A blog about societal, cultural, and civilizational collapse, and how to stave it off or survive it. Named after the legendary character "Crazy Eddie" in Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's "The Mote in God's Eye." Expect news and views about culture, politics, economics, technology, and science fiction.
Hostess Twinkies rose to icon status in the mid-1900s, becoming a mainstay in lunchboxes across America. But a heavy debt load and two bankruptcies almost killed Twinkies. In 2012, Twinkies left shelves for good... Until two guys, Andy and Dean, came up with a plan to save the iconic brand.
As I first wrote nine years ago, "Twinkies and the other Hostess products are still valuable and someone will make them" and this video tells how and why. It also dispels urban legends about the Twinkie, particularly the one about it lasting indefinitely. It didn't; the reformulated one lasts longer.
Business Insider's video also lists Purina as a former owner of Hostess's parent company from 1984 to 1995. That means I have a distant connection to Hostess, as my first job for a large employer was as cook and cashier for Jack In The Box from 1977 to 1979, which Purina owned from 1968 to 1985. My fellow employees and I joked that we worked for Purina People Chow. Our manager told us to never say that in front of the customers. We didn't.
That I'm revisiting the subject shows that I've made my peace with Americans' screwed-up priorities and no longer think this is as silly a story as I did when I first wrote about it. Americans crave their comfortfood as much as they need their entertainment, which I take more seriously now than when I started writing this blog ten years ago. I just wish both were healthier and distracted less from issues like sustainability. May Americans be as passionate about sustainability and democracy as they are about Twinkies.
Walmart has exclusive preview of the return of an iconic American cake.
I should have guessed that Wal-Mart would get them first. As for how the new owner has managed to extend Twinkies shelf life, WCPO has the answer in Twinkies to be frozen? Fans say no way.
John Matarese reports on a big change to Twinkies that has some fans quite upset.
With this report, I hope I can finally put this silly story to bed and move on to something that is actually important instead of merely symbolic.
Is this the end of Twinkies? Hostess Cakes, the maker of Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Wonderbread, is declaring bankruptcy.
The Twinkie has been a favorite snack since it was invented in the 30s. Its purported shelf life is legendary. Some believe that Twinkies never go bad. Hostess Cakes says this is not so and that Twinkies should only sit on the shelf for a couple of weeks.
Hostess Cakes says the rising cost of flour and heavy pension obligations did it in. But some believe Hostess is declaring bankruptcy to wiggle out of pension fund obligations.
Number one on the list of people who think it was about the pensions is the author of Hostess Brands Goes Bankrupt (Again), Stiffs Workers For a Billion on Daily Kos. I suggest you read it for more detail on the history of the company. As for Twinkies and the rest of the baked goods put out by Hostess Cakes going away, advocates of healthy eating could only wish.
It looks like I'm not done with Twinkies yet. I posted the link to The long-awaited return of Twinkies on a Facebook group and got the following macro in response.
That's a good illustration of Americans' screwed up priorities. There's just one issue I have with the contrast. It turns out that the eastern subspecies of the cougar has probably been extinct for decades. It took until 2011 for that fact to be recognized officially. That written, the point stands. Even I, the environmentalist and avid newshound, hadn't heard of the event until now.
A company that once laid off roughly 500 employees in Emporia has new life. The city's Hostess plant opened its doors again.
After the damaging blow of Hostess Brands closing its doors last November, the city is now celebrating at that same building.
The Twinkie is back!
The Hostess plant in Emporia is re-launching its baking production, and more than 300 people in the Emporia area will call Hostess, LLC. their employer.
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And the final Hostess good news of the whole event - you will be able to snag a box of Twinkies in late summer.
Until then, you can make your own vegan creme-filled snack cakes using the recipe at Girly Girl Army. Those would probably be healthier for you and return you to your roots as a cook, if you ever were one.
First up, a link to an Associated Press article, so no quoting, that confirms what I've been saying since January; Twinkies and the other Hostess products are still valuable and someone will make them.
