Twinkies & The Times

Stand down Twinkies hoarders, you can start eating your secret stash were the opening words of a story on NBCNews.com yesterday written by Amy Langfield.  Twinkies will hit store shelves nationally by late July, Michael Cramer, executive vice president of Hostess Brands LLC told NBC News on Thursday. "We expect to be making and selling in July," he said. "Probably the later half of the month before the product hits the stores."

All of the classic Hostess snack brands will return, some making their return in August and September. Hostess Donettes and some of the snack cakes will be among the first to return. And "Twinkies for sure," Cramer said.  The bulk of the Hostess Snacks brands the public knows best -- Twinkies, Cup Cakes, Ho Hos, Zingers, Ding Dongs and Suzy Q’s -- were purchased in April for $410 million by hedge funds Apollo Global Management and Metropoulos & Co. Other Hostess lines, such as Wonder bread, went to affiliates of Flowers Foods, while its Beefsteak bread brand was snatched up by Grupo Bimbo, S.A.B. de C.V.

Bimbo already makes a Twinkies lookalike in Mexico called Submarinos, which are available with vanilla, chocolate or strawberry filling. Bimbo Bakeries USA is already importing strawberry-filled Submarinos into the United States under its Marinela brand.  The hard-core Hostess fan will return to Hostess, but the discretionary snackers will be the key market to regain, predicted Gary Karp, the executive vice president at Technomic Inc., a food industry research and consulting firm. "Their absence has allowed people to try a variety of products that are out there," Karp said.

Karp said the only concern would be if Hostess changed any ingredients, which Cramer said will not happen.  "Everything will be as delicious and fattening as it always was," Cramer said.
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In other news...you might remember me posting a column about frustration I was having with The New York Times.  I canceled my subscription back in mid-January.  I was promised mid-February that I would gt a refund.  Well, it did not happen.  I called again in March and guess what?  Still nothing.  So I happen to look at my credit card statement yesterday and guess what - still no refund!  Alas, another call was placed and I got a very nice gentleman named Jeramey who was very nice and was dismayed to see that I was calling yet again.  Well, it appears at this point that no one who I had talked to on prior calls had ever actually submitted a request for a refund.  They did today and supposedly I will now get a refund in 7-14 business days.  Actually to the point that Jeramey held me on the line to give me a reference number of 1-2697721160 to show it had been put in for processing.  Now we shall wait and see if it will actually happen.  Well, three months and counting. 
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Last night I continued my carb-low menu with flash cooked shrimp with coleslaw and this night it will be chicken breasts with asparagus.  Not sure if I will add the Alfredo sauce or not, but it marks a week of keeping on track!