No more Twinkies for you!
 

Goddamn it union workers, you've gone and done it now. Shit where you sleep why don't you. You forced yourself and your fellow 18,500 workers out of a job and forced an American icon to be lost forever. Twinkies, Ho-Ho's, Ding Dongs, Sno Balls, all gone!!! Hostess made a mean coffee cake as well. Fucking greedy bastards, they probably already made twice what they were worth. Though honestly I have no idea what the union dispute was over.

Oh, and Wonder bread is another lost icon.

Oh nose!

Not that I particularly liked any of their snack cakes more than any other over sweetened, over processed snack cake, but still. It's pretty fucking iconic, the products they made.

oh noes, how will we ever go into a sugar coma again?

Actually, upon further reading, seems that the company is only being liquidated. I'm sure someone will buy it and keep it alive, with non union workers this time...

I still find it amazing that a company of this size, in this day and age could just be gone like that. You would seem with all of the government support all of these useless companies get, they could have had some sort of safety net...? I don't really know or care, just found the news sort of interesting. 18,500 more employees to further saturate the market and make jobs that much harder for some people to find.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1353086768
Well when the zombie apocalypse comes, Tallahassee will really never get his beloved Twinkies...

Won't somebody please think of the children?

Eh, can't really blame them. How long do you think Hostess was going to keep running anyway? Take a pay cut now so they can just lay you off next year when they file for bankruptcy again?

Besides, our free-trade agreements were far more damaging to the confectionery industry than unions could ever be.

You think Chinese labor killed the Twinkie?

Open your eyes, man. Once the US accepted the rule of a central bank and abandoned the gold standard in the early 20th century, the demise of our snack foods industry was inevitable. I'm amazed they managed to hold on this long with nothing but worthless fiat money to work with. The soft drink industry isn't far behind.

No, it has more to do with the sugar tariffs that tripled the price of sugar overnight.

I know because my family owns a candy factory in Chicago, and have since moved all but the sugar-free production over to China. Not because of labor costs (though obviously that helps).

Now the price of sugar is going up in China, so they are looking elsewhere now, I forget where.

And what do you think CAUSED the price of sugar to increase?

The Federal Reserve bank.


How can you people not see that EVERYTHING which goes wrong is the fault of the Federal Reserve?

Stub your toe? Blame Bernacke.

Neighbor's dog shitting in your lawn? Blame Bernacke.

Car won't idle on right on cold mornings? Blame Bernacke.

Got Herpes? Blame Hustler. Then blame Bernacke.

I have serious doubts that workers desiring a living wage and reasonable benefits is the reason for hostess to declare bankruptcy, makes a nice scapegoat however.
I hope they will be replaced with smaller companies making tasty treats with locally grown and less processed ingredients.

Ah, I got you.

Well fuck Ben Bernake for forcing us to buy US sugar (which by the way the US can't actually meet it's own demands for sugar). Also fuck him for pushing Ethanol as an alternative fuel despite its utter uselessness for everything besides high-boost cars, which also raised the price of corn syrup so we couldn't even just use more corn syrup rather than sugar.

I suspect you can blame the corn lobby for sugar tariffs. I’m sure they are also working with Monsanto to make GMO high fructose corn syrup as addictive as Tobacco. Profit at all costs.

The Federal Reserve secretly controls the corn industry.


On a more serious note however:


How the hell do you go bankrupt selling sugary snacks to fat people with poor impulse control?

I mean, that's almost a joke. Like the common expressions "It's as easy as selling cold beer to people in hell" or "It's like calling the inbound shipping department at a hobby and craft store in Reno."


I'm going to start using that expression. "Techsalvager is such a retard, he couldn't figure out how to make money selling Twinkies to fat people."

What? Where... I want to visit and reap some free MT candy.

Unions didn't kill that company, human nature and greed killed it.

Years ago land owners and large business owners abused their power and greedily abused their employees. Therefore unions were born.

Unions gained power and greedily abused their employers.

As long as humans are involved in this process their inherent greed will cause it to succeed and then subsequently fail.

Triple the price of sugar overnight, and then have US producers fail to meet demand anyway! It's not that hard. Oh yeah also obviously the price of corn syrup has gone through the roof also.

I understand the supply-side constraints.

What I don't understand is why Hostess cannot simply pass those costs along to the consumer. It's not like their target demo is going to stop buying Twinkies just because the price went up by 20 cents.

Snack-food production is not a regulated market. There are no price controls. Manufacturers may elevate prices in response to increased production cost, and then observe the resultant shift in demand. This is how capatalism works. (Listen to me, I sound like friggin' Jason...)

Haha, sorry. Anything having to do with corn or sugar prices always rustles my jimmies.

I understand what you're saying.

I just don't understand why Hostess did not adjust their pricing to reflect increases in labor cost and the cost of materials, thus enabling them to remain in business.

Look at the tobacco industry. Probably the most heavily taxed item on the planet, the retail price of a pack of cigarettes had probably quadrupled (adjusted for inflation) over the past two decades. And yet when's the last time you heard of a cigarette manufacturer going out of business?

To be fair, Twinkies and HoHos are slightly less addictive than nicotine.




Slightly.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1353104994
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mb...hmu3o1_500.jpg

You mean something started by some mega million dollar investor that would hire non-unionized workers and turn a profit, much like you libs are always crying about taxing more? Probably.

:bowrofl:

I just laughed so loud that I startled the dog in the front office.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1353107044

Also I have a sweet Braineack version at home...

I just realized something!

1: Pot becomes legal.

2: The company which makes Twinkies mysteriously declares bankruptcy.

I smell a conspiracy.

