Walker - 1 job......so much for the time taken to talk about losing and regaining one job the other night.
Now this will equal -1.

Between Walmart and Woodmans... not sure why anyone would make a special stop here. Lucky they survived as long as they did if you ask me.

"chelleandlou
Jan 25, 2012 at 8:51 a.m.
Suggest removal

Part of the problem for the store is location. It's invisible and out of the way, if it were on Milton Avenue it would most likely see an increase in sales. People aren't going to run all over town to buy something there."
I agree.
I don't see the value here either when cup cakes in vending machine are .75 and they are .90 there. I did stock up because it was buy one get one free.
Joy- they shut it down on TUESDAY already.

Drove by last night and the place looked empty already...wow. We don't go there much anymore, but we used to. Sometimes it was just an impulse as I drove by with the kids to get a small treat, but we didn't stock up there. Still, sorry to see this happen.

Mr. Walker. Please bring jobs to Wisconsin....Not Mexico because "Wisconsin is open for business."

I may not have bought the Hostess junk foods but I will miss the whole grain bread for 88 cents.

Said the chocodile...

Yeah Swiss chick..I am tired of all these ding dongs...

spark - Right on! There isn't any one story that somehow doesn't end up with political "whose at fault" crap. I, for one, am entirely sick of it.
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It is too bad about the store and hope things work out after all.

It looks pretty damned closed (and empty) today!
I guess corporate works fast when it wants to.

Can some of you seriously not bring politics into just one story? It's alarming how many people know nothing about how a business operates. Please, just don't speak if you don't know. Blaming Walker on the death of the twinkie is truly comical.
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Now, to the story. Very unfortunate and I wish all the best with your future endeavors.

li713 ~ so laymen terms wrote; thank you. :) You made complete sense. I would also like to add to your explanation. As little as 20 years ago, hostess was kind of like a 'mom and pop' store. It was comfortable and well known to many for a very long time, and pretty original. Many things contribute to the demise of nationally known company, namely, bad management as you stated. Now with the economy the way it is, luxuries are cut, and hostess products are in my mind, a luxury, and when allowed to have a small luxury, there are MANY alternatives at a MUCH cheaper price, such as little debbie as you said, that mimics the hostess brand. When Hostess didn't have competition and very LOYAL customers from the warm fuzzies brought on by growing up with these yummies, it didn't matter if gas was high, or whatever... people were still going to buy. But, now that there are alternatives and that 'generation' that was brought up on hostess, is diminishing along with the brand and the amount of money in their pocketbooks. I am not even sure if they had better management at this point if they can save themselves... this is probably the beginning of the real end. I have NEVER personally went to the grocery store and purchased full priced hostess items, as an adult or a child, being it was never in our budget. BUT, this discount store made it possible for my family to enjoy ho ho's at an affordable price. SO, maybe, being the discount stores are and were a success, except for this one being a victim of the WHOLE Hostess picture, Hostess should reconsider the amount of products offered, cut back on less popular items, and reduce the costs of their products. Costs less... sell more.... make more. There are some items that people can only get that 'feel good' from hostess such as the Suzy q, Twinkies, ho ho's and ding dongs. The others, are pretty general and easily duplicated. I do believe that they should be looking at downsizing, and they could very well save a company that has been around forever from becoming extinct. :(

Who eats that stuff anymore anyway?

This is sad. :(

li713 - You are absolutely correct. I have a friend who is a route driver and he says the same thing. It appears they need to restructure, revamp or get their head out of their collective butts.

Obama doesn't have anything more to do with Hostess's bankruptcy than Walker has to do with this store's closing. It's simply stupid to think either.

It doesnt help that alot of people are watching what they eat and wont touch any of that junk food anymore. Sales are declining everywhere and for good reason...Fat, Sugar, and Soy!!! Thats what you get when you bite into one of those snacks....disgusting!

