Shortpacked! by David Willis
Toys are serious business.
Convention appearances:
Calgary Expo Calgary, AB: April 26-28
Phoenix Comicon Phoenix, AZ: May 23-26, 2013
BotCon San Diego, CA: June 28-30
San Diego Comic-Con San Diego, CA: July 18-21
SPX Bethesda, MD: September 14-15
Phoenix Comicon Phoenix, AZ: May 23-26, 2013
BotCon San Diego, CA: June 28-30
San Diego Comic-Con San Diego, CA: July 18-21
SPX Bethesda, MD: September 14-15
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Sorcery 101
Templar, AZ
The Transformers Wiki
Hail to the Slash
80 page GIANT
Axe Cop
The Book of Biff
Butt-Taco
Comics Curmudgeon
College Roomies from Hell!!!
Diesel Sweeties
Dinosaur Comics
Dr. McNinja
Dresden Codak
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Girls with Slingshots
Goats
Hark, a vagrant
Hijinks Ensue
Intrepid Girlbot
Legend of Bill
Medium Large
Not Invented Here
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So Far Apart
Something Positive
Two Lumps
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Kind of surprised me too that Hostess went under, but then again, when was the last time you saw them at a market
Mostly they were sold in convenience stores (gas stations) around here. But, yeah, it was really hard to find a box in the market. However, Hostess has a lot of infrastructure and name recognition. No doubt they will be purchased at the bankruptcy auction and a new company will make Hostess brand items using the same equipment and a new labor force (probably without union interference). I think unions are a good thing, but the truth is with free trade you have to match the price of goods made in 3rd world sweat shops. If you can’t get a cost savings on shipping, you can’t really pay your employees more than a 3rd world slave worker on a per output basis. That leads to low wages, or in the case of a company joined to a union, a bankruptcy.
Unless the US returns to protectionist import policies (which is nearly impossible at the moment, and bad for the big wigs bottom lines, so you know it’ll never happen) we’ll just have to wait until the international labor market stabilizes.
Except it turns out this was all about the bosses playing money games and nothing about the unions at all. There are plenty of businesses out there that manage to turn a profit while employing union workers, but it doesn’t work if the company is run by asshats who can’t think past the short term reality of their own wallets (note that their greed was so insanely out of control that they ended up losing money in the long run). The solution to exploitation is more unionization, not less. Besides, the free market only works if big businesses like this one can still go kaput – otherwise we have oligarchy and stagnation forever.
or you know, both. where the union wants to be paid more than they’re actually worth while the management is trying to reduce wages and benefits to the workers below a reasonable level, resulting in a game of chicken that it looks like no one won.
Oh I remember that one – Knob Hill Farms – A private unlisted company had a dust up with the union trying to dictate the how and whatfor on running the company. It was the first cut-rate warehouse style grocery chain at the time and paid decent if not A&P wages back then. The owner just closed the doors and gave everyone the mandated severance packages and sold everything off. Turn out he made more money building condo’s on just two of the properties [he owned all the land his stores sat on] than the business could have made in a decade. So sometimes playing chicken gets you in the soup.
Actually, considering that the same year they decided they “had to go out of business”, that the CEOs raised their own salaries 300% (to something like $2.5 million dollars), and considering we’re finding out that they were ALREADY planning to close many of those plants regardless of whether or not the union agreed to their lower pay demands, it’s pretty obvious that instead of fixing any actual problems the company might have had, they saw the weaknesses, and decided to just screw their own company (including workers) over while trying to squeeze it for as much as possible.
Yeah, no, they didn’t give a crap about the company one way or the other. I do hope that the company gets bought out instead of the factories going to waste, though, especially with all those workers (who, again, were losing their jobs regardless of what they agreed to). :\
Alternatively, you could make products that don’t taste like you sprinkled sugar on a sponge and convince the world to pay more than a quarter for them.
Overseas sweatshops are more of a factor for toys than they are for baked goods.
Even when the baked goods are about 80% preservatives.
Hostess has been mismanaged for years. The management raided the coffers by giving themselves huge raises even as the company was preparing for Chapter 11. They then tried to make up the difference with massive pay cuts and the elimination of the employees’ retirement program.
Third World Nation labor has zero effect on baked goods. All of Hostess American product is produced in the US, it has to be because despite the concept that Twinkies will last forever, they only actually have a shelf life of a little over a month. Not to mention most of Hostess money at this point came not from snack cakes but from the fact they were the number two bread bakery in the US. The company fell because of a mix of Mismanagement and greed by the executives, and a Union that had no idea how bad off the company was and thus decided to push to hard. So the 12,000 workers not associated with the Bakers Union are just as much out of worker as the 5000 or so bakers who refused to deal, while the executives will walk away with money in the bank.
If you look at the big picture and how all costs are interrelated, the I think that you will find that 3rd world labor does indeed depress all wages in the US. (Well, all wages except corporate executives…)
But I wasn’t making a statement about Hostess in particular, but the effects of free trade in general.