The good news is that there are 110 bidders. The bad news is that the incompetent executives who ran the company into the ground will be eligible for $1.8 million in bonuses if they meet their liquidation goals. Meanwhile, the 18,000 workers will still lose their jobs. Ugh, vultures.
Second, here's what I wrote about the Wixom Ford plant three years ago.
In its heyday a generation ago, the Ford Motor Co. assembly plant at the Wixom Road exit off I-96 employed 5,000 people. About two years after it shut down, the 320-acre site is coming back to life as the home of several government-subsidized manufacturers of alternative-energy products, such as solar panels and the batteries to store the sun power that such panels capture.
That doesn't mean 5,000 people will ever be working there again. But 3,000 is within the realm of possibility if the alternative-energy center grows as projected over the next several years. More important, though, the developments at Wixom and other projects now sprouting up around the state signal that Michigan is earnest about becoming a hub of alt-energy and related technology -- a field with a future.
It won't be the next auto industry. But it will be around -- and it's growing. Michigan cannot afford to be left back as global demand grows for energy from sources other than oil, driven by costs, conservation and concern about climate change. China, for example, is aggressively pursuing a plan to get 15% of its electricity from renewable sources, mostly wind, by 2020, and expects to spend $190 billion to do it.
Strip mall retail is a much different redevelopment prospect for the site than was envisioned three years ago, when then-Gov. Jennifer Granholm joined Executive Chairman Bill Ford to announce the possibility of a $725-million renewable energy park with as many as 4,300 new jobs.
That project was to be anchored by battery maker Xtreme Power of Austin, Texas, and California solar company Clairvoyant Energy. But those ambitious plans fell apart by spring 2011, when the two companies failed to obtain about $500 million in financing from the U.S. Energy Department.
Yes, you read that right, "strip mall retail." Instead of using all the property for a green industry, Ford is going to use some of the land for a big box store--more suburban sprawl, anyone?
The automaker's real estate arm is in talks with home improvement retailer Menards to purchase a 45-acre section of property close to I-96 off Wixom Road. The Wixom City Council recently agreed to Ford's request to split that parcel from the 317-acre site, in addition to sectioning off a landfill area at the back of the property.
For what it's worth, while the article points out that this would be the 23rd Menards store in Michigan, it would be the first one in Metro Detroit. Menards' own store locator shows the nearest locations to be in Toledo, Jackson, Lansing, and Flint (actually Davison, but close enough). The store will have plenty of competition nearby, as there is already a Home Depot on the other side of the freeway and a Lowes one exit to the west, but I've seen Lowes and Home Depot right next to each other with enough business for both. As long as business as usual (BUA) continues, this is likely to be a viable proposition. Let's see how long BUA lasts, as these aren't BUA times.
Demolition has already begun, as this raw WXYZ video shows.
Ford tears down part of shuttered Wixom plant.
Not all hope for a green energy plant is lost, as the Free Press notes.
But a separate, high-tech prospect for the old plant could still be in the works. Last year, Townsend Energy Solutions of Hunt Valley, Md., proposed opening a manufacturing operation at Wixom for, among other things, producing energy-efficiency products for fuel-efficient vehicles. The project was forecast to create 36 jobs in its first year and perhaps 875 jobs over five years.
The Michigan Economic Growth Authority board approved multiple rounds of tax credits for the project: a $6.3-million tax credit and two, $10-million brownfield tax credits. These tax credits are only to be used for industrial purposes -- no retail.
No manufacturing, no tax credits. That should be enough incentive for a green energy factory to be built, even if it's only on part of the land.
Two years ago, I posted A macro about Twinkies and cougars. In the process of finding a new source for the image, I discovered the one I used was only half of the meme. Here's all of it with a better punch line and a proposal for action.
I'm not sure this counts as the "something more serious" I mused about attempting today in Professor Farnsworth and Grumpy Cat agree about yesterday, but it will have to do. Stay tuned for entries about the summer solstice, Fathers Day, and "The Last Ship" for the Sunday entertainment feature.