How does a poor business decision by a company to increase the overhead when their sales can't match cost become Walker's fault? You can hate Walker all you want but to blame him for a company making poor business decisions is pure stupidity on anyones part! What's the next claim to fame for the Walker Hater's, that he took out Kennedy too?

This doesn't have anything to do with Walker, Clinton, Obama, or any other politician. It has nothing to do with jobs being moved out of the US. Hostess is an American company, making products (with a very short shelf life) in America, with American (union) workers. Hostess has been poorly run for a long time. The problem is they have a product that needs to be resold by other companies, and they did a piss poor job of managing those business relationships, maintaining efficient routes, and getting their product out there. I personally spent 6 months trying to get hostess in our chain of 10 stores. Everyone I talked to referred me to someone else, who referred me to someone else, who told me they'd get back to me. At the end of it all I gave up and now Little Debbie has all the space (and their product is cheaper, which I still can't figure out). If Hostess wants to survive in the long run, they're probably going to have to change over to the system Little Debbie has. Little Debbie distributors are individually owned and operated. Little Debbie sells to them, and they sell to the retailers. Almost 100% of the time that is done in cash, no extension of credit. You can't make a profit on snack cakes these days by running a fleet of delivery trucks all over everywhere for a $50 or $100 sale. A retailer can buy a lot of bread and snack cakes for $100, but it won't cover the cost in gas for Hostess, let alone what they're paying drivers in wages and benefits, and their cost on the product, which is often guaranteed to sell or they credit the retailer. No matter how many times they go through this, they can't figure out how to fix it, and the fault in that lies entirely with them. It's unfortunate for their employees and the people in the community that rely on the outlet stores to feed their family, but it has nothing to do with politics.

Well look on the bright side, you'll have plenty of time to loaf around.

Part of the problem for the store is location. It's invisible and out of the way, if it were on Milton Avenue it would most likely see an increase in sales. People aren't going to run all over town to buy something there.

This is the second time in 7 years that Hostess has filed Bankruptcy. They have been having trouble for a long time. Gail, you will be missed.

non_grata I believe Clinton's success as you call it was due in part to 6 years of his 8 with the Republicans in charge of the Congress.

GuyKing, Hostess is a national company headquartered from a different state.

You should be thanking Obama for yet another bankrupt company under in administration.

Here ya go Macdaddy. who voted for NAFTA?
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/1993/roll575....
More Republicans voted to pass NAFTA than Democrats. And in that list you'll find a certain Mr. Boehner, and a certain joke of a Presidential candidate by the name of Gingrich. Republicans, as a party, voted overwhelmingly in favor of Nafta.

Yeah Clinton. Isn't he the guy that had the deficit heading in the correct direction after 12 years of Republicans?

and NAFTA happened under who's reign...oh that's right it was a DemocRAT named Billy Clinton.

Sure glad that Democrats look out for the 99% and for the middle class. That is laughable.

This is how capitalism works...store not profitable, make it profitable or close it. It's not a charity. That's the problem with govt rescued projects like TARP, they keep unprofitable companies propped up rather than making changes to make them profitable or closing them. It's sad to see her lose her job but none of us are promised that our jobs will be forever. And blaming Walker is childish. But then some of these Walker haters are childish. They are like second grade recess bullies.

Uh, bakery jobs are pretty much local. Twinkies, however, may be manufactured in space.

Walker is an idiot but the problem is when they created NAFTA. All that did was open the doors to ship jobs out of this country.

How can you blame Walker for this? The problem is with Hostess filing bankruptcy not with Walker! Please people stop feeling sorry for yourselves. It really is time that people took responsibility for themselves and stopped blaming everyone else. You are all expecting one or two people to save this economy when we are all to blame. When was the last time you bought an American made product? When was there a product that every part to it is American made? This is where the problems are.

"More great news for Janesville/Wisconsin! Thank you Walker. Wisconsin is open for business..."

Hang in there Gail. The route guys are thinking about you. Even us "used to be route guys".

That's a shame. This was a great money-saver for our family when we had a bunch of kids in the house.