The real story behind Twinkies’ sour end

Though most of the early coverage of the collapse of the Twinkie Empire focused on the immediate story of the role of the workers’ union in bringing about the bankruptcy of Hostess, it now seems there may have been more to the situation.

My colleague Michael Hiltzik dug through the corporation’s bankruptcy filings and in a Business section analysis Sunday argued that the collapse of the snack food empire was more the result of long-term incompetency by management.

“Let’s get a few things clear,” he wrote. “Hostess didn’t fail for any of the reasons you’ve been fed. It didn’t fail because Americans demanded more healthful food than its Twinkies and Ho-Hos snack cakes. It didn’t fail because its unions wanted it to die.

“It failed because the people that ran it had no idea what they were doing. Every other excuse is just an attempt by the guilty to blame someone else.”

It’s a great read.

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