Nearly 36 million packages of Twinkies were sold in the year ended Dec. 25.

[Sekhmets Daughter]

1. This has been a long running problem.

I was never a Twinkies fan, even as a child I preferred The Hostess Cupcakes and the Snowballs.... Part of the problem is due to much of America eating better, but fully one third of the nation is obese so we can't think that it is all of the problem. I think Hostess is a microcosm of what has happened to the working and middle classes of America. Rising costs caused them to raise prices, 2 years ago a loaf of Wonder Bread was selling for $3.29 in Publix Supermarkets...the same size loaf of Publix Premium was $1.79 and regular Publix white bread $1.39. (I noticed yesterday that Publix dropped the price to $2.29 in an effort to unload it I presume) then caused them to change the recipes of their products. 10 years ago a Hostess cupcake was still a delicious forbidden treat, today it is not worth cutting the
calories from something else in order to enjoy one. So prices went up to the point that they were prohibitive to people in the working class and many in the middle class while the reward went down.