Some resolutions are hard and others you get help with from unexpected sources. For the second time the makers of Twinkies, Ding-Dongs, Snowballs, and those cream filled chocolate frosted diet breaking Hostess Cupcakes, has declared bankruptcy. So for those of you that have sworn off these treats for 2012, your resolution may become a bit easier. Me, I am just puzzled!
First I am puzzled that any maker of such a ubiquitous product can’t find a way to make money, doesn’t every convenience store stock these treats? How does a business go broke selling products so tempting? Kicking a Hostess snack habit has got to be difficult, like quitting smoking otherwise the local convenience store couldn’t command the $1.89 price.
Frito Lay seems to be doing well selling snacks, Little Debbie is going strong. How can you go broke selling junk food to Americans? Yeah, if you were selling broccoli or kale I could see an issue with your business plan. That’s why Green Giant has to advertise, but I haven’t met a person yet that would turn down a hit, I mean taste, of a Hostess Cup Cake including my diabetic mother.
Second, how does the government not step in and rescue this company. Hostess cupcakes or its predecessor have been a part of the US diet since 1919 when Taggart Baking Company created the first chocolate cupcake for mass production. Taggart Baking was founded in 1905, 6 years before Chevrolet started making cars and 20 years before Chrysler, both recent recipients of government bail outs.
I have the same arguments, in addition to the direct jobs lost by losing the makers of Hostess treats, American dentists will treat fewer cavities losing revenue, retailers will sell less diet aids, and those overnight convenience store clerks may switch from sugary substances to imported coffee to help them stay awake, making us more dependent on imports. Our economy will suffer, jobs will be shipped over seas!
Our government has chosen to make sure you and I can buy a Camaro or Jeep, a Cadillac or a Dodge Ram, but will let your grandchildren go through life not knowing the sugary sweetness of a Snowball. If Bush, Obama, and others had not bailed out the automobile manufactures maybe I would have had to walk or ride a bike to work, increasing my caloric needs, and then I could have eaten a few more Twinkies thereby saving Hostess from bankruptcy.
Don’t take me too seriously, I just didn’t like the auto bailouts, the idea of taking money in the form of taxes to support a failing company that can’t make money selling its product, one that everyone wants or needs, just seems silly and wasteful. However, I just might get behind a law suit that claims bailing out the auto industry is going to cost me and my grandkids the joys of a Hostess Cupcake.
Yep, it’s the government’s fault alright.
David.
