TORONTO – So long, Hostess. Today’s generation of kids fighting soaring obesity rates hardly knew ya.
This weekend may include Twinkie hoarding for some Americans as early Friday, Hostess Brands Inc., the celebrated maker of the iconic golden snack, said the company is going out of business.
The decades-old corporation that masterminded the production of dozens of delicious, baked goods prepackaged for the masses vowed to shutter its plant doors, laying off its entire fleet of 18,500 bakers and staff.
The Texas-based company had warned striking employees that it would file a motion in U.S. Bankruptcy Court to sell its assets and move on if workers didn’t return to regular operations by Thursday evening.
The nationwide strikers called the company’s bluff.
Now, among the closures’ sugar-laced, happiness-and-fat-inducing victims: Twinkies, Ding Dongs, HoHos, Wonder Bread, and Drake’s Coffee Cake to name a few.
That’s bread, variations of cake and cupcake. All everyday staples in some households.
“Many people have worked incredibly long and hard to keep this from happening, but now Hostess Brands has no other alternative than to begin the process of winding down and preparing for the sale of our iconic brands,” CEO Gregory F. Rayburn said in a letter to employees posted on the company’s site.
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Let’s take a moment of silence out of respect for the fallen and those with a sweet tooth around the world.
Hostess snacks in pop culture
The indestructible Twinkie has had its share of the spotlight in the past few decades:
In 1995, Rice University students in Texas dropped a single brave Twinkie off the sixth floor and found that the very durable snack hit the sidewalk with little damage.
The Gravitational Response Test can be found here.
Meanwhile, in legal circles, the improbable “Twinkie defense” was coined by reporters while covering the trial for Dan White, who was charged for the murders of Harvey Milk and George Moscone in San Francisco.
In an episode of Seinfeld, Drake’s coffee cake plays a key role as Jerry tries to buy Newman off with the dessert while in a hospital room.
The twinkie had a renaissance moment after it appeared in a 2009 movie Zombieland, as characters try to track down the last box on earth.
The ripple effect in Canada
Hostess, which was born at the tail-end of the roaring ‘20s, has its hand in Canadian products.
Wonder Bread is produced by Toronto-based Weston Bakeries Ltd., while in Montreal, Saputo Inc. is licensed to bake Hostess cakes.
Canadians have joined in the cause to keep Twinkies alive: on Facebook, a community group has nearly 18,000 followers already.
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