Maybe American kids will only have to live through one Christmas without Toys “R” Us. About a year after shuttering U.S. operations, the remnant of the defunct toy chain is set to return this holiday season by opening about a half dozen U.S. stores and an e-commerce site, according to people familiar with the matter. Bloomberg's Matt Townsend reports on "Bloomberg Markets: What'd You Miss?"
Matt Townsend doesn't seem very optimistic. Still, I should have seen it coming. Toys R Us is like Twinkies. The products aretoo valuable and someone willmake them. Not only was that true of Twinkies and Toys R Us, it's apparently true for RadioShack. The dead, they rise again!
For decades, Toys "R" Us was not only one of the top toy retailers in the United States, it was one of the top retailers period. Until it suddenly wasn’t. Toys “R” filed for bankruptcy in 2017 and liquidated six months later. This is the story of how Toys "R" Us went bankrupt.
The part about the private equity firm that secured their loans to Toys R Us's intellectual property, including Geoffrey the Giraffe, was a new facet of the story to me. It ties into what I wrote in June about the revival of the name.
Companies will do so even if it involves killing off the original company and stripping the carcass. To paraphrase Steve Martin, capitalism is not pretty.
Follow over the jump for two videos about the opening of the first Toys R Us store under Tru Kids, the new ownership.
In 2004, the chain of Mexican restaurants closed all of its locations. This video explores the history of the brand while identifying some of the main reasons behind its decline.
For years, when I ran into another person who had moved to Michigan, I asked them, "So, do you miss Mexican food?" and they invariably answered, "Yes! Do you know where any is around here?" They also missed cheap Cantonese food, too. I was always happy to steer them to the nearest good examples of both.
Within the past decade, Chinese takeout places run by immigrants from the mainland have sprung up all over southeast Michigan, to the point where two of the three small towns on the outskirts of Irish Hills each have one and the next small town I moved to had one as well. Also, Mexican food has become common enough and people have developed enough of a taste for it that the local blues joint that served ribs has become a Mexican restaurant. I no longer run into Californians who can't find the food of home; it's now all around them. I personally consider this to be an improvement.
I still do, but it probably helped doom Chi-Chi's, which I mourned briefly when it closed down, but didn't really miss. There are much better options for Mexican food in Michigan today.
I didn't know the rest of Chi-Chi's story except for the addition of El Torito to the company. That was my favorite chain of Mexican restaurants in southern California, and I was hoping Chi-Chi's would incorporate some of what I liked about them. It didn't happen. That was disappointing, but at least El Torito still exists.
Business Insider's video also lists Purina as a former owner of Hostess's parent company from 1984 to 1995. That means I have a distant connection to Hostess, as my first job for a large employer was as cook and cashier for Jack In The Box from 1977 to 1979, which Purina owned from 1968 to 1985. My fellow employees and I joked that we worked for Purina People Chow. Our manager told us to never say that in front of the customers. We didn't.
At least Purina no longer owned Foodmaker by the time it acquired Chi-Chi's, so Chi-Chi's never did serve "Purina people chow."
It's been eight years since I first wrote "the dessert bananas people eat are threatened by fungus because of the unintended effects of growing monocultures of clones," so when I saw Why The World’s Most Popular Banana May Go Extinct | Big Business, I was saddened and alarmed, but not particularly surprised. Watch to see how the banana crisis has progressed since I last blogged about it in 2014, before Tropical Race 4 of Panama Disease had reached South America in 2019.
Bananas are facing a pandemic, too. Almost all of the bananas exported globally are just one variety called the Cavendish. And the Cavendish is vulnerable to a fungus called Panama Disease, which is ravaging banana farms across the globe. If it's not stopped, the Cavendish may go extinct. We visited a farm in Colombia infected with Panama Disease and a lab in the Netherlands studying the fungus to see if biosecurity and breeding can save the $25 billion banana industry.
