Monday Nov. 19, 2012
Forget about Black Friday.
The mad scramble among shoppers has already started — for Twinkies, Ho Hos and other Hostess junk food.
I myself was searching this morning for a package of raspberry Zingers — one of the many products made by going-out-of-business junk-food maker Hostess — when I happened upon this scene at an Elkhart supermarket:
The Hostess shelf at an Elkhart supermarket is nearly empty, save for some bags of Donettes and coffee cakes.
Yikes! Practically empty shelves, save for a few bags of Hostess mini donuts, Donettes in Twinkie-speak, and coffee cake. No Twinkies, no Ho Hos, no Ding Dongs. Worse (for me) no Zingers.
Across the aisle, in Little Debby snack cake canyon, I saw this, an abundance of sugary snacks:
Meanwhile, there’s no shortage of Little Debbie snack cakes.
There happened to be a Little Debby shelf stacker dude, and he said he’s seen the same thing everywhere — empty Hostess shelves as people scramble to buy the company’s products before it closes the doors and, shudder, halts production. Interestingly, he said the whole thing wasn’t a big deal for him — the two companies, as he described it, don’t compete. They apparently appeal to different market segments.
Personally, I’m not so worried about the dearth of Twinkies in light of Hostess’ proposed bankruptcy. I fret (marginally) about the future of raspberry Zingers, which I get perhaps three or four times a year.
After first hearing the Hostess news last week, I had smugly thought the product was safe, being a Dolly Madison product. Then, to my horror, I learned Dolly Madison is part of the Hostess empire. Thus, this morning I sought out a package raspberry Zingers, finding none at a local 7-Eleven (which sells its own line of snack cakes), and settling on a pack of the devil’s food variety at Kroger.
Zingers, part of the Hostess empire, are also threatened by the company’s looming bankruptcy.
The good news in all of this?
Pontificators say even if the Hostess bankruptcy proceeds, the company would likely sell its brands to another company, allowing Twinkies and other products to live another day.
The question for me though: Would somebody buy up the Zingers line? It’s not as high profile as, say, Twinkies or Ding Dongs. Something to consider as this tale unfolds.
Tim Vandenack is a reporter at the Elkhart Truth newspaper in Elkhart, Ind., www.etruth.com. He can be reached at tvandenack@etruth.com or 574-296-5884. Follow him at @timvandenack.
