Hostess Returns Unions Are Gone!

[ReinMan]

Are you suggesting that only the poor buy junk food? lol.

I work for a company that pays pretty decent and offers benefits. They have made it clear that they don't go for unions, and I'm okay with that. Maybe unions aren't as necessary as they used to be. In the end, they sort of seem like another company. They serve their customers, no matter how irrational what they want might be.

I do think unions are necessary in some settings, but not all. What it comes down to is whether we trust our employers. Some employers are not worthy of trust. Some are.

All of the good things that unions stood for and did has been co-opted by the federal govt.

Used to be that you didn't have a safe workplace without a union, but now you have OSHA.

Used to be that your employer could abuse your hours and wages without a union, but now you have FLSA.

What the unions used to do for the workers, the fed does in their place, and the unions are left only with the corruption, graft, and obstructionism that benefits only the union, not the workers.

[Apocalypse]

And it creates employment. I had found other companies making their version of the Sweet Sixteen doughnuts and king dons (my favorite, don't want to call it by its more recent name. lol). I have to say I pretty much refused to buy to buy Hostess for the most part because they were expensive. Maybe this will be cheaper. We'll see.

Mine was Ding-dongs. I'm old enough to remember when they were foil wrapped, not plastic.

Little Debbie does a decent copy of them. They may not fill them like Hostes did, sandwiching the filling between the cakes where Hostess injected it into a pocket. But taste wise, I can't really tell a difference. Plus a box is about $3. Half the price Hostess was.

Doesn't mean I wouldn't buy a box now and then for a treat to remember the good old days growing up, but price wise, I'll go cheaper.

I hope they are more competitive on the return. I would love to see them make it. Place I work at, our company use to have Hostess make our in-store brand breads. It was a quarter the price we offered, and their same quality. Maybe they will switch back. But I doubt it considering where they are reopening the plants. Too far for regular daily deliveries.

[LukeEDay]

Are you suggesting that only the poor buy junk food? lol..

Well, if you think about it. The poor aren't the only ones who do buy junk food. But, they are the ones who buy the most of it. All you have to do is go to the grocery store at the beginning of each month and look at what the welfare bums are buying. It isn't hard to place them; they are the ones with two shopping carts full of chips, soda, and tasty kids; while their scruffy kids are screaming and running up and down the isles.

This is why I say that the government should limit what you can buy with food stamps - And all junk food should be cut off. It should be 'REAL' food items. ...

[Hawkgirl]

Dunkin Donuts isn't a health food store, but they have adapted to the market a great deal. Yes, they still sell glazed donuts that are pure grease and sugar, but they also sell some sandwiches that aren't too bad nutritionally. My mom gets the turkey sausage and eggwhite breakfast sandwich and the unfrosted cake donut. I usually get whatever is simple. I also only get the old fashioned sour cream donut, otherwise I consider it a waste of calories. That they sell bottled water makes them better than a lot of places.

PS, Don't waste your time on the pancake wrapped sausage nuggets. And nothing they sell is as good as a McDonald's sausage biscuit. It just isn't.

DD would have lost my business if it weren't for their bagels and coffee. Their donuts are smaller than ever, poor quality, stale and tasteless.

[NJCardFan]

Are you suggesting that only the poor buy junk food? lol.

I was in BJ's one day and in the line next to me was this young girl, with a kid of course, buying what looked to be like $100 in candy and other junk. She, of course, whipped out her EBT card and paid with it.

[NJCardFan]

DD would have lost my business if it weren't for their bagels and coffee. Their donuts are smaller than ever, poor quality, stale and tasteless.

DD's donuts went down in quality once Indians took over the franchises. Where I live, Century Bakery who I'm certain put crack in their donuts because their buttercream filled glazed donuts are to die for. However, DD's coffee is the shit.

[Lanie]

This is why I say that the government should limit what you can buy with food stamps - And all junk food should be cut off. It should be 'REAL' food items. ...

I agree. I've seen that get so badly abused in the past. When I worked at a convenience store, I once saw a family come in and buy up to eight or nine dollars worth of Bon Appetite snack cakes on food stamps. What I was thinking was that they could go up to Wal-Mart up the street and buy a couple of boxes of snack cakes for less money than what they spent on those individual ones. I do think junk food should be cut off, but I just wanted to demonstrate how badly food stamps have been abused here.

[noonwitch]

Actually, he's partially right. Mismanagement is what killed Hostess. The union just supplied the dagger. As for the better goods thing, this is poppycock. If this were the case then Dunkin' donuts would be history. They aren't getting by on coffee alone. Tastycake, Little Debbie, Dolly Madison, as well as others are doing pretty well in spite of people wanting to eat healthier.

I haven't seen any Dolly Madison products since Hostess went out of business. I thought that Hostess had bought the label at some point in the past. I liked the vanilla Zingers better than Twinkies, but my favorite of that kind of stuff is Ding Dongs. I've missed them, not that I bought them all that often.

Little Debbie makes the best peanut-butter wafer bars, though.

[Odysseus]

Yeah, 50¢ was a wallet buster.

More like $2 for a box. A 50¢ difference in a single serving, when Little Debbie's products go for 25¢, is enough to crush you in a market. However, the retail price is only part of the equation. If the union contracts were bankrupting the company, then the extra revenues from the higher prices were not going to do much to keep their heads above water.

But those workers won't be unionized.


yet

Who in their right mind would join a union that had already destroyed the company once? I'd rather have a job than a membership card in the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers & Grain Millers International Union (which, BTW, also represents the workers at the nuclear power plant on The Simpsons), especially if the membership card means permanent closure of the plant and unemployment.

Well, if you think about it. The poor aren't the only ones who do buy junk food. But, they are the ones who buy the most of it. All you have to do is go to the grocery store at the beginning of each month and look at what the welfare bums are buying. It isn't hard to place them; they are the ones with two shopping carts full of chips, soda, and tasty kids; while their scruffy kids are screaming and running up and down the isles.

This is why I say that the government should limit what you can buy with food stamps - And all junk food should be cut off. It should be 'REAL' food items. ...

The government already limits what you can buy with food stamps, but many supermarkets don't enforce the limits, while the government rarely does the necessary oversight. But that isn't the worst of it. When the NY Post did their series on food stamp fraud back in the 90s, they uncovered all manner of scams, including stores that stocked no food, but bought food stamps for 50¢ on the dollar. When they switched to debit cards, the scams changed, but the basics remained the same, with stores ringing up fake transactions and giving the customers a kickback in cash. Basically, the store is an ATM, charging about 30% of the total as a "fee" and the taxpayer is the bank. And, when a store is busted for this practice, they can change their name and get back on the authorized list within days.

[RobJohnson]

All of the good things that unions stood for and did has been co-opted by the federal govt.

Used to be that you didn't have a safe workplace without a union, but now you have OSHA.

Used to be that your employer could abuse your hours and wages without a union, but now you have FLSA.

What the unions used to do for the workers, the fed does in their place, and the unions are left only with the corruption, graft, and obstructionism that benefits only the union, not the workers.

I'm not sure which is more corrupt, the unions or the feds.