I make the point that growing monocultures of clones is a bad idea every semester and this video shows why. Worse yet, the video and I both describe that it happened before and all growers did was replace the variety grown, which illustrates another point I make, that people don't learn and repeat their mistakes. At least this time, growers in Columbia are implementing measures that will slow the spread of the disease, which might give them more time to find a solution other than the genetically modified Cavendish that I think works well from a scientific and technological perspective, but is unpalatable socially and politically. Sigh. People have to accept the solution for it to really work.
Watching this reminds me that I promised to share a Business Insider video about the rise, fall, andreturn of Twinkies three months ago but haven't done so yet. I'll get to that after observing AsteroidDay tomorrow, Canada Day Thursday, and World UFO Day on Friday. Saturday looks open before I celebrate July4th on Sunday. Stay tuned.
At least 55 of the largest corporations in America paid no federal corporate income taxes on their 2020 profits, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Some of these companies include big names FedEx, Nike, HP and Salesforce, and it's costing the U.S. government billions of dollars. Those 55 corporations would have paid a collective total of $8.5 billion. Instead, they received $3.5 billion in tax rebates, collectively draining $12 billion from the U.S. government. These estimates don't include corporations that paid only some but not all of these taxes, like Netflix and Amazon.
Watch the video above to learn about how the most profitable companies in the country maneuver the complicated tax system to avoid federal corporate income taxes, different forms of tax expenditures and what policy solutions may bridge the gap.
Shopping malls in the U.S. were already in decline before the Covid-19 pandemic as consumers shifted away from traditional brick-and-mortar stores to e-commerce. The outbreak has only exacerbated the challenges at malls as social distancing has placed restrictions on stores, movie theaters and restaurants. So what will become of malls in America after the pandemic ends?
Shopping malls across the U.S. have been reeling as restaurant and retail tenants struggle to keep their doors open.
Data compiled by Coresight Research shows about a quarter of U.S. malls could close over the next three to five years, accelerating a trend that began before the pandemic.
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Malls are a big tax driver for the communities they serve and employ lots of people locally. Watch the video above to find out more about the struggles U.S. malls face and what could become of them after the pandemic ends.
Korea’s fast-fashion emporium, Forever 21 has found a new owner in just four months after it filed for bankruptcy. The retail brand is to sell most of its business for $81 million to a consortium made up of mall operators Simon Property Group, Brookfield Property Partners and brand management firm Authentic Brands Group. Watch this video, for more information.
The Wall Street Journal, whose The Rise and Fall of Brooks Brothers concluded with Simon Properties and Authentic Brands buying Brooks Brothers, has the second story.
Brooks Brothers -- the self-proclaimed oldest clothier in the U.S. -- filed for bankruptcy in July. Analysts say the suit dealer wasn’t able to keep up with modern men who often wanted styles that were cheaper and more functional.
That was fast. However, I shouldn't be surprised. As I first observed about Twinkies, some products and brands are too valuable to let go extinct and someone will save them. Looks like JCPenney, Forever 21, and Brooks Brothers are among them.
Returning to the CNBC video, it will be worth watching which solutions mall owners and the communities around the mall pursue once the pandemic ends. Stay tuned.
Charlotte Russe will close all of its stores over the next two months. The women's clothing company joins a growing group of retailers that couldn't survive bankruptcy.
The company didn't want to shut down. It filed for bankruptcy protection a month ago and announced plans to close only 94 of its 512 stores nationwide. The goal was to use the bankruptcy process to shed debts and sell to a buyer who would keep it in business.
But those hopes fell apart this week when liquidator SB360 Capital Partners won the auction in bankruptcy court for Charlotte Russe's $160 million worth of inventory, and other assets. The plan to shut down was approved Wednesday by the bankruptcy court in Delaware.
SB360, which describes itself as "one of the oldest, most experienced companies in the country conducting store closing and going out of business sales," announced Charlotte Russe would start going out of business sales at all stores as of Thursday. The company will accept gift cards through March 21, and it will close all of its stores by of the end of April.
