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Dave Kaup / Reuters
Hostess Brands Twinkies are on display in a supermarket in Kansas City, Kan., in this Nov. 16 file photo. The last shipment of Hostess-baked Twinkies are headed to supermarkets in Chicago Tuesday.
If you're craving a Twinkie (and you're in the Chicago area), you may have one more chance to get a box of the Hostess-baked cakes, but you have to be fast and lucky.
The last Twinkies shipment from the bankrupt baker will hit Chicago area Jewel-Osco supermarkets Tuesday morning, Hostess spokesman Tom Becker told TODAY.
Over 20,000 boxes were in the shipment from the Twinkies plant in Columbus, Ga. They will sell for regular retail face value ($3.59 for a box of 10) until supplies run out, with no per customer limit. Jewel-Osco posted a delivery schedule on their Facebook page with the locations of all their stores that will receive the final batch of creme-filled delights and their expected time of delivery.
After this final batch of Twinkies runs out, there will be no more Twinkies on store shelves until (if and when) the brand is bought and restarted. Twinkies lovers will have to turn to secondary markets like eBay, Craigslist, or some guy selling them out of a storage locker he's stacked full of hoarded Twinkies.
When negotiations with its unions failed this winter, Twinkies-maker Hostess declared bankruptcy and began liquidating the company. Having received hundreds of inquiries from interested buyers, it's likely that much like the product itself, Twinkies will never die. They just might not be baked or delivered by union hands, and those hands might not be American.
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The final shipment of Hostess Twinkies hit Chicago's Jewel-Osco stores and are flying off the shelves at $3.59 a box. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.
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Remember, if not for unions we'd all still be working 16 hours a day for 15 dollars a day, 6 days a week. And no health benefits.Doesn't that sound like a great way to achieve the American dream? And by the way I'm not in a union and I work my ass off for crap and I have skills.
Just maybe costs would be lower if not for necessary price increases due to OVERPAID union workers.....
Everyone thinks everyone ELSE is overpaid. Nobody thinks they themselves are overpaid.
Not surprising that NBC would end an article with a bit of editorial comment ("not baked or delivered by union hands").
No more Twinkies then, yeah? This is not what all those folks in Seattle need to hear right now, wot?
Folks in Seattle would just take the ferry to Canada, stock up, and run back over the border.
Look, about this union thing. Power is cyclical, and whoever has it will abuse it. Unions were necessary because companies, if left to their own devices, will pay workers as little as possible. Business is amoral and has no regard for the welfare of workers.
By the same token, unions have proven (though not in this case at all), that they're more than willing to wield power indiscriminately and without regard for the welfare of a company. They don't want to kill the goose that lays the golden egg, but short of that they will take as much as they can get without a thought to fairness.
So this is all about power and greed, and it will be used as it always has been: as a cudgel to beat the people who beat you when they had the leverage. And the cycle will continue, time and time again.
It's amazing how this story is like taking a cross-section of America's brain right now and finding different creme-filled folds labeled unemployment, American manufacturing, unions, fallen American icons, obesity, sugar!
If people want a living wage they should have studied harder in high school, just like they told us
Unions were needed a 100 years ago when the rich/poor divide was truly harsh. Not like today when the poor can still afford a flatscreen TV. Back then they worked 6 days a week and were still hungry.
Right, because there's no educated poor people, and every rich person in the country is that way only because they are smart and educated.
One look at the job placement rates right out of college, or a minute of watching the Kardashians, blows that theory clean out of the water.
Cameron,
Yes, we have an anomaly made worse by Democrat pandering to the poor. Education and training make for better jobs. This is a bump made longer and higher by Obama.
I guarantee you that the rate of employment for those who do NOT have education of training is worse than for those who do.
Quit being stupid.
And we are headed that way again.
Twinkies? This not a story about Rahm, J Jackson JR, Blago, and of course the anointed one?
Little Debbie's snack cakes are better tasting and less-expensive anyway.
And just as bad for you.
