Local Hostess store closes

Hostess fruit pies, classic white Wonder Bread and Duplex cookies were some of the last items left on the barren shelves in the Wonder Bread Hostess outlet store in Bloomington Monday afternoon.

Lead clerk and Bedford, Ind., resident Ruby Lovell swept the floor of the practically empty store.

She has worked in the same shop for 34 years, and today could be her last day.
When Lovell arrived at work at 7 a.m., she did not know whether the store would open another day.

If a shipment arrived overnight, there would be products to sell. If not, the store would be closed for good.

On Nov. 16, employees were notified that Hostess Brands Inc. was shutting down, and the outlet store would be forced to close, Lovell said.  

The winding down process officially began after a failed mediation Nov. 20 between Hostess and the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco and Grain Millers Union, the group that initiated a nationwide strike that crippled the financially struggling company, according to a press release.

The wind-down means the loss of 18,500 jobs nationwide, according to a press release.

Two major Indiana bakeries in Columbus and Indianapolis and at least 20 outlet stores across Indiana have been forced to close, said Bloomington store clerk Kristina Bauer.

Employees at the bakery in Columbus were instructed not to speak to any media outlets about the closure.

The Bloomington store and one other outlet store in Indianapolis were the only two Hostess stores in Indiana that remained open as of Monday, Bauer said.

“We had a two-hour notice,” Bauer said. “They told us that as soon as the store was empty, this (Bloomington) location would be shut down.”

On Nov. 17, the store began selling all products at 50 percent off. The store’s inventory sold out almost entirely as customers rushed to stock up on Hostess products.

Monday was the first day the store began to clean off its shelves, Bauer said.

“By Thursday closing, we didn’t have anything,” Bauer said. “No Twinkies, no Ding Dongs.”

Bauer said the store has been facing closure concerns for more than a year. Hostess Brands Inc. filed for bankruptcy in January.

Despite the closure, Bauer said she doesn’t blame the unions for striking for higher wages. 

For Lovell, the nationwide strike means the loss of her job and the loss of an essential store for the community.

“I was looking forward to retirement, not the whole place closing down,” Lovell said. “The strikers were like suicidal people that had no feelings for anyone but themselves.”

The small store on South Old State Road opened Aug. 17, 1978.

Before that, the Hostess outlet was a “hole in the wall” on South Walnut Street, where Spring Dry Cleaners is currently located, Lovell said.

Lovell was one of three employees at the store when it first opened.

“I needed a job to raise my kids,” she said. “I had been here 14 years before I became manager.”

Lovell said she believes low-income families will be hit hard by the closure of Hostess.
“Hostess products played a big role,” Lovell said. “Grandma could afford to feed her grandkids.”

Bloomington resident Douglas Ross is a regular. He said he goes to the Hostess store once per week to buy a loaf of bread.

“For $4 you can buy enough bread here to last a month,” Ross said. “Now that’s about what it costs for one loaf elsewhere.”

The store sold all Wonder Bread loaves for 99 cents per loaf year-round, Bauer said. She said she would often hear from people who would pay up to $2.89 per loaf at the Kroger grocery store down the street.

Bloomington Kroger officials said all Hostess products were taken off the shelves as soon as the company announced its closure.

Bauer said the outlet often received customers from other counties who would make the drive to get the store’s savings.  

“This whole community is like a big family,” Bauer said. “A lot of people come once a day ... you see the same people over and over again.”

Ross said he grew up eating Hostess products and remembers buying Zingers as a child, when the company sponsored the Charlie Brown Christmas television special.
“Once in a while it was a good treat,” Ross said.

Ellettsville, Ind., resident Mike Drake said he hopes a company will purchase Hostess assets so the products will continue to be available to customers.

Drake said he would shop at the store every couple of weeks to purchase Hostess snacks for his children’s school lunches. 

“The kids are gonna miss it,” Drake said. “What kid doesn’t love Hostess?”