“We are partnering with SB360 Capital to liquidate the remaining inventory in a manner which maximizes the return to our creditors," the fashion retailer said in a statement to USA TODAY. "In addition, we remain in ongoing negotiations to sell the (intellectual property) to a buyer who has expressed interest in a continued brick and mortar presence.”
In other words, just like Twinkies, the name will live on under new ownership; it's too valuable to die.
CNN has more on the fallout for employees.
Charlotte Russe had 8,700 employees at the time of the filing, all but 1,400 of whom were part-time workers. It had stores in every US state except Alaska at the time of its bankruptcy filing. It also owned 10 children's clothing stores under the Peek brand, which it acquired in 2016.
Meanwhile, $559,000 in bonuses will be paid to executives, but rank-and-file employees will likely not receive severance, which is typical in bankruptcies.
In the entry about Tesla, I also wrote "It also looks like 2019 will see even more stores close than last year," so I expect to write more about the Retail Apocalypse. An entry about Dollar General or The Gap will have to wait until after I revisit Radio Shack, as Bright Sun Films just uploaded an episode about the defunct chain. Stay tuned.
After over 80 years in business and the worlds largest electronic store retailer, today I explore how this billion dollar company which revolutionized the electronic store market, eventually came tumbling down into its eventual bankruptcy in the same vein as Circuit City. Let's take a look at the history of RadioShack.
That is a more complete history than the one from Company Man. That stopped in 2017 just as the chain closed up shop, literally. Bright Sun Films shows that, just like Twinkies, the name lives on under new ownership; it's too valuable to die.
When a stock rises, all of its investors turn a profit, right? That’s not the case for short-sellers, who look for profit by betting against the success of a company or the market. The recent events surrounding Tesla, Reddit, Robinhood and Gamestop’s short squeeze have put short selling under the limelight. So how did the practice of betting against the U.S. market become such a common, legal practice? Watch the video to find out.
The recent events surrounding meme stocks and GameStop’s short squeeze have put short selling, one of the oldest practices in the stock market, directly under the limelight.
The video made three points in favor of short selling. First, it is one major way to make money off a declining market. Second, it provides liquidity, the ability to turn stocks into cash, during a declining market. Third, it's a way of "discovering price," what the true value of a company is in the face of fraud, mismanagement, and hype. I won't dispute any of that, but I will add the following quote from the video's description.
“I think the main reason people dislike short selling is that something just feels bad about profiting from someone else’s failures,” said Sasha Indarte, an assistant professor of finance at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. “Short sellers gain when someone else loses. It’s like if you took out an insurance policy against your neighbor’s home and your neighbor’s home was destroyed.”
That pretty much sums it up. Just don't confuse buying the insurance policy with setting the fire, although it would look like a motive.
I shouldn't be surprised that CNBC reported support for short selling as well as the moral case against it. As I quoted TVTropes 10 years ago, "CNBC is watched by people who think they own the country," so it will take the side of the markets. I expressed a more detailed complaint about CNBC two years ago.
While the channel is more entertaining than its competition (I'm looking at you, Bloomberg), it has a perma-bull attitude — it's always a good time to buy stocks, according to CNBC. My wife and I don't believe that, as we got out of the stock market about six months ago. We don't care that the values recovered; it was too stressful going down.
We have since returned to the stock market. During the past two years, we have developed a better tolerance for uncertainty. I suppose living through a pandemic did that for us, a silver lining to the storm clouds the past year has brought us.
Stay tuned for tomorrow's post about the Vernal Equinox, which will be the final entry of the tenth year of this blog. After that, it will be Nowruz, the blog's tenth birthday, and the beginning of my eleventh year of blogging here.
*I have a somewhat funny video about GameStop from Business Insider to post next week along with another one about Twinkies to continue the alternation between silly and serious. Consider this footnote to be a preview of coming attractions.
Sometimes, especially in a galaxy far, far away, you've just got to loosen up. And what better way to do so than drinking yourself into oblivion! I'm noel from TheCancrizans, and here are the top 10 alcoholic beverages in Star Wars.