Wish I could reply to Leisa but the reply button was not available. It is you who are wrong about unions. I grew up with a father, uncles, aunts, and grandfather in a union. My dad was a union steward for years and years until going into management (which according to his union that move made him ineligible to be in the union). All of them will tell you that the union is what forced their companies to close. You can not tax the rich or take from the rich to create jobs............eventually the money runs out. The rich have their money but the middle class and poor no longer have jobs because who wants to create a business and put up with all the headaches and long hours of having your own business to have the government and unions try to take everything from you...........the point in having a business is to make a profit.
I don't have a union where I work but I get up everyday and work (PROUD OF IT) to provide for my family and not depend on tax payers to take care of my family for me.
"They just might not be baked or delivered by union hands, and those hands might not be American."
Nice job of attempting to poison the well if a non-union and/or foreign buyer acquires the Twinkie brand, NBCNews.com. What are they going to do, make them at Foxconn and put them in a cargo container and let them spend 6 weeks travelling across the ocean? All kidding aside, no Twinkie tastes good that long after it was baked.
Please also make sure, out of fairness, you slip in the same innuendo for Apple, any car not 100% assembled here, almost all clothing, almost all electronics, etc.
There are companies out there with forward thinking management/CEO's. Treat your work force with respect and fairness and you don't need a union. There are companies out there that work this way. My wage/benefits are fair, I am satisfied. I also know if the company does not remain competitive I will be completely out of a job! One thing union mentality does not understand.. I also WORK smart, don't sit around, I even sweep and mop floors!! and fix multi-million dollar equipment!
The damn unions cost us our twinkies!
They should change the name!! some of you get it .
(the twinky story)
Hostess - ANOTHER union success story.
The "Final" Twinkies should be stuffed/filled with the remains of the "Intentionally Inapt Management" team that drove this company into double bankruptcy for "Personal Wealth"...
hey if they are made in Mexico by bimbo, make a deal for every box of Twinkies sent to the USA ,they must take back one illegal
the real fair trade act
Huh? I thought all the "twinkies" moved to San Fransicko
Blame the Union or Blame the Company because neither was willing to bend 18,000 people willlose their jobs thats the real tragedy here. Good bye Suzy Q's
I have been a union employee for 14 years and 8 years ago they hired a non union employee that has the same job description as mine. They were hired at the same salary as mine and within a year they got a 15k raise because they are not a union employee. I offered to leave the union and ask for a 15k raise but my union Steward said that they would sue me to stay in the union at lower pay. What is wrong with that picture ?
3 things the product was dying (no good for you)
unions to blame - over paid and work rules are outdated
ceos and upper management also getting paid outrageous money for not seeing a huge change in the market
Unions protect the weak.
They had their time and place, but today they only protect the weak.
My supervisor is from a union shop that was shut down (that is the typical common ground) in Maine, and he protects and coddles the absolute weakest link in our department.
He is an embarrassment to New England!
and jerryb that was kinda funny
The unions contributed to this mess but this whole ball started rolling with the NAFTA Mentality. You are now competing with slave labor in China and Mexico. Remember Clinton and Bush saying how Americans will always be better and won't have to worry about jobs when this legislation went throogh? That would be great but not every person can be an IT person. Some of that is cultural. Just to be blunt but using facts, 91% of black males don't graduate in Rochester NY schools. This with the city schools spending the 7th most per student in the NATION. What are these people going to do to make a living? The same with Detroit where almost half of the city residents are functionally illiterate. Those Hostess jobs are the kind of work we need for those people. Now most of that fault lies with those people not getting an education, but in the end either we keep some of those low skill jobs or we support that whole segment of the population with our welfare system. The judicial system is the part of government that ok'd those bonuses. That is also criminal. They want to reform wall street, how about legislate that a companies corporate taxes include on a government cost component. If you pay dirt wages and a bunch of your workers are on food stamps and medicaid, then you get an extra tax to compensate the taxpayers for subsidizing your business. add that to the executive salaries to so they have a stake in keeping that company going. Those Hostess managers could care less, they cash out either way. Some type of tarriffs may have to be created in order to level the playing field, as much as I hate to see that happen. But the world is changing.. Our oh-so intelligent leaders don't think about such things.
The stuff is still being made in Canada. (Anyone need gas money to bring me back a few cases?)