End Of Another American Food Icon - Hostess Bakery Shutting Down

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Oh, and I forgot to mention...

As far as bygone uses for the Wonder (and other bread) wrappers, don't forget that you had to put them over your shoes so you could slide into your galoshes (wellies for those of you across the pond) easier!

Chuck
 
Several years ago I read that you were not supposed to turn bread bags inside out and reuse them. The reason was some of the paint or ink used in labeling the packages had lead in them, and using them as storage bags could transfer some of the lead to the food stored within.

I wonder if Hostess had any of those young "Ivy League Grad School Hot Shots" in to run the company. Usually when they pull those in the company usually sells off it's money making assets and then liquidates what's left. Isn't that what happened with Maytag or the US Textile Industry?
 
@whirlcool:

"I wonder if Hostess had any of those young "Ivy League Grad School Hot Shots" in to run the company. Usually when they pull those in the company usually sells off it's money making assets and then liquidates what's left. Isn't that what happened with Maytag or the US Textile Industry? "

Yeah, you're on the right track.

The popular press (at least Fox News) wants to blame the UFCW and Teamsters. Damn those people that want to earn a living wage!

A reasonably intelligent person that really looked at what happened to Interstate Brands (bankruptcy #1) and Hostess (bankruptcy #2) would come to a different conclusion.

There's a reason why Hostess (bankruptcy #2) isn't publicly traded - you can't go to NYSE or NASDAQ and buy their stock, no matter how fond you might be of Twinkies, Ding-Dongs or Ho-Hos. And it's because a private equity firm bought them.

What do I know, though? I got my MBA from a Jesuit university where they thought social responsibility was important...

and facts...
 
When I worked at the Nissen Bakery in Biddeford they would put fresh warm Suzy Qs in the cafeteria and the Apple, Lemon, Blueberry and Cherry pies that were still warm. On occasion they would put loaves of fresh Nissen Canadian bread in the cafeteria to take home. The SuzyQs were so awesome fresh like that. The smell of fresh bread wafting thru the plant and into the ofices was wonderful. Funny thing is as time went on I didnt notice as much as when I first started there. My office window overlooked the bakery and below my window was the English Muffin line, The cooling racks for the bread were always moving and full. We also made New England style hot dog rolls, hamburger rolls,snowballs, Wonder Bread and Home Pride. I loved my job there and alot of good people were effected by this action.
 
Well...

The Hostess outlets have closed down here in Springfield. The remaining items that were still on the shelves were given to the Salvation Army.
 
Apparently prospective buyers are lined up and waiting to resurrect the Hostess brand, or at least many of their products as soon as it all goes up for bid.

 

This causes me to think back about 30 years or so to the "New Coke" fiasco.  If the new bakery decides to mess with the Twinkie recipe, they'll never get away with it and they'll have hell to pay.
 
Zingers

On Black Friday at Sam's Club, they had a large number of 12-packs of chocolate Zingers, with an expiration date of 12/21. Each package contains three cakes of 130 calories each, or 390 per pack, or 4,680 per 12-pack. Zowie!

I should have resisted, but it only cost $5.68, so I gave in to the temptation. I'm hoping they freeze and thaw well, as otherwise I won't be able to consume them all by 12/21.

retropia++11-26-2012-12-29-59.jpg
 
Expiration Dates

Are the last days a product can be legally sold as "fresh". Depending upon the goods things often are still safe to consume days or even weeks later. These dates are designed by federal and or state laws to ensure consumers purchase wholesome and healthy goods, also to protect them from food borne illnesses. However with the advent of modern refrigeration and chemical perservatives many goods last longer than their "sell by" dates.

Fresh bread including "French",bagels and other sorts are best eaten the same day or perhaps the next. You can freeze bread and thaw as required but that does not always have the best taste/texture.

OTHO store bought bread in plastic wrappers is usually so loaded with perservatives it lasts for a good week or more on shelves and even then can last longer after the "expiration date".

Eggs the same. Don't eat eggs that often so a dozen will often last for awhile as one really only uses them for baking or cooking. Have used eggs one, two or more weeks past their sell by dates and am still living to tell the tale.

Baked goods with cream fillings normally aren't the best for freezing, so you may wish to start eating more or give some away as 12/21 comes and goes with you still having a sizable amount left over.
 
I wouldn't be surprised if the products 'mysteriously' reappear in months to come.

There was no good reason to go into bankruptcy with 2.4 BILLION in sales.

The management is using the unions as an excuse to line their pockets, at the expense of our communities.
They'll sell the product to other bakeries, retain residuals for themselves, dump the physical assets, and any responsibilities for employees and their pensions.
Sleazy.
 
Forget Hostess, I'm saving my venture capital to bring back the Old Home Bread brand.

They had C.W. McCall sing for their commercials.

I can't think of any baked-goods company ever with a pitch-man that had a number-one Country and Pop song like Old Home did.

Plus, he launched the 1970s trucker movie genre - like "Convoy" with Kris Kristofferson, Ali McGraw, and Ernest Borgnine.

 
@applianceguy47:

You are exactly correct.

But I'm sure you also knew that Hostess management petitioned the bankruptcy court last week to be able to pay significant bonuses for their key management team (like $100k per important manager-person), while blaming the actual workers for their management failure.

That is the epitome of sleazery.

And, no, I'm not a union guy. I've always been a management guy. But I spent a lot of years working with union guys. And it's amazing what you can learn from the guy or gal that actually has to run a machine and what they can tell you about how to improve your production processes.

You can learn a lot more from a machine operator that gets paid $20/hr than you can from some d-bag from Deloitte or KPMG in the conference room that charges $400/hr and talks about 6-sigma and team-building.
 

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