R.I.P. Twinkies

I didn't know until now that Beefsteak Rye was a Hostess product.
 
I will miss that!!

Peanut butter sandwiches will never be the same without that mushy Wonder Bread.

Well, if it helps Bob gain weight, I WILL scoop them up..he eats Wonder bread......except the whole grain kind.......( at my insistence).

Mosca

From what I understand, the recipes will get sold, and someone else will make them.
I don't think any of us were present during negotiations, so none of us have much relevant to say about why this happened.

The Twinkies Recipe is a National Treasure. I'm sure it will go for MILLIONS, even though it could be easily duplicated.

When I first heard the news, it took a while for the ramifications to sink in. In addition to their branded products, they also did a lot of private-label baking. I used to see Foodtown house brand bread in Wonder's outlet in Queens. Old favorites like Drakes Cake's, which I ate since when they were baked in Brooklyn, are affected. Folks further west will see a pause in Dolly Madison products. That discussion here about Hostess Fruit Pies is affected. Budget brands like County Fair. The footlong Wonder Bread hot dog buns found on the Jersey Shore. Wonder Foodservice, with their hamburger buns the size of the Whopper bun. J.J. Nissen in New England, with their Canadian White Bread, which they cheapened over the years. From the now-home page of Hostess Brands can be found a list of their major brands:
 
From http://www.hostessbrands.com
In addition to dozens of baking and distribution facilities around the country, Hostess Brands will sell its popular brands, including Hostess®, Drakes® and Dolly Madison®, which make iconic cake products such as Twinkies®, CupCakes, Ding Dongs®, Ho Ho’s®, Sno Balls® and Donettes®. Bread brands to be sold include Wonder®, Nature’s Pride ®, Merita®, Home Pride®, Butternut®, and Beefsteak®, among others.
 
As we saw with the closure of Mother's and Archway bakeries, other firms will eventually buy some or all of the brands. It probably will be years before we learn the real reasons for the shutdown. Hostess/Wonder really is a juggernaut.

In my almost 70 years, I never had a deep fried Twinkie - - and it was on my Bucket list...  Looked on Ebay, and can't afford any boxes of Twinkies that are listed...  Sigh....
 
And for those Drake fans - - I can remember the aroma of Drake's bakery in Bloomfield tantalizing my nose on the way home from swim team practice in Oakland - after we crossed the Bloomfield bridge - - and if the aroma wasn't working, the parade of ducks across the rooftop certainly was entertaining...
 
Sigh......

Oh, Oh! I just remembered that Crabill's http://www.roadfood.com/Restaurant/Overview/519/crabills   uses Wonder buns for their little burgers.

I talked to someone today who is in the industry and there's a strong feeling that Bimbo Bakeries USA, a subsidiary of Grupo Bimbo, a Mexican company, will buy the Hostess brand.  Bimbo already owns Sara Lee, Entenmanns, Earth Grains, and many other brands.

I just found out on our morning trip for groceries today that out favorite bread, Nature's Pride Whole Wheat is no more. The packaging says Interstate but guess who their parent is. We walked in and stared at the rack and it was almost empty. The regular driver we see was there so we asked him and he said... no more. He was now unemployed but had come in to the store on his own time to straighten out their products on the shelves out of loyalty to that particular store's manager.

Personally I've always preferred the Tastycake brand.  Until recently they were only available in the Maryland, Pennsylvania & New York areas.  Now glad to say they are here in North Carolina!!
 

I just remembered, all those PB&J sandwiches my mom made for me as a kid were on WonderBread!
I probably haven't had one since 1958.

Regarding the reasons why, I've struggled trying to figure it out. I mean, assume that everyone had the company's best interest at heart, and everyone tried to keep it afloat. Because we don't really know anyone in our lives who does differently, do we? I don't. I know some incompetent people, but by and large everyone I've met in business has tried to keep the money moving, and tried to do a good job. We're Americans... we are, and they are, both the white collar and the blue collar Hostess team members. It's how we roll, trying to make t work.

Surowieki has a good take on it in The New Yorker. Everywhere I read this being discussed, inevitably someone writes, "I haven't had a Twinkie (HoHo, Ding Dong, Banana Flip, Wonder Bread) in years, but this is terrible!"

WHo Killed the Twinkie?