Well in this day an age, reguardless of who’s at fault at Hostess, Unions in general have outlived their usefulness. Now IMO, they are more of a nusicense than anything.
and you are an idiot.
And you are right. In this day of government regulation, minimum wage, people paying decent wages and stuff, we hardly need unions anymore. They more often than not cause more damage than they help. Plus ones like the SEIU are run like a mafia…
Spoken like a true Fox News watcher.
Well that just makes me sad.
That sounds like a perfectly reasonable reaction.
…okay, now somebody in the know needs to level with the Brit-Boy. Are Twinkies really made with Beef Fat?
The glory of most America food is, we don’t ask what is in it till the thousandth case of illness or/and death
Yup. Beef fat was one of the many possible shortenings you could potentially find in a twinkie. You’d be surprised at how many baked goods have animal fat in them.
Absolutely. So do Ding Dongs, Ho Hos, Zingers, and every other repulsively nasty snack cake product manufactured by Hostess.
Based on the sickening, greasy feel a twinkie had to it:not much. Mostly just hydrogenated soybean, cottonseed, and canola oil. Ick!
Don’t worry, there are still the store brand knockoffs and the Lil Debbies version. And Canada will still be making them cause they aren’t affected.
Canada won’t be affected? I didn’t know the population here warranted an entirely separate Hostess operation that wasn’t financially entwined with the US’s version.
This is the first I’ve heard of it too. If that’s accurate then I’m ecstatic and have some people who will need to know about this.
if that’s true, I can run a couple hours north for a Twinkies run.
SWEET.
There is a different parent company that distributes Twinkies up there.
I think it was more “Needed to be a Canadian company to dodge taxes” sort of thing, but we do like our garbage food, we do.
They’re in direct competition with Vachon near where I am though, so it will be interesting to see if the Canadian branch goes under next.
I read that as “direct competition with the Vatican”
I can imagine the slogan for the Vatican Bars, “Jesus Christ, now with more chocolatty flavour”.
How about: “Jesus Christ! How many calories are in this thing?”
Actually, both Vachon and the licensed Hostess products are run by a company called Saputo. So it’s like a cupcake-opoly.
And Saputo was in the news a while back for financial shenanigans in the dairy part of the business.
They really milked it for all it was worth.
Am I the only one who thought Robin was fighting Lucy at first glance? Just me?
for a split sec I did too. Why is yus STILL in her old Shortpacked outfit. XD Girl is deranged. Shes making way more money doing nothing as a rep. I guess its one of those “my honor was tarnished” things.
I prefer the explanation that Sydney is honestly just too one-dimensional to deserve the creativity of a costume change, no matter the situation.
No, I briefly wondered why she was fighting Lucy too.
When Lucy first came on, my first thought was “WATCH OUT! IT’S SYDNEY IN DISGUISE! IT’S A TRAP!!!”
Their noses are different enough that I’m almost totally convinced that I was wrong.
Two words: Latex Perfection.
Have you ever seen Lucy and Sidney in the same place at the same time?
DUN DUN DUNNN
It’s sad that the teamster union worked with Hostess to keep the company afloat, but the bakers union wouldn’t cooperate.
19,000 employees. God.
This is true. But it also looks like the Hedge fund that owned the company was running it like their personal piggy bank giving managment raises. If this is true also.. So much angerrrr!
Hostess has been on the decline since 2003 due to terrible management. They’ve had six CEOs in 10 years, they’ve closed dozens of plants, and they previously demanded over $100 million in wage and pension cuts (which the unions gave them and which was not reinvested in the company), and instead the company’s debt load has continued to climb until they declared bankruptcy a second time in 8 years. Meanwhile, executive pay had increased, and they looted the employee-funded pension contributions in 2011 claiming that they were just “borrowing” it.
The offer the union turned down? An 8% initial pay cut that over 5 years would grow to a 27% cut, the company permanently keeps the employee’s pension contributions and no new employees will be able to get into a pension, and higher insurance rates and poorer benefits. Employees would end up paid about half what they were getting paid before the first round of cuts in 2005.
The unions were scapegoated in the destruction of a classic American company by two vulture capital firms that specialize in picking up “distressed debt” and then pillaging what capital they can before chucking the rest.
Yeah, it’s all those greedy hourly employees’ fault. How selfish of the evil laborers to not accept 8% pay cuts and 32% benefits reductions to fund a 300% raise for the CEO and 60%-100% increases given to other executives while the company was in the middle of filing for bankruptcy. Who do they think they are?
Laid off.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Twinkes-Chocolate-Cream-Going-Out-Of-Business-Last-Boxes-Left-/290816912514?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43b609ec82
Chocolate filed Twinkies.
$1,000.00 starting bid.
$3,000.00 Buy It Now price.
Free Shipping!
Free shipping?? Where do I sign up!
Fanfiction.net?
Ah, this brings back memories. As a kid, I didn’t turning the page of my comic book to find an ad, but the Hostess ones at least tried with heroes and villains squaring off. Resolution by Twinkies rather than combat was always a little odd though.
