The street value of Twinkies after the company closes

Williebee

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Just considering the side effects.

"We simply do not have the financial resources to survive an ongoing national strike," Hostess CEO Gregory Rayburn said in a statement Wednesday. "Therefore, if sufficient employees do not return to work by 5 p.m., EST, on Thursday to restore normal operations, we will be forced to immediately move to liquidate the entire company, which will result in the loss of nearly 18,000 jobs." (Link is to ABC News)

The company is already being monitored by bankruptcy courts due to a previous bankruptcy.

The company, for its part, is putting out statements via this website.

The union's site is here.
The union blames the company's woes on a combination of a decade of poor management and the arrival of "vulture capitalists."
 

Don

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I'm sure there's plenty of blame to pass around; to the vulture capitalists who think industries are interchangeable and an executive who can run a successful company in industry A can automatically be successful in industry B. To the B-schools that teach that philosophy. To the investors who buy that line. To the union leaders that believe you can get blood out of a turnip. To the politicians who propagate a fiat money system that leads inexorably to a misunderstanding of the connection between finance and wealth, enabling the accumulation of money by the destruction of productive organizations and the stream of wealth they produce.

I'm also sure all the finger-pointing will be great consolation to all the people about to lose their jobs.

Not to mention the millions of people on the verge of going into Twinkie withdrawal.

Kaiser-Kun may be right.
 

alleycat

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I don't know much about this situation, but as a consumer I would think that someone has certainly mismanaged that company (and brand) for years.
 

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.
 

Ari Meermans

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This explains a lot. I met a lovely older lady recently who told me she manages (hah! She's also the sole employee.) of a local Hostess outlet store and she was recently informed she'd have to take a $1.50/hour cut in pay or the store would have to be closed. A buck fifty an hour is a huge cut to someone who's very likely already making near minimum wage.
 

Alessandra Kelley

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How the hell does someone manage to drive a snack cake company into the ground? That's like failing to make a profit on crack.

I poked around a bit. There's a plausible case to be made that Hostess is doing this at least in part to get out from under pension and health care obligations.

Hostess itself seems to be blaming American consumers for becoming more health conscious, which does not seem a good sales strategy.

I'm old enough to remember when it seemed like every kid in school ate a package of Hostess things every day with their lunch. Well, I didn't, but I sure envied other kids their Twinkies and Ding Dongs and Fruit Pies. It was like Hostess had a lock on kids' lunch bags.

Mind you, the rare times I got to eat one of Hostess' snacks I found it vaguely revolting. I've seen people complain that Hostess snacks don't taste as good as they used to, but I suspect that is rosy nostalgia.

All things pass away.
 

veinglory

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The union leaders have accepted workforce-wide pay cuts, twice. that strikes me as pretty damn understanding for a union. Maybe the business just isn't viable any more.
 

frimble3

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How the hell does someone manage to drive a snack cake company into the ground? That's like failing to make a profit on crack.
QFT!
This isn't some no-name brand, this is Twinkies!
It's what Mom eats after she makes those apple pies!

And, really, I can't imagine that the ingredients are especially expensive. How much are those execs making, anyway?
 

muravyets

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I poked around a bit. There's a plausible case to be made that Hostess is doing this at least in part to get out from under pension and health care obligations.

Hostess itself seems to be blaming American consumers for becoming more health conscious, which does not seem a good sales strategy.

I'm old enough to remember when it seemed like every kid in school ate a package of Hostess things every day with their lunch. Well, I didn't, but I sure envied other kids their Twinkies and Ding Dongs and Fruit Pies. It was like Hostess had a lock on kids' lunch bags.

Mind you, the rare times I got to eat one of Hostess' snacks I found it vaguely revolting. I've seen people complain that Hostess snacks don't taste as good as they used to, but I suspect that is rosy nostalgia.

All things pass away.
Actually, they did get worse in flavor after the advent of high fructose corn syrup. Then they went from tasting like a heavily adulterated fake cake-like spongey product to a heavily adulterated greasy WTF-is-this-supposed-to-be glop-like product.

And indeed, we are seeing the end of an era. Yea verily.
 

muravyets

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QFT!
This isn't some no-name brand, this is Twinkies!
It's what Mom eats after she makes those apple pies!

And, really, I can't imagine that the ingredients are especially expensive. How much are those execs making, anyway?
Twinkies are not that difficult to make copies of using real food. If those idiotic losers couldn't manage to keep Twinkies afloat (And seriously, have you ever tried to sink one? Can't be done.), then I can easily see some little organic bakery taking up the challenge. Or even Twinkies becoming a home-baked classic of family bonding.

So how much do we want to bet that, after the brand vanishes from the market, if private citizens bake banana cream-filled sponge cakes at home and call them Twinkies, some former corporate executive will try to sue for trademark infringement?
 

alleycat

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Remember, it's not just Twinkies, it's Wonder Bread, Dolly Madison, Eddy's ice cream and a bunch of other brands. At the grocery store I go to, Krispy Kreme has a large middle of the aisle display; Hostess is over at the side near the door to the stockroom. They used to have Wonder Bread, but I don't think they even carry it anymore.
 

nighttimer

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No more Twinkies, Suzy-O's, Ho-Ho's, Ding-Dongs or those damn nasty-ass Sno-Balls?

Mvc3-galactus.jpg


Galactus be praised!
:Hail:
 

Alessandra Kelley

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I will not miss wonder bread. It was like eating solidified salty foam.

Is there a single food invented during the Great Depression that is not a chemical-laden piece of industrial flavored vileness?
 

Opty

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Y'all have obviously never had a fried Twinkie. If there is a God, fried Twinkies (and fried Oreos) are proof.
 

regdog

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How the hell does someone manage to drive a snack cake company into the ground? That's like failing to make a profit on crack.

I'm not saying this is case with Hostess but The Upper Crust Pizza chain went bankrupt because the owner diverted business money for himself.
 

Xelebes

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Twinkies will still be available in Canada as all Hostess products are licensed by Saputo here. Although the only Hostess products I've seen on the local storeshelves have been Ruffles and Wonderbread.