Hostess Brands is dissolving the company. The refusal of union workers to take a pay cut was the last straw, but the company was already in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Losing their jobs will be 18,500 employees at 33 factories and 500 stores. But at least they didn’t have to take a pay cut!
Hostess made products that became icons of American culture: Twinkies, Wonder Bread, Snow Balls, Ding Dongs, Ho-Hos, and (my favorite) Hostess Cupcakes. Other Hostess brands include Nature’s Pride, Butternut, Drake’s, Home Pride, and (my favorite) Dolly Madison. (No more of those white powdered donuts?)
Remember the “Twinkie Defense,” in which an accused murderer pleaded that he was not responsible for his actions because he ate too much junk-food, being in a state of sugar intoxication when he killed his victim? That didn’t work. For other examples of Twinkies in American culture, read this.
They were certainly fixtures of my childhood. I remember pondering how Hostess got that filling into the cakes! And how can I have Thanksgiving without turkey leftovers on that soft Wonderbread?
A petition has been started asking the White House to bail-out the company. Hostess is too delicious to fail! Meanwhile, Twinkie hoarding has begun. A box of ten is going for as much as $229.99 at E-bay.
But surely, for the sake of America and all that is sweet and soft and gooey, as Hostess liquidates and sells its assets, surely some other company will buy the rights to the Hostess icons.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In