The company that makes Twinkies and Ho-Hos is going out of business. Hostess Brands announced Friday morning that it is asking a federal bankruptcy court for permission to close its operations. (WGN - Chicago)
Twinkies never looked so good or moved so fast.
With the announcement that Hostess is going out of business, people are apparently stocking up on Twinkies by the armload.
The liquidation doesn't necessarily mean Hostess products will become extinct. But Hostess lovers aren't taking any chances.
A ten-count box of Twinkies has been listed on eBay for an opening bid of $200,000, with a buy-it-now for $250,000. Dozens more listings appear at more reasonable prices -- for now.
Chicago-area onvenience stores are reporting that they've sold out of the blonde gooey pastries -- some within an hour after opening.
At the Walgreens adjacent to the Wrigley Building on Michigan Avenue, Twinkies were gone before 9 a.m. Friday.
Other Hostess products were flying off the shelves too. Those single serving pies that magically require no refrigeration? No more blueberry.
But there were still a few cherry pies left, along with some of the pastry-maker's lesser known products such as Suzy Q's.
Salina Gonzalez made a beeline for the Hostess section at the Target at 1940 W. 33rd St. Friday afternoon.
With three sons marching behind her, the Pilsen woman smiled at seeing a few boxes of Twinkies still on the shelves.
She grabbed one. But sons Alex, 6, Noah, 9, and Nicolas, 11, were seeing no part of those treats.
"I'm picking these up for my grandmother. She had me come get some Twinkies for her," Gonzalez said. "I thought they'd be gone by the time I got here," Gonzalez said.
Alex grabbed a couple of bags of Hostess Donettes.
Minutes after Gonzalez scored the box for her 77-year-old diabetic grandmother, all of the Twinkies, even the chocolate creme ones, were gone.
That was the case in many stores.
The Jewel at 1224 S. Wabash Ave. was out of original Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Ho Hos by early afternoon.
"I noticed a couple of customers this morning with half cartloads (of Twinkies)," said assistant store director John Ross.
He said a delivery is scheduled for Saturday morning but he is not sure what to expect.
Customers at the Jewel at 4355 N. Sheridan Rd., have been asking about Hostess products, as the store has sold out of many of the brand's snacks, said Jeff Iskra, assistant store director.
He also has a Saturday delivery scheduled but says "that's up in the air."
A spokesman for Jewel parent Supervalu told Bloomberg news that its stores, which include Jewel-Osco, were seeing a big surge in sales today and that they do not have additional inventory on hand.
"We will only have the products while supplies last," Mike Siemienas, a spokesman for the Eden Prairie, Minnesota-based grocery chain said.
The good news for Twinkie lovers who've stocked up is they'll probably last for a long time in storage, according to Phoebe Hall, a former Chicagoan who has been holding on to an unwrapped Twinkie as a "desk mascot" for 8 years.
The treat has lived on, visibly unchanged, she said, through four different jobs. It even has its own "Twinkie holder" -- a Twinkie-shaped cowboy -- gifted to her by a friend.
"I plan to hold onto it until it changes into something far more disgusting than it is," Hall said of the experiment.
Asked if she ever gets a craving, Hall, a vegetarian, said she would never eat Twinkie.
"The last time I looked they had beef fat in them," she said.
jwernau@tribune.com | Twitter @littlewern
Freelancer writer Cheryl V. Jackson, Tribune staff and wires contributed.
Run on Twinkies: Adults buying up Hostess products
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Run on Twinkies: Adults buying up Hostess products
