The street value of Twinkies after the company closes

Alessandra Kelley

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Funny, I keep seeing news stories about grocery shelves wiped out of Hostess snacks, but our local supermarket's shelves were full to bursting with the chromatically eye-watering Hostess packages this morning.

We're a college neighborhood, even.

Then again, even our alderman says we're not so much a neighborhood as an anarcho-syndicate collective.
 
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robeiae

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Funny, I keep seeing news stories about grocery shelves wiped out of Hostess snacks, but our local supermarket's shelves were full to bursting with the chromatically eye-watering Hostess packages this morning.
Overnight delivery. Go back later today and see what you see.

Check this out: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313&_nkw=twinkies&_sacat=0&_from=R40

Yep, that's right.

Last night, one auction went over $100 for a box of ten (according to a friend).
 

robeiae

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A good piece: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2012/11/who-killed-the-twinkie.html

Some quotes from it:

But, while the strike may well have sent Hostess over the edge, the hard truth is that it probably should have gone out of business a long time ago. The company has been steadily losing money, and market share, for years. And its core problem has not been excessively high compensation costs or pension contributions. Its core problem has been that the market for its products changed, but it did not...

But the simple truth is that this kind of failure is endemic to the system—there are always going to be companies that are unable to change in response to the marketplace. And those companies are supposed to go out of business. Not to be too clichéd about it, but this is what creative destruction is all about...

When organized labor represented more than a third of American workers, it was easy for unions to send the message that in agitating for their own interests, union members were also helping improve conditions for workers in general. But as unions have shrunk, and have become increasingly concentrated in the public sector, it’s become easier for people to dismiss them as just another special interest, looking to hold onto perks that no one else gets.
 

Monkey

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I can't believe no one's said it yet:

It's not the end of Twinkies. It's the end of CHEAP Twinkies made by Hostess.

Maybe.

:D
 

Monkey

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See, I didn't even know how much Twinkies costed anymore because the last time I bought one was... 1998? 99?

I assumed, though, that they were a couple of bucks and not as "good" as they used to be.
 

Don

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Well, one of the biggest problems Hostess has had for a while now is that its Twinkies weren't cheap.

Personally, I'm reminded of General Motors here...

Government Twinkies?
They could change the heart in the logo to a round rainbow-lookin' thingie and declare them "Too Delicious To Fail." Then they could move some of their factories to China and introduce deliciousness to those who have not yet had that experience. Later their Chinese Advanced Technology Center could develop new, tastier rice cakes.
 

rhymegirl

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I heard a DJ on the radio today saying he decided to buy some Twinkies to see how they taste these days. He was disappointed.

Have they really gone downhill in taste? I haven't had one in a long time.
 

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U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain...said he wanted the parties to try one last time to reach agreement. Drain will serve as the mediator at a session scheduled for Tuesday afternoon. Only one day of talks is set for now.

CEO Greg Rayburn said the company needs a final decision on Tuesday...

One hope for the unions and the employees was raised earlier in the day Monday when private equity firm Sun Capital Partners disclosed it wants to buy Hostess as a going concern, including reopening the shuttered factories and continuing union representation of Hostess workers.
 

Don

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Reason does a decent job of lining up all the culprits in Who Killed Hostess? They even mention the high cost of sugar, thanks to tariffs imposed courtesy of the Sugar Lobby.
 

PorterStarrByrd

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I think they have to reclassify sugar as a vegetable first.

sugar cane ... sugar beets ... maple trees ... etc

should be a short leap ... let's get on it before we die of twinkie withdrawl syndrome


I KNOW they held off on this until after the election ..
 

veinglory

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sugar cane ... sugar beets ... maple trees ... etc

should be a short leap ... let's get on it before we die of twinkie withdrawl syndrome


I KNOW they held off on this until after the election ..

I once heard a Kellog's presenter vehemently assert that sugar was a nutrient.
 

Roger J Carlson

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I once heard a Kellog's presenter vehemently assert that sugar was a nutrient.
Isn't it?

According to Wikipedia
A nutrient is a chemical that an organism needs to live and grow or a substance used in an organism's metabolism which must be taken in from its environment.[1] They are used to build and repair tissues, regulate body processes and are converted to and used as energy.

Organic nutrients include carbohydrates, fats, proteins (or their building blocks, amino acids), and vitamins.
(Underlining mine.)

Sugar is a carbohydrate, so by this definition at least, it is a nutrient.
 

sulong

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Sadly, no matter what happens to this company and their employees, someone, somewhere, will always make twinkies. They're too good of sellers to just go away.

Seems to be turning into a feeding frenzy for Twinkies.

(Reuters) - Hostess Brands Inc, the bankrupt Twinkie and Wonder Bread maker, has received bids for assets being sold by about two dozen parties including Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT) and Kroger Co (KR), according to a media report on Thursday.
Some of the bidders are interested in acquiring all of the Hostess assets, while others are just focused on its cake or breads businesses, said the report by Bloomberg, which cited a person familiar with the matter.