Hostess makers of the Twinkie to go Bankrupt ?

[esteban]

I support the workers and their union. Period.

[soop]

Hey, I've got a novel idea...

-Fix the f*cking recipes! The current crop of products SUCK! Go back to the way they were before

This is an interesting one.  In the UK, and probably the same in the US, people have been dicking around with their recipes for decades for various reasons - one is cost, one is health "benefits". For instance, a program I was listening to a few months back detailed the fact that one company started using butter or whatever 100 years ago, and now they're using processed vegetable fats which are liquid at room temprature.  Obviously it's cheaper, but they have to f*ck around with the whole biscuit to get something that works.  They're constantly doing that, and people that eat them regularly don't really notice the creep, but someone who hasn't eaten one in 5 years spew it out like WTF.

Another interesting thing was a baked bean manufacturer (Heinz) talking about reducing the salt in the beans.  What they did is reduce it bit by bit without mentioning anything, until people started complaining, then they stopped.

Anyway, it is interesting, but it's probably unfeasable for them to go back without a price hike, even if they did taste like synthetic sugar-shit in the first place.

[Emerald Rocker]

The majority of the unions that were associated with Hostess had already agreed to terms.  It was one particular union that didn't agree -- a union that represents approximately 3500 out of 18000 employees.  They were even pressured by *other unions* to make a deal with management... and they still refused.

Yes, mismanagement put Hostess into dire straits.  And the upcoming 2013 increase in "per employee cost" due to the Affordable Care Act certainly didn't help their budget plans.  But there was also a conscious decision by one single union's leadership (who will continue to be well-paid since they still retain their union leadership jobs) to ignore Hostess's financial reality and put workers from EVERY union at risk.

This wasn't a simple case of management versus union.  This was also a case of multiple unions versus one union... and in the end, all the workers lost.

[Arkhan]

and all the fatasses!

[motdelbourt]

Those are fine ideas especially the first one, but the problem is the product just sucks beyond redemption, and once people get over the nostalgia and move on, there's not going to be so much demand for it. It's a mid 20th century throwback, from before people even pretended to care about their health. There's no way to greenwash a Twinkie, at least not that they'll do. I'm not sure how some similarly positioned products are still around either. I'm looking at you, Hamburger Helper.

I'm sure they could human traffic some workers in to make them for 2 cents an hour to sell at the 99 cent only store, but you don't need the branding for that kind of crap.

[Necromancer]

2.5 billion simoleons in revenue in the last year....  yeah, clearly nobody wants Hostess goodies.

[motdelbourt]

Yeah,  since all they need to do is sell a hundred and thirty million more boxes of Twinkies and they can make a profit. Also Judge Dredd made tens of millions last summer, so was clearly a huge hit.