Hostess Brands (Twinkies) on verge of liquidation

[PandaBear]

What would these 18500 people do? Twinkies will be made elsewhere and there'll be job opening after they transfer ownership of the brands and equipments. There will be fewer jobs due to cutting inefficiency (i.e. each brand can only be delivered by each union contract labor it is assigned to, instead of all product on one route).

The union refuse to collaborate because they rather see a mutual destruction on this one company instead of having an example that other companies can follow on getting out of under funded pension and outdated contracts. They aren't always for just one group of employee as they have more to protect than just this one group in the long run. Just business and politics, nothing more.

The hedge funds / capitalists want it shut down so they can take the brand and equipments and make it elsewhere. The brand and products would worth more by using bankruptcy to exit out of disadvantaged labor contracts.

However, like Kruse said it is the product that failed the company. Twinkies may be good enough for a lower standard 50 years ago but today's kids and adult demand better quality for the same money, or will pay more for better quality. I'm sure a lot of the money went to Starbucks and ice cream today than Twinkies, and they have to do better than living off a dead old brand. You can have the most efficient process and labor cost making junks and still go out of business.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Hostess should have done what Salada Tea did a few years ago.

 

[Tempest]

Quote:
The union refuse to collaborate because they rather see a mutual destruction on this one company instead of having an example that other companies can follow on getting out of under funded pension and outdated contracts. They aren't always for just one group of employee as they have more to protect than just this one group in the long run.

Yes. Modern union solidarity = expendable.

The name brands and equipment will likely be liquidated by investors and purchased by nonunion operators.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/49858544

 

[Loobed]

The Wonder/Hostess outlet where I always get my junk food is closing up (as is mentioned in the Twinkies thread). They said Tuesday will be their last day: Wonder/Hostess is going out of business. Channel 4 News was there talking to customers that came to buy up what was left. I got 3 boxes of Hostess Donuts, three boxes of raspberry Zingers, and 2 loafs of Colombo sourdough bread. They didn't have any Ding-Dongs, Ho-Hos, or Chocodiles left. This place has been there since the 60's I was a kid.

One of the K-mart near my place is closing up, but the other 2 in the area are still open. There is a also an Orchard Supply Hardware that is closing up. I think Home Debauchery put them out of business. No oil deals at either. K-mart sold out most of their oil @ 20% off which isn't any better than Wlamart normal price. OSH didn't have their oil discounted yet. They will shut their doors on December 24.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Originally Posted By: Tempest
Quote:
The union refuse to collaborate because they rather see a mutual destruction on this one company instead of having an example that other companies can follow on getting out of under funded pension and outdated contracts. They aren't always for just one group of employee as they have more to protect than just this one group in the long run.

Yes. Modern union solidarity = expendable.

The name brands and equipment will likely be liquidated by investors and purchased by nonunion operators.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/49858544


It would have been the same for GM ...

 

[SLCraig]

I heard about Hostess. Shame.
Was just over in Michigan and Meijer had some Twinkies on sale. I bought a couple boxes just to have around, since I love them and very rarely typically would ever have one.

Guess I'll have to really enjoy these.

 

[Stu_Rock]

Sounds like San Lorenzo OSH and San Leandro Hostess. Which Kmart is closing?

 

[Volvohead]

We bought a box a few days ago for the rug rats. I had heard the Hostess story developing, but didn't think much about it.

When we stopped by the store just this evening, the shelves were bare.

All gone. The end.

I guess we were lucky to get that box. There's four or five left.

Even though they're completely unhealthy, every little boy or girl should have a Twinkie at some point, if only to say they had one once. Time munches on.

 

[getnpsi]

Their problems were not related to the CA tax changing scare/fact, but I think any companies based here or strong footing in CA on the fence about their future are going to follow. First they move out of the state, then they leave the country altogether.

We had two hostess bread shops in my town and both closed several years ago. My mom used to load the cart with day old bread and let us pick out armloads of treats to freeze. Carts full for 10-12 bucks--this was not the 1970s, but the early 1990's.

 

[Volvohead]

Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette
Hostess Brands (Twinkies) on verge of liquidation due to labor strike. This Thursday is the deadline for the workers to stop their strike.

Any BITOG members going to stock up on Twinkies before they are all gone and be a thing of the past ?

http://www.hostessstrike.info/





[Posted this on another thread, but it fits better here]:

We bought a box a few days ago for the rug rats. I had heard the Hostess story developing, but didn't think much about it.

When we stopped by the store just this evening, the shelves were bare.

All gone. The end.

I guess we were lucky to get that box. There's four or five left.

Even though they're completely unhealthy, every little boy or girl should have a Twinkie at some point, if only to say they had one once. Time munches on.

 

[Loobed]

Originally Posted By: Stu_Rock
Sounds like San Lorenzo OSH and San Leandro Hostess. Which Kmart is closing?


Pleasant Hill near Concord.

 

[Loobed]

Originally Posted By: getnpsi


We had two hostess bread shops in my town and both closed several years ago. My mom used to load the cart with day old bread and let us pick out armloads of treats to freeze. Carts full for 10-12 bucks--this was not the 1970s, but the early 1990's.



Last week I got boxes of Twinkies for $1 each. The Ding-Dongs cost me $2 each. I also got bread for $1 a loaf.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Originally Posted By: getnpsi
Their problems were not related to the CA tax changing scare/fact, but I think any companies based here or strong footing in CA on the fence about their future are going to follow. First they move out of the state, then they leave the country altogether.