My english teacher spent half a class talking about this. He prefaced the news with “A sad day in America, a sad day in the world”
I thought Twinkies were supposed to be the one food that survives the apocalypse! Apocalypse isn’t due for another month…
Tallahassee will be devastated.
Everything’s falling into place…guess we’re eating cockroaches.
According to Wall-E, cockroaches of the future live on Twinkies. No Twinkies, no roaches. We will starve!
Although if we had access to Twinkies, we’d probably eat those instead.
Or both. Gotta get protein somehow.
(applauds) When the Hostess thing went down, I mentioned to my fiancee that I have fond memories of the Hostess/Marvel ads in old comics and I got a blank stare back… I’M NOT THAT OLD! It happened!
Oh, god, has anybody checked on Seanbaby yet?!
Sydney Yus really DOES have a weakness for twinkies if she’s asking Robin to buy an $80 box.
Bimbo makes Twinkies (and Zingers, formerly of Dollie Madison) under a license in certain regions, BlueBird, Little debbie, and others all make creme filled sponge cake ‘Twinkie’ clones. Twinkies are just like fried pies (with fruit, pudding or nut and syrup fillings), brownies, ‘rice krispy’ marshmallow treat bars, smores, bear claws, frosted filled snack cakes, strudels, pop-tarts, cupcakes, ‘snowballs’, moon pies (gross!), cinnamon rolls, vanilla wafers, chcolate chip cookies, honey buns, etc. in that any exclusive competitive advantage was lost long ago and multiple alternatives exist for the consumer to explore at a variety of prices.
Except for the 18.5 K people that lost their jobs and company that will try to sell of its brand names to competitors, and the unions, union members, and companies who will make lawyers rich trying to sue each other, and he investors who are backing out and the lenders who are probably taking a small haircut instead of a huge one down the road, this is a non issue.
Actually, Twinkies were not pies. Yes, Hostess made several varieties of single-serving pies; however, Twinkies were sponge cake with a creme filling.
Thank you so much! Loved this comic, brought back so many memories of the Hostess ads in comics! Good stuff!
True confessions time: I never liked Hostess snacks of any kind or any of te knock-offs. Even as a sugar-junkie child.
I know I’ve never liked most of their snacks, that includes the beloved Twinkie… -_-
In Australia, Twinkies were only available in speciality import stores. I tried them once for the novelty value and regretted it instantly. I have an enormous sweet tooth, but Twinkies made the enamel on my teeth crackle.
Shortpacked employees should try unionising. That could be a hilarious storyline.
I love this man
This news has been all over the internet and someone finally riffs on the old Hostess superhero ads.
Snack cakes and comic books. The ultimate fusion of junk food and junk culture.
Oh man, I love the printing dots effect on this! And the page is yellowed too. This is all kinds of fantastic.
I would love to know how the hell you got this page to look so authentic.
This just in…..
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/twinkies_staves_off_extinction_judge_k9sgG26pNuCBpufJZPMZ6L?utm_source=SFnewyorkpost&utm_medium=SFnewyorkpost
NEWSFLASH: The judge at bankruptcy court ordered the Hostess management to go back to mediation with the striking workers and refused their request to dissolve the company.
Patriotism prevails.
BTW, over the weekend somebody posted a link to a reverse-engineered public domain Twinkie recipie and I proposed to my sister (who’s a pro pastry chef) that she make some. Her response:
No. I will not bake that. Not for love, nor for money. Not for kin, nor for country. Not for all the tea in China. Not even if Martha [Stewart] asked me. Not even if a zombiefied Julia [Child] offered to not eat my brains if I baked one pan. Never is a long long time, and I will not live to see it. However, NEVEH!
I told her how proud I am of her after that.
Why is she so against it? Because twinkies are lowest-common-denominator junk food and she can make better stuff? Or out of some sort of respect for a brand that’s going under?
She’s Lynnora Bierce. Enough explanation for me.
In the future you may want to avoid combining the words proposed, I, sister, my, and to in the order you did there. Whilst speed scanning the page that tidbit just seared into my forebrain.
I guess that’s really my problem, come to think about it.
It wasn’t just you, that was the first part of his post that I processed, I had to read carefully from the beginning to get my brain sorted out.
It may have been the placement of the parenthesised insert that draws the eye and separates the phrase in the least appropriate manner.
Either way, it’s evident that I have lived in Tennessee far too long for anybody’s good.
Gee Sponge cake shaped like a corn bread loaf with some cream in the middle. I’m sure NASA and MIT learned a whole lot from whoever unraveled THAT ineffable riddle… The hard part is probably getting them to wear a hat and smile while twirling a lariat though.
I heard Bimbo is interested in buying the brand, I wouldn’t be surprised they are quite a big corporation and they could probably use another product to compete with submarinos over here and on the USA they could use a product like Twinkie to get bigger there.
This is a thing of beauty, sir. I salute you.
Beautiful! Grats. DW
Reference to the old Hostess comic-style comic ads (in the 70s???) Nice.
Dont worry theyll reciprocate.
So, I guess Zombieland is not based on a true story after all.