Good bye twinkles

[the Life Aquatic]

Hostess is now gone. Start stocking up on twinkles

[snipelfritz]

Down twinkles.

[Dark Barn]

Wow, I'd never have predicted the demise of the Twinkie. I never buy them but it makes me sad to hear this.

[hclapp219]

Fuck twinkies, I'm going to miss the cupcakes.

[bigchiefbc]

goodbye Funny Bones, it was a good run.

[snipelfritz]

How are people missing the actual issue? A company which claims it never had issues making money or creating demand and had 2.5 billion dollar revenue last year would rather shut down than agree to pay it's employees properly.

That shit makes me sick. Almost as sick as a snowball would make me.

[Achtane]

At least they'll still be good when you break them outta the time capsule to show your kids.

[the Life Aquatic]

It wasn't that they didn't want to pay their employees, it was that they couldn't sustain a business long term by paying their employees what they wanted plus a pension plan. This isn't the first time they've faced bankruptcy either. Also when us employees are on strike you can't make any product, therefore you can't make any money.

[dubkitty]

^ this.

[bigchiefbc]

How are people missing the actual issue? A company which claims it never had issues making money or creating demand and had 2.5 billion dollar revenue last year would rather shut down than agree to pay it's employees properly.

That shit makes me sick. Almost as sick as a snowball would make me.

This wasn't about employee pay at all. This was about how expensive the pension plan and health care was for their retired workers. Until about 20 years ago, a lot of companies offered defined-benefit pension plans to workers who put in 20 years (my grandfather still has one of these pensions). It was a good idea and was reasonably affordable back in the 30s, 40s and 50s, when most workers (especially manual workers) died early. But now that most people are living well into through their 70s and 80s, it's bankrupting companies. For some companies, actually a majority of their compensation expenses are taken up by retirees now rather than by current employees. The cost of pension payments and healthcare for retirees is the primary reason the government had to bail out GM and Chrysler back in 2008. The cost of the retirees benefits was strangling the companies. And that is exactly what happened to Hostess.

[D.o.S.]

It's all part of the health food conspiracy, I tell you!

[delaydecay]

twinkies will be out sourced to china.

they will become smaller and more efficient.

[Jeff-7]

Hostess doesn't actually make the twinkies anyways, maybe another distributor will pick them up. They've already filed bankruptcy twice since like 2004 or 2007, can't remember. Goodbye Wonderbread.

[snipelfritz]

See, I got you guys talking about it.

[sonidero]

Glad we've still got Marinela and Bimbo in TX..