# Another one bites the dust....



## MO_cows (Aug 14, 2010)

Another grand old American company will cease to exist soon. I won't post details til we receive our registered letter that makes it official. For now I'll just say that this company was in business for over 100 years. But they just couldn't make it thru this "recovery" from this last "recession".


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## AngieM2 (May 10, 2002)

That's a shame, for sure.


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## Common Tator (Feb 19, 2008)

I know Hostess is struggling, and I've been in panic mode over that. I don't know why. It was a part of my childhood, but I haven't had a snack cake for years.

HP? Yesterday I heard they are laying off 27,000 people. Nope. They've only been around since 1939.

So now I'm left guessing.


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## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

The Federal Reserve ? :bouncy:


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## MO_cows (Aug 14, 2010)

Forerunner said:


> The Federal Reserve ? :bouncy:


BUZZZ! Wrong! They have only been around since the 19-teens, right??

And, you wish!


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## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

1913, I believe.

I was figuring in a couple leap years, but oh well.


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## WolfWalksSoftly (Aug 13, 2004)

If it is Hostess, let us know ASAP so I can stock my freezer with Cupcakes and Ding Dongs... That brand is the only one I like and I by a Box every week..lol


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## Sawmill Jim (Dec 5, 2008)

Not far away Frerry Morse Seed Co. closed .:Bawling:


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## FreeRanger (Jul 20, 2005)

Yesterday at local small town grocery store, something caught my eye. I did a double take, looks like Entenmann's is now selling twin packs of cupcakes that look just like the Hostess cupcakes. Not on my diet so didn't buy one.

Looks like Bimbo Bakeries USA, which owns Entenmann's Bakery, is moving in to take the place of Hostess?


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## Ed Norman (Jun 8, 2002)

Bimbo???


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## Common Tator (Feb 19, 2008)

Bimbo Bakeries Bimbo Bakeries USA - U.S. Division of Grupo Bimbo - Arnold, Bimbo, Boboli, Brownberry, Entenmann's, Francisco, Freihofer's, Marinela, Mrs Baird's, Oroweat, Stroehmann, Thomas', Tia Rosa

Years ago they served only the Hispanic community here.


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## terri9630 (Mar 12, 2012)

I found a recipe for Ding Dongs. Haven't tried it yet since I buy the real thing so I don't know how good it is.


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## Coloneldad5 (Dec 6, 2011)

There are several companies that make treats similar to Ding Dongs and Twinkies, not quite the same but similar. 

In the current regimes work I dare say many more of these companies will be going under. Not many will be able to stay in business unless they are large enough and/or connected to the current regime.


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## FourDeuce (Jun 27, 2002)

Ed Norman said:


> Bimbo???


Yeah, from Mexico. First time I saw the brand in WalMart I was wondering if they'd change the name for marketing purposes in the US.:hysterical:


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## bama (Aug 21, 2011)

could it be jc penney's? 

there are so many companies that are struggling. so sad.


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

Ed Norman said:


> Bimbo???


A Mexican based company pronounce Bee-Bo


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

My guess would be Lazarus/Macy's but don't know if they have any stores in Missouri.
Toys R Us hasn't been around long enough to qualify, they've closed a lot of stores here.


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## BillHoo (Mar 16, 2005)

terri9630 said:


> I found a recipe for Ding Dongs. Haven't tried it yet since I buy the real thing so I don't know how good it is.


You know, all those recipe clones are pretty close, but not quite.

Fact is we don't have the stuff in our home kitchens to make them exactly the same. Things like ground up mineral rocks, chemical stabilizers, and plastics that GO IN THE FOOD to make it taste a certain way or offer a particular "mouth-feel".

Mind you, the home versions will probably be much healthier, but not taste the same.

It's like when I hear people going against the guidelines in the Ball Blue Book on canning chicken noodle soup "Well if Campbells can do it, why can't I!" Well, what makes you think you're actually eating NOODLES in Campbells soups? 

Don't tell my friends who offer me a snack of homemade tortilla chips, saying "Don't these taste just like Fritos?" I just smile and say "Sure" - but the voice in my head is saying "What the heck am I eating!?"


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## mpillow (Jan 24, 2003)

My pig is rather fond of Hostess day old stuff from the bakery.....rather than make her go on a healthy diet...I'll just eat her.


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## Farmerwilly2 (Oct 14, 2006)

*self sensored to keep from being scolded and shutting down the thread*


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## cmtigger (Aug 19, 2011)

BillHoo said:


> Don't tell my friends who offer me a snack of homemade tortilla chips, saying "Don't these taste just like Fritos?" I just smile and say "Sure" - but the voice in my head is saying "What the heck am I eating!?"


Um, FRITOS are not tortilla chips, and actually have all "real" ingredients last time I looked at the package. Do you mean Tostitos? I actually prefer "have a corn chip" when I can find them, they taste like homemade and the ingredients are all stuff you can get at home.