From time to time, I would look at the message board at a site about IBC/Hostess brands, which I think started up about 2001. It started out as a mix of comments from consumers and employees, but later was only patronized by employees. Like most of those "sucks" sites, you have to take what you read with a grain of salt. The archives are no longer there, but there were always reports about how the product was cheapened, and I think they were genuine posts. Needless to say, there are some opinionated posts there right now. You have to scroll down a few pages, for the top of the page is blank:
http://www.twinkies.org/messboard.php

Twinkies demise is no big loss for me personally, but the chocolate cream-filled cupcakes, and  years ago the fruit-pies (Berry, Cherry, & lemon) we favorites. Other companies duplicated them, but Hostess did the job right, IMHO.
And Yes, I think a combination of Management and Labor killed the company.

I searched for Hostess on ebay and found an auction in its final moments.  Three 24 count boxes of Twinkies went for $405.00.  I wish I had stocked up!!
 
 

Fear not, up for bid as we speak on ebay five boxes of 10 individually wrapped Twinkies for 50 bucks.

Nobody is mentioning the other 13,5000 employees.  Were they happy?  Willing to compromise?  

MH has stocked up:  2 loaves of Wonder, 2 loaves of Beefsteak rye, 2 lemon pies, a package of cheese peanut butter crackers and 3 packages of Zingers.  Maybe when this has all been consumed we can get back to eating REAL FOOD!

I stopped at the Wonder outlet store near me this morning and picked up two loaves of Wonder Bread, a couple of loaves of Beefsteak Rye, some Hostess fruit pies (pineapple) and some hamburger buns. They had everything at 50 percent off, and the shelves were filled. I saw Twinkies there, but I've never had one so I wasn't interested.
 
EDIT: I got the Zingers and crackers yesterday.

Hostess Brands couldn't make a go of it, when all their expenses were factored in, including labor costs. They deserved to fail. That's the way capitalism works. Creative destruction, right? Their better run competitors, like Tastykake and Little Debbie, still operate. Better run companies will eventually make Twinkies, too.

Got the last two Wonder bread loaves at Target........got the last two hot dog buns at Cvs......got the last two powdered sugar donuts....wow!

OMG:  I forgot about those tiny powdered sugar donuts, the only Hostess product I presently consume (as part of sam's Club's "business-only hours')" free pastries and coffee.

Fret not. A Mexican company is in the works to buy all the Hostess brand goodies. Especially, Twinkies!
All those jerks who paid stupid money on eBay will be sooooooo sorry they spent the money they did for something that will be back on the shelves within a few months.

And just what is the shelf life of a Twinkie?  I'm guessing at least 50 years.

They advertise twelve years. I would have thought twinkies could survive a nuclear holocaust.

Michael Hoffman


I stopped at the Wonder outlet store near me this morning and picked up two loaves of Wonder Bread, a couple of loaves of Beefsteak Rye, some Hostess fruit pies (pineapple) and some hamburger buns. They had everything at 50 percent off, and the shelves were filled. I saw Twinkies there, but I've never had one so I wasn't interested.

EDIT: I got the Zingers and crackers yesterday.

 
You might want to save those Zingers.  They could be worth a lot of money!
 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/LOT-HOSTESS-ZINGERS-Get-Them-While-You-Can-LEAVE-THEM-IN-YOUR-WILL-/251185275332?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a7bcf21c4
 

What a bargain! Make a great Christmas present for Donald Trump.
 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/H...26sd%3D251185275332%26

ChrisOC

Michael Hoffman


I stopped at the Wonder outlet store near me this morning and picked up two loaves of Wonder Bread, a couple of loaves of Beefsteak Rye, some Hostess fruit pies (pineapple) and some hamburger buns. They had everything at 50 percent off, and the shelves were filled. I saw Twinkies there, but I've never had one so I wasn't interested.

EDIT: I got the Zingers and crackers yesterday.

You might want to save those Zingers.  They could be worth a lot of money!

I already ate one package of them.

This just in...
 
Hostess and Bakers Union Agree to Mediation  
"Hostess Brands and one of its major unions agreed on Monday to a mediation session, in a last-ditch effort to avoid winding down the bankrupt maker of Twinkies and Wonder bread. "
 
http://dealbook.nytimes.c...on-agree-to-mediation/
 
 

Tony Bad


This just in...

Hostess and Bakers Union Agree to Mediation  
"Hostess Brands and one of its major unions agreed on Monday to a mediation session, in a last-ditch effort to avoid winding down the bankrupt maker of Twinkies and Wonder bread. "

http://dealbook.nytimes.c...on-agree-to-mediation/

 
I always suspected you were a New York Times Minion.
 
The more this plays out, the more I see the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union acting like the Air traffic Controllers of the 80's.  My guess would be extreme pressure from the Teamsters is bringing everyone back to the table.