Hostess Cupcakes Coming Back?

Image from source, Pink is the New Blog

It's funny how you can miss something you likely haven't bought much in decades, but many Americans got very sad about the demise of Hostess Brands several months back. The Wonder Bread (and other breads) division were gobbled up already, but the Twinkies and Ho-Hos have been mia ever since. And in the meantime, other companies have really stepped up their game, notably Tastykake and Little Debbie, which has packaging very much like just about every Hostess Brand, prominently displayed where the Ding Dongs used to be!

Well, move over Debbie (you vulture), Hostess is coming back!

[Excerpt]

Twinkies May Return To Store Shelves This Summer

Remember back in November when we learned the HORRIBLE news that Hostess snack foods was going out of business and would no longer be producing delicious dessert treats like Twinkies anymore? Well, I’ve got some good news for ya. A joint bid by two companies successfully won the right to produce Twinkies and other Hostess snack foods for sale again … which means that “America’s favorite snacks” might be back on store shelves by the Summer! ISN’T THAT THE BEST NEWS EVER?! . . .

Read more at: Pink is the New Blog

Wonder Bread Lives!

Mmmm. So. . .spongy. Image from ABC News

Though my mother's cooking style was about as basic (Miracle Whip, American cheese, iceberg lettuce, white bread, Hamburger Helper) as you could get, if we ever had Wonder Bread on the table, I don't remember it. That's why I loved that we got it at school in the 70s, in the form of PBJs, bread and butter, grilled cheese sandwiches. It's not that Wonder Bread really tasted all that good. It's just something about the pure white color, the uniform sponginess, the perfectly formed shape. It was space age, when The Jetsons still kind of seemed like the future. I'm sure that our equally spongy and perfectly round buns on our hamburgers, sloppy joes and shredded chicken sandwiches were Wonder brand too. So, I'm glad that the Wonder Bread brand will survive. . .kind of. It seems like a product of a bygone era. Other than nostalgia, I'm not sure why anyone buys it.

[Excerpt]

Hostess Strikes Deal to Sell Wonderbread, Fate of Twinkies Not Yet Settled

The iconic Wonderbread, once in jeopardy after Hostess declared bankruptcy, seems likely to return to store shelves under a new brand. A $390 million bid from Flower Foods Inc., for six of the Twinkie maker’s bread brands, was the leading bid on Friday. . .

Read more (with video) at: ABC News

Blast from the Past: Classic Hostess Commericals

Considering that the Hostess company died at the end of last week, I couldn't possibly use any other subject for my weekly Blast from the Past column, could I? I mean, yes, this is also Thanksgiving week, but for my final column before the holiday season starts, it has to be Hostess, a huge part of American pop culture, and especially any kid of the 70s like me.

Surely a company will swoop in and rescue our favorite brands. If they need any proof of the resonance of Twinkies, HoHos and other Hostess cupcakes,  they need look no further than this post!

And with that, we'll start our new (shortened) Thanksgiving week. Happy Monday, everybody.

RIP Hostess Cupcakes & Wonder Bread

Image from source, Think Progress.

By now, you've heard the sad, sad news. Hostess, maker of Twinkies, HoHos, Sno-Balls, Suzy-Qs, Wonder Bread, Zingers, Dunkin' Stix, Cup Cakes, Ding Dongs, Fruit Pies and other tasty-but-bad-for-you treats, has passed away. As a child of the 70s, this is very sad new indeed, even if I've rarely purchased a Hostess product this century.

When I was a kid, Hostess and Dolly Madison marketed heavily to kids, in an era of much more limited media. We had three commercial channels on TV (especially Saturday mornings), we had the funny pages in the newspaper, comic books and that was about it. We got introduced to Twinkie the Kid and King Ding Dong along with all of the Kellogg's, Post and General Mills cereal characters. Since they were all animated characters, they blurred with our kids' programming. In the comics, they even had adventures with Superman and Batman! So, the Hostess company was really intertwined with 70s pop culture.

Image from New York Post.

My step-dad had a part time job at Kroger, and was able to liberate many products past their sell-by dates, and bring them home to us. That meant lots of fruits and veggies that needed the bad spots cut away. But it also meant a freezer full of wondrous things, and that included the Kroger version of Twinkies, Cup Cakes, HoHos and more. Nobody knew the difference when I pulled them out of my lunchbox, but I knew. By the time I got a paper route at 12 or 13, I was using my earnings to get the real thing: Hostess brands! There was also my Wise Cheez Waffies/Andy Capp's Hot Fries addictions, and my insatiable DC Comics lust, which was my eventual downfall as a paperboy, but that's beside the point. The point is, Hostess was as much a part of my childhood as The Super-Friends, The Six-Million Dollar Man, 45 records, Farrah Fawcett, ABBA and disco.

Image from MarsWillSendMore.
(Click to embiggen)

Much of the news has centered on a strike by union workers that effectively "killed" the company. But that doesn't tell the whole story. There were huge management salaries, and basic mismanagement for many years. Multiple bankruptcies. The company seemed close to death a couple of times before. So before you go finger-wagging at the unions, get the whole story. And be consoled by the fact that Hostess--as a whole, or in parts--will be revived by others.

You can pretty much guarantee that most if not all of their main snack cakes lines will be marketed by another company. Subsidiaries and offshoots may never come back, but who knows?  If you go to the Wikipedia pages for Kellogg's, Campbell's, Kraft Foods, Nestle, Hershey and others, you will find long lists of products you didn't realize were under one roof. You'll find brands that were bought and sold back and forth, consolidations, divestitures, spin-offs. Beatrice Foods at one time owned a bunch of popular brands, and they went under. Most of the product lines survived, still today produced by others. Kraft owns Nabisco, but it wasn't always that way. So, if the Hostess liquidation makes you sad, chin up. They'll be back. And, oh, it just hit me! Liquidation? Could that be the new variation of Twinkies, after fried? Liquid Twinkies! mmmmmmmmmmmmm

[Excerpt]

Hostess Blames Union For Bankruptcy After Tripling CEO’s Pay

Today, Hostess Brands inc. — the company famed for its sickly sweet desert snacks like Twinkies and Sno Balls — announced they’d be shuttering after more than eighty years of production. . .

Read more at: Think Progress