthier than lunch. Fast food was the greasy spoon down the street (which had fish & chips on Fridays), Coney Island System Hot Dogs, pizza places, Chinese take-out, and a Kelly's Hamburger which was taken over by McDonald's. And you didn't start eating at those places frequently until your teens, when you would meet your friends after dances and movies.

 

[John]

And this is a problem today. Many school systems will not allow these (or any other "unhealthy") products in student lunches, so parents aren't purchasing them anymore. I grew up in a time when the standard packed lunch was a sandwich, piece of fruit, and some sort of cake product.

There were a few overweight kids, and a rare morbidly obese one - I think there was one in our 2100 student high school. But, we played outside constantly, and dinner was healthier than lunch. Fast food was the greasy spoon down the street (which had fish & chips on Fridays), Coney Island System Hot Dogs, pizza places, Chinese take-out, and a Kelly's Hamburger which was taken over by McDonald's. And you didn't start eating at those places frequently until your teens, when you would meet your friends after dances and movies.

Agreed, we hardly ever ate at McDonalds or such. It was a treat that we enjoyed maybe once a month MAYBE!
Never had video games, computers,cell phones etc. Its funny, back when I was a kid punishment was making us stay inside. Today punishment is making kids go outside....off the video games computer etc.

We would play some type of ball sun up to sun down.

 

[John]

Ehhh, not really. The strike might have been the final straw, but Hostess had much bigger problems than what they were paying their workforce. The union could have reduced wages to minimum wage with no benefits and it might have bought Hostess another year or two.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamhartung/2012/11/18/hostess-twinkie-defense-is-a-management-failure/

http://mediamatters.org/mobile/rese...es-hostess-array-of-troubles-to-scapeg/191440

Thanks, that was a good read. Didnt realize Hostess's managment problems. There wouldnt have been anything the company could have done with that debt load.

 

[flynnibus]

An interesting read on the background of Hostess's troubles from this summer..
http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2012/07/26/hostess-twinkies-bankrupt/

 

[Master Yoda]

Thanks, that was a good read. Didnt realize Hostess's managment problems. There wouldnt have been anything the company could have done with that debt load.

Quite true. The vulture capitalists had picked Hostess clean. The new deal they were trying to get the union to swallow would have allowed them to pick at the bones for a few more years, but the company was too far gone to ever really recover. This link is an interesting, albeit one sided story, from someone on the inside.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/18/1162786/-Inside-the-Hostess-Bankery

 

[flynnibus]

Quite true. The vulture capitalists had picked Hostess clean

I don't think they were picking it clean.. they had to continue to dump money into it that now much of they stand to lose. Poorly ran company straddled with cummulating debt that ultimately over ran it.. and with union labor they couldn't keep cutting the production costs.. eventually the obligations overran what revenue it could produce. The Fortune article linked a bit earlier does a good job detailing the investments the private equity firms put into the company when they bought it and through it's two bankruptcies.

It's a good example of why you can't just keep lumping things into debt.. tho the PE people were a large part of that problem IMO.. by putting the debt burden on the company with their loans at significant rates. Normally they would expect to make money by having the company pay those interest rates back to them... but they overloaded the boat.. and sailed into a hurricane.

 

[FutureCEO]

I must be the only one who never had a Twinkie. The thing Hostess made good was bread.

also this Hostess story and what people are saying about it sounds like a country we all know

 

[KeithVH]

For those of us forced to leave the east and live on the Left coast, we all miss TastyCake. The big problem with Hostess was their business model; they did not modernize over the years, unlike their competitors, especially in things like distribution channels and transportation. Other companies did and remain successful.

But there is some good news. The Canadian licensee for Twinkies (and other prods) is doing fine and still making product. Now, if you just don't get stopped at the border smuggling a gross of Twinkies boxes . . .