We had two hostess bread shops in my town and both closed several years ago. My mom used to load the cart with day old bread and let us pick out armloads of treats to freeze. Carts full for 10-12 bucks--this was not the 1970s, but the early 1990's.


I remember those! We used to have one in Utica ... the stuff was dirt cheap.

 

[Bill in Utah]

Merged both threads about Hostess into single.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: Stu_Rock
Sounds like San Lorenzo OSH and San Leandro Hostess. Which Kmart is closing?


San Lorenzo OSH is closing? Is that the one on Lewelling near Hesperian? My inlaw is near that area and I didn't notice it is closing last time I went.

 

[buster]

Are unions antiquated? Probably. Have they served a purpose? Yes. I live in the real world, not some fantasy world where free market faries are running rampant. In an ideal world, that would be wonderful.

Quote:
In principle, every American citizen has an equal say in our political process. In practice, of course, some of us are more equal than others. Billionaires can field armies of lobbyists; they can finance think tanks that put the desired spin on policy issues; they can funnel cash to politicians with sympathetic views (as the Koch brothers did in the case of Mr. Walker). On paper, we’re a one-person-one-vote nation; in reality, we’re more than a bit of an oligarchy, in which a handful of wealthy people dominate.

Given this reality, it’s important to have institutions that can act as counterweights to the power of big money. And unions are among the most important of these institutions.

You don’t have to love unions, you don’t have to believe that their policy positions are always right, to recognize that they’re among the few influential players in our political system representing the interests of middle- and working-class Americans, as opposed to the wealthy. Indeed, if America has become more oligarchic and less democratic over the last 30 years — which it has — that’s to an important extent due to the decline of private-sector unions.


And as far as Keynes goes, he's still butchered and not even seriously followed these days.

Case in point:

Quote:
Lernernian policy which was guised as Keynesian policy (which was not at all Keynesian) directly or indirectly led to higher tax rates, stagflation, and expanding current account deficit (testing Triffin's dilemma), and the higher tax rates coupled with banking deregulation led us into bubble after bubble. Even a Lernerian advocate admits as such "in the 70′s, when my tax rate was around 70%, I clearly recall making very high risk investments figuring it was better than giving 70% to the govt".


At the end of the day, look around the world. No one can even make the case that purely free market society is most successful. Top 10 countries around the world with the highest living standards are mixed and left biased. Australia has an atheist PM.

There are so many uneducated people in this country that have never even left the country it's scary. Limited scope.

It's ok though, things will work out in the LR.

 

[Volvohead]

Keynesian economic policies require a capital surplus or reserve. A structural capital deficit based on Keynesian fiscal policies is inherently unsustainable in the long-term.

We've long ago eaten up all the seed corn here in the US. Ever since, we've been pulling the rubber band of monetary policy and currency value dilution tighter and tighter. The only thing still propping it up is that the Eurozone is in worse shape than we are. But once it finally snaps . . .

I was ranting about this flaw in Keynesian economic policy in the early '80s with colleagues. I'm not a big fan of using monetary policy to mask fundamental structural economic deficiencies. Treasury printing presses can't replace industrial assembly lines.

Amazingly, the most prescient analysis of working capitalism was by Karl Marx. At the heart of any economy, somebody has to actually make something.

Every day there are seemingly fewer of them here in the US, as the Chinese manufacture more and more and grow stronger and stronger.

Regardless of who's at fault, I do feel for those 18,000+ families.

 

[buster]

Originally Posted By: Volvohead
Keynesian economic policies require a capital surplus or reserve. A structural capital deficit based on Keynesian fiscal policies is inherently unsustainable in the long-term.

We've long ago eaten up all the seed corn here in the US. Ever since, we've been pulling the rubber band of monetary policy and currency value dilution tighter and tighter. The only thing still propping it up is that the Eurozone is in worse shape than we are. But once it finally snaps . . .

I was ranting about this flaw in Keynesian economic policy in the early '80s with colleagues. I'm not a big fan of using monetary policy to mask fundamental structural economic deficiencies. Treasury printing presses can't replace industrial assembly lines.

Amazingly, the most prescient analysis of working capitalism was by Karl Marx. At the heart of any economy, somebody has to actually make something.

Every day there are seemingly fewer of them here in the US, as the Chinese manufacture more and more and grow stronger and stronger.

Regardless of who's at fault, I do feel for those 18,000+ families.


Well said, but I do disagree. The modern monetary system is not fully understood. A lot of "experts" have been proven wrong the last 4 years, most of them lean right. fyi.

 

[buster]

Think about it though. Keynesian polcies in the long run are bad. Ok. Well what is the long run? Since the 30's the U.S. has been a powerhouse. All operating on Keynesian based policies with modified and misinterpreted versions. So, when was this non Keynesian utopia? The Gilded Age? Malarkey.

If you don't adapt, you die. Darwin said it's not the most intelligent, it's those that can adapt the most that survive. We're seeing a party and mindset that is about to die off. It's inevitable. Your days are numbered. It's called reality.

 

[Loobed]

Originally Posted By: PandaBear
Originally Posted By: Stu_Rock
Sounds like San Lorenzo OSH and San Leandro Hostess. Which Kmart is closing?


San Lorenzo OSH is closing? Is that the one on Lewelling near Hesperian? My inlaw is near that area and I didn't notice it is closing last time I went.


San Leandro
300 Floresta Boulevard
San Leandro
CA, United States 94578