Go ahead and live in your delusional world of horrification of rich investors while they continue to pilfer the economy by taking all the wealth generated, along with worker pensions and run up company credit cards to pay themselves more while scapegoating the workers for running the company into the ground.
Read more here: Hostess Continues Pattern Of Misinformation - PR Newswire - The Sacramento Bee

Sarcasm: Those dam workers wanting reasonable pay and benefits. It’s their fault, pay no attention to the investors and the executives pilfering the company. It would all work out if we just give the investors and executives a bigger tax cut so they could keep more of the money they are pilfering. It would incentivize and empower them to pilfer more that would be good right.

Bet you think man never set foot on the moon, too?

Jesus you're the delusional one here man..

You're a communist, aren't you?

I don't mean that in a facetious way, and I don't mean that you're a Stalinist or anything absurd like that. I'm not talking about McCarthyism or little red books.

I mean it in the way that some people might casually describe themselves by saying "I'm a democrat" or "I'm a libertarian."

You genuinely believe that this country would be better off if the the workers owned the means of production, and income disparity between the bourgeoisie and the "working class" were eliminated, don't you?

= China for the last 80 years.

I am not communist. I am a classical liberal and I am very anti-fascist. Perhaps you should look up what classical Liberal is. I’ll give you a hint it is closer to the libertarian ideal than it is to communist ideal.

I believe the corporate fascists are waging a class war and there are a lot of people too stupid to realize they are winning. They are winning the propoganda war as well.

I do not believe the country would be better off if the workers owned the means of production . I believe those that do own everything however are being given too much advantage and privilege to take more and more and in the process are gaining power and creating an unstable society and economy. As a nation we have been through this before. Each time in the beginning it was good the end game not so much. Too many people lost their livelyhood end lived in opression untill we swing back past liberal to the socialist side of the spectrum again.

Grocery store around here had the shelves cleared!

On eBay:


Attachment 185709

always great a for a laugh bob. i appreciate your commitment to comedy.

Hostess killed by greed of the robber barons to take with no remorse with the power of money. The fascist right wingers will continue to blame the unions claim that corporations are taxed too high even though they don’t really pay any tax, and that to save our economy all we need is for the income of investors and business leaders to be taxed zero or significantly less than income form labor.

Shit like this is deserving of violent revolution.


Hostess Executive Bonuses: Twinkie-Maker To Seek Approval For $1.8 Million In Bonuses During Liquidation

hotstess paid more than 100 million in health benefits last year FOR RETIREES


THAT


NO


LONGER


WORK


FOR


THE FUCKING COMPANY.

facist crooks.



I would abosultely LOVE to go to war with union scum; it would be easy and non violent. Because they can't live without us and would eventually be begging us to go back to work for them under real terms. I don't even feel bad for the 18,000 that got canned, they absoultely brought it upon themselves.


How does it feel live with so much white guilt? I dont think I could make it.

Bundy you do know that you have to give executives pay raises to lead companies through bankruptcy and liquidation proceedings because otherwise they would all jump ship and there would be no one to take their place. That is just the way it is and while their pay raises may seem "significant" in terms of one persons salary, in the whole it is drops in the bucket.

As Brain stated the costs of the union contracts far far exceed that of executive compenation. There were two union in Hostess and only one was the real problem. The baker's union represented the production side factory workers and by any standards hostess was very competitive with its production costs. It was the teamster's that represented the distribution side of hostess that were the problem. They had silly shit in the contracts stating that a truck driver could not help load his own truck. There had to be a seperate employee who drove in a seperate vehicle meet the truck at the loading station and supervise the loading of merchandise. The list goes on and on. Unions were necessary at one point in time but this country has far exceeded this point and they just refuse to go dormant until they are needed. Unions grasp to hold onto and increase their power often at the expense of the companies competitiveness.

a truck driver could only drive breads or sweets, that means two deliveries had to be made to same place, like a 7-11.

they would not deliver to non-union shops.

most routes were unprofitable.

employees paid 0% heath coverage.

The list goes on and on.


and the executives are the bad guys? looks like they were VERY VERY VERY VERY generous giving away all their money while it lasted.


I should have striked when my last employeer was not profitable for the first time in 23 years, and had to cut benefits like 401k matching, heath insurance coverage, and a few other things, as well as fire half their employees, to try to stay afloat. fucking fat cats.



and just for the record, under fascism, men retain the semblance or pretense of private property, but the government holds total power over its use and disposal. The unions are the gov't in this case, therefore, it is THEY that are the facists and the business man that is the slave/sucker.

Too bad you don't like the Idea of single payer unaversal helthcare either.

No, I don't. I'm one of the few native born americans, with american values. I'm not an evil slave driver with no morals.

It was the bungling, greedy corporate management! :vash:

No, it was the greedy, unrealistic unions! :vash:




Maybe it was some of each? Also, how often do you personally buy Twinkies, Ho Hos, and Ding Dongs? I honestly can't remember the last time I did. Maybe one of the two-packs of the Cup Cakes from a gas station on a road trip?

It was both for sure. First off the management allowed unions...So yeah, you can blame them.

I like wonder bread. I cant remember the last time I ate anything from Hostees or Little Debby.

I haven’t bought anything from them in at least 20 years maybe 30. Maybe if the company was not so poorly managed they would have put some money into R&D and develop products for a changing world instead of riding the dwindling gravy train of over processed white bread and zero nutritional value sugary snacks. Instead of doing that as they were supposed to the last time the bakers union made big concessions, they paid out big dividends to investors and drastically increased executive pay and continued to run up company debt while rewarding investors and executives. Too much greed to ride it simply on the iconic value of its products.

Bob

I believe Beefsteak rye bread was a Hostess product. When I was bringing a sandwich for lunch every day, this was often part of it.

Greed on both sides finished off the company. No reason for an executive to make millions any more than for a shipping clerk to make nearly 50k.