Comments on: The death of Wonder Bread?

By: Cheryl

Cheryl — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 08:09:40 +0000

For the last 25 years all I have bought is Wonder bread, loved the chocolate donuts and all the treats. This is aweful!!! One question the workers were on strike, DO THEY HAVE JOBS TODAY??? Union isn’t always the best. Wish you could work something out…

By: Surellin

Surellin — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 17:05:10 +0000

Don’t fear that kids don’t know Twinkies, Neo. When I told my son, age 12, that Hostess was out of business, he insisted that we go down to the store, RIGHT NOW, and buy up the last of the Suzy Qs. Regrettably, they were out of Suzy Qs and Twinkies both. The clerk said that he was going to grab one of the remaining two packages of Twinkies for himself, but a customer wanted both of them because “I have children”.

Re: the change in Wonder Bread – maybe because they switched to corn syrup? I can’t find an ingredient list from the Howdy Doody era, but it now uses corn syrup, and that didn’t take off until the 70s in most foods and drinks.

By: jms

jms — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 17:49:58 +0000

I suspect that if you included a Twinkie in your child’s lunchbox today the school would call Child Protective Services on you.

By: blert

blert — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 05:02:04 +0000

Don Carlos…

Wonder Bread had more than Vitamin D…

Remember “12 different ways”?…

My sloppy.

It IS true that Wonder Bread and Wonder Flour ended pellagra, nationally, within less than a year.

It confounded the medical community at the time.

This was at a time when many still considered vitamins to be a health-nut con. They were not introduced by the medical profession, you see.

By: RandomThoughts

RandomThoughts — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 22:11:50 +0000

Never mind Hostess. Life just hasn’t been the same since Woolworth’s (complete with their lunch counter) closed their doors.

In all seriousness though, this is just one in a long list yet to come of companies killed by their own union workers. Hey, better to crush the employer that pays you than to make concessions, right?

Insanity.

By: liz

liz — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 18:02:18 +0000

Check out the hostess website for FAQs for employees.

http://hostessbrands.info/employee-faq/

Apparently, there is a wind-down budget that approved by the lenders as well as various laws which impact the former employees.

For example, you may not get paid for expenses incurred, no payment for vacation/sick leave accrued but not taken, no severance pay, lose the unvested portions of your 401K (assuming that they mean the employer contribution part), lose the unused portion of your HSA accounts, even the amounts that you paid in since this is part of the IRS regs.

There seems to be a lot of questions on the COBRA health continuation depending on where you got the health insurance. For those on the defined pension benefit program, there may be a problem since it was underfunded and now goes to the gov’t program, which is probably close to bankrupt.

And since the bakeries were in many different states, there are different rules for each state and some may not allow for unemployment payments if you were on strike.

I also read that the lenders and venture capitalist group were heavy democrat donors – can’t find the link now..

By: thomass

thomass — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 16:46:27 +0000

R Says:

“On January 17 2011 we warned Hostess to diversify into a line of gluten free products from at least one production plant conversion or face bankruptcy within 24 months.”

Pfft. Dead on arrival if they did without using non gmo corn…

By: R

Sat, 17 Nov 2012 15:34:41 +0000

On January 17 2011 we warned Hostess to diversify into a line of gluten free products from at least one production plant conversion or face bankruptcy within 24 months. They ignored the warning. Told you so Wondertards. You could have corned the market.

By: Molly NH

Molly NH — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 15:26:20 +0000

This company closing down, laying off 18,000 plus ancillary individuals who lost their work, totally fits the Lefts plan. More middle class Americans on government benefits, more guaranteed Lefty votes (even from those rare amongst them with conservative leanings ).
Obama continues to make inroads in diminishing the prosperity of middle class Americans. To the
Left there is too much in America, too much freedom, too many business catering to the needs & whimsies of too many Americans with too much money to spend who believe that “all men were created equal”. The Elitest Left wants you to know your place & be mired in it !

By: expat

expat — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 10:07:26 +0000

In the interest of fairness, shouldn’t the laid off employees continue to pay union dues from their unemployment checks? Why should people still working have the entire burden of keeping Obama friends?