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## Helena (May 10, 2002)

Thee use to be a discount bread store called Stromans(sp?) and sold other brands of cakes and bread also. The last year they sold the.bimbo..bread also and when they closed was told that this company from Mexico bought out many large bread and bakery companies in the USA. so..what do you think ??


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## MOgal (Jul 27, 2002)

Mpillow, you aren't what you eat. You are what you eat, eats.


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## katydidagain (Jun 11, 2004)

Montgomery Ward? 

Yes, I know they've been gone for ages but since the OP hasn't told us, I'm just playing and sharing a story about my almost 94 year old father's childhood trip to the city (he grew up on a farm near Troy NY but closer to Bennington and Hoosick Falls--actually West Hoosick--my grandmother knew Grandma Moses but she lived in Eagle Bridge or perhaps Buskirk not far from Lake George I think.

Anyway, the family had a rare outing to the city and my uncle, Charles, Dad's next younger brother noticed 2 men out on the lawn at Sears. I'm not going to tell this right (and Dad's too old to ask these days) so won't try but the gist was that Uncle Charles remarked that 1 of those guys was obviously Montgomery Ward helping Mr. Sears with his crops. The story was a family favorite for many years...I didn't get it...not sure I do yet but it I suspect the "joke" was to them like Bill Gates tidying up Steve Jobs yard.


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## Old Vet (Oct 15, 2006)

WolfWalksSoftly said:


> If it is Hostess, let us know ASAP so I can stock my freezer with Cupcakes and Ding Dongs... That brand is the only one I like and I by a Box every week..lol


If it is Hostess I can buy enough Twinkies to fill the back room and they will be good until all of us die.:hysterical::hysterical:


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## mpillow (Jan 24, 2003)

MOgal said:


> Mpillow, you aren't what you eat. You are what you eat, eats.


thats okay...I prefer bacon flavored cherry pies:hysterical:


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## Ed Norman (Jun 8, 2002)

Old Vet said:


> If it is Hostess I can buy enough Twinkies to fill the back room and they will be good until all of us die.:hysterical::hysterical:


Once we got a full pickup load of day old bread for the hogs and there were various twinkies and ding dongs and treats like that. The bread got fed fast because each wrapper had been cut by the bakery to show it was old. The goodies were in a shed and after a while were sorta forgotten about. When we started feeding them months later, they were fine. There was no change in most of them.


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## terri9630 (Mar 12, 2012)

BillHoo said:


> You know, all those recipe clones are pretty close, but not quite.
> 
> Fact is we don't have the stuff in our home kitchens to make them exactly the same. Things like ground up mineral rocks, chemical stabilizers, and plastics that GO IN THE FOOD to make it taste a certain way or offer a particular "mouth-feel".
> 
> ...


Oh I know. My daughter has an intolerance to preservatives so I make a lot of the copy cat recipes.


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## MOgal (Jul 27, 2002)

Mpillow, I'm still trying to figure out bacon flavored cherry pie but I used to have a recipe for a cherry sauce to be served over baked ham. I guess it's do-able. Still can't figure out what it would taste like but then I'm not a big pie fan--just a waste of calories I could be consuming as ice cream or chocolate. Don't get me started on meringue (aka by a friend's father as 'calf slobber.')


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

Whats wrong with all you silly gooses . . .???

We all know for certain that twinkies and that kind of stuff will taste far superior when it comes from china.................


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## thesedays (Feb 25, 2011)

katydidagain said:


> Montgomery Ward?


Wards still exists, as an online store. 

It was headquartered in Kansas City, where my brother and his wife lived in the early 1990s. This was back when there would be someone sitting outside the store, offering some free doodad (usually an ice tea pitcher or a 1-pound bag of M&Ms) for a credit card application, which you could get without a credit check. One year, they worked in the credit card department as temporary after-Christmas help, and they said the default rate was so high, the company was not going to recover from it. And they were right.


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## Karen (Apr 17, 2002)

In the 1990's it was owned by GE Captial. They went bankrupt. Now it's not the same Wards. Rather "Direct Marketing Services, Inc." purchased the rights to use use the 'Wards' name only in 2001. They went bankrupt in 2008 and were bought out by another company -- Swiss Colony. Yes the cheese people; who now sell everything under the sun at inflated prices because they finance anyone.


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## Catalpa (Dec 18, 2011)

It's so sad to see things I grew up with losing out or changing so much. Seems like very few things are what they were, if you know what I mean. John Deere, Carhartt, Levis, Red Wing, Vernors, Sears, Stroh's, Craftsman, Dolly Madison......
When I was a kid America still made American products, things seemed solid and quality and lasting. Now they're gone or made in china.


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## DenMacII (Aug 16, 2008)

From what I've read, Hostess won't be going away. The investment group that bought them in bankruptcy court several years ago has found they can not run the company at a profit, almost entirely due to the union contract. The contract is structured in such a way that they must pay into the retirement benefits of all the Union's members - not just the Hostess employees. If they choose bankruptcy, someone else will buy the name rights and recipes, then carry on - hopefully without the labor contract. Hostess is already not the company that we knew growing up, and I am sure the recipe has changed as well.


