Supermarkets Prepare for One Last Twinkie Stampede

If you still have a hankering for a Twinkie, and you don’t want to pay hundreds or thousands (or millions) of dollars to buy one on eBay, hope you’re in the Chicago area, or can get there fast. The local supermarket chain Jewel-Osco today begins selling what it says “is believed to be the final shipment of Twinkies in the country.”

Exactly 21,780 boxes of Twinkies, along with other iconic Hostess brands like Ding Dongs, Zingers and Orange Cupcakes, will be delivered to 165 Jewel-Osco stores today and tomorrow. The complete list of store locations, and estimated delivery times, is below.

Twinkies have been a hot item since Hostess announced last month that it was going out of business (read: “Twinkies Sell Like Hotcakes”). Hostess bakeries went dark weeks ago, but the company said it would continue making deliveries to stores until there were no more products left to deliver. It appears that time has come.

Jewel-Osco spokesperson Karen May told Chicago’s WMAQ-TV that the store’s Hostess representative offered them the final supply of Hostess products, and they eagerly accepted. “We know they are very popular in Chicago, so of course we said yes,” she said. Each of the 165 stores will get one shipment (a dozen other Jewel-Osco stores are out of luck). And when they’re gone, they’re gone. The products will be sold at full price, and there will be no limits to how many a customer can buy. Could that lead to Black Friday-like stampedes? “Well, we have alerted security,” May told the Daily Herald.

Then again, the initial burst of interest in Twinkies and other Hostess products may have waned. With a month for the news to sink in, many adults who hadn’t had a Hostess snack in decades have already gotten their fix, and moved on. Many commenters on Jewel-Osco’s Facebook page were less than enthused about news of the final shipment: “I’ll pass,” “No thanks,” and “Who cares?” were among the comments. Another commenter noted that local competitor Mariano’s “has the Roundy’s brand knockoffs of Twinkies and cupcakes, and they are just as good and cost less.”

A prescient comment, since some analysts have said Hostess’ demise could represent an opportunity for store brands. Not only can they market their own versions of Hostess snacks, but a retailer could step in and acquire the Hostess brands themselves. “Would Kroger or Safeway or Supervalu consider buying Hostess, creating a new brand of Twinkies, and selling them nationwide?” Chris Freeman, the editor of Private Label Buyer magazine recently told Coupons in the News. “The biggest players are getting better and better about marketing their brands – and they could do it.” (Read more here: “Supermarkets Crave Store-Brand Twinkies”).

Supervalu, though, has its own problems (read: “Supervalu Sheds More Stores”). Falling sales have led to store closings, and a likely sale of the company in whole or in part. And Supervalu just happens to be the parent company of Jewel-Osco, which could get a temporary lift from its Hostess bonanza.

That a troubled supermarket chain could get a boost from a bankrupt brand is, perhaps, a bit of poetic justice. So get your Twinkies while they last, at a Jewel-Osco – while they last.