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## thesedays (Feb 25, 2011)

Karen said:


> In the 1990's it was owned by GE Captial. They went bankrupt. Now it's not the same Wards. Rather "Direct Marketing Services, Inc." purchased the rights to use use the 'Wards' name only in 2001. They went bankrupt in 2008 and were bought out by another company -- Swiss Colony. Yes the cheese people; who now sell everything under the sun at inflated prices because they finance anyone.


I worked for Swiss Colony for a week in the fall of 2010, and then I realized that the place was nothing but a boiler room. An acquaintance who practices law in the town where the call center is located totally agreed with my assessment, and told me that the company is even worse than I could ever imagine.


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## mitchell3006 (Apr 1, 2010)

Talk about a thread going astray!:hysterical:


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## BillHoo (Mar 16, 2005)

Helena said:


> Thee use to be a discount bread store called Stromans(sp?) and sold other brands of cakes and bread also. The last year they sold the.bimbo..bread also and when they closed was told that this company from Mexico bought out many large bread and bakery companies in the USA. so..what do you think ??


Sounds like the good old free market system to me.

Old factory unable to fill the needs of growing/changing population... new owners come in and fill in the void with what is wanted by the people. Jobs continue to grow as long as there is a need and people are willing to work.


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## BillHoo (Mar 16, 2005)

Old Vet said:


> If it is Hostess I can buy enough Twinkies to fill the back room and they will be good until all of us die.:hysterical::hysterical:


Reminds me of an article in SPY magazine where they put a Twinkie out on a window ledge for 6 months. Even the pigeons wouldn't touch it.

Afterward, they took it back in and cut it open. No noticeable change in color or texture, though no one dared to try eating it!


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## thesedays (Feb 25, 2011)

BillHoo said:


> Reminds me of an article in SPY magazine where they put a Twinkie out on a window ledge for 6 months. Even the pigeons wouldn't touch it.
> 
> Afterward, they took it back in and cut it open. No noticeable change in color or texture, though no one dared to try eating it!


I know of a man who died from eating a Twinkie; he was allergic to one of the preservatives in it. Sad thing was, some comedians found out about this and took advantage of it.

It was like the man I did know personally who worked for the IRS, and died from necrotizing fasciitis (aka flesh eating bacteria). Some people thought he was an IRS agent, but he wasn't; he was an accountant who worked for the IRS. Nice guy too, and had a wife and two very young children.


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## MO_cows (Aug 14, 2010)

Well the fat lady has sung. What used to be Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel, 4th largest steel company in the US, is dead and gone. In 2007, it was bought by Severstal, a Russian steel and mining giant, for 2.2 billion - yes, billion with a b. Then the economy went in the toilet. So they sold it at a billion dollar loss, on top of the losses they took while running it, to an American investment group who ran it as RG Steel. RG Steel is now bankrupt and in the process of liquidating, former competitors are buying the pieces and scraps at bargain prices. And DH is out of a job. 3 1/2 years short of retirement. But don't worry, the executives got their 20 million in combined bonuses, the bankruptcy judge took care of them. Meanwhile we wait to see if he'll get paid for sick days and vacation he had built up. I'm not holding my breath. The new normal sucks.


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## AngieM2 (May 10, 2002)

I'm so sorry to hear that.


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## myheaven (Apr 14, 2006)

Oh dad blam it mo cows!!!! I'm sorry! It sucks a big fat super sour salty pickle to be the small guy! I know. When dh had to change jobs due to ds injury we lost 2/3 pay, bennifits, good health ins. 401 k. I agree the new normal sucks. Not even making enough to fix my only car. His truck is already broke down. I would get a horse and buggy but can't afford either nor the feed! So I sit and wait! Just as you. Hugs


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## tab (Aug 20, 2002)

Moc, I am so sorry. Hugs to you. Are you going to be OK?

On another note, steel is one of those indicators of the economy.........


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## MO_cows (Aug 14, 2010)

We have very little debt. My job looks OK, at least for another year or two. We will be "health insurance poor" for the foreseeable future but I think we are prepared to ride this out.


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## AR Transplant (Mar 20, 2004)

I am so sorry. I do hope that your husband gets a job soon and perhaps one that he likes even better. It can happen!


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

Well that 'vacuums'... 

...of course, ya'll probably knew the end was coming for years, right? 

My BIL is management for Luminant Energy, and last week they found out they're pensions they'd work for for over 30 years just disappeared forever. Several hundred people at the "plant" had heard the imminent news... two immediately went to HR and took early retirement, and since notice hadn't been officially channeled, they took their retirement buyout pension money with them.

Ann Barnhardt (Barnhardt.biz - Commodity Brokerage) recommended everyone to cash out their pensions, 401K's, get out of the markets completely last year. Her words made sense then (after Corzine stole a billion from MF Global and the clients were all screwed) and even more now.

BIL figures he'll now have to work up until the day he dies...


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