The triumphant return of the Twinkie began three days early after Walmart announced that it would begin selling the beloved snacks at all of its domestic locations yesterday. This is great weekend news, as Hostess snacks were slated to return from their seven-month hiatus on Jul. 15.
Hostess was ordered to liquidate in November 2012 by a New York bankruptcy court, a move that closed all plants and bakeries and forced them to lay off 15,000 employees. Twinkies, along with other Hostess favorites like Ho Hos and Ding Dongs, were rescued by Apollo Global Management and C. Dean Metropoulos & Co. for $410 million.
When Twinkies are officially unveiled on Monday, they'll feature upgrades. The revamped version will have an extended shelf life of 45 days, where the originals only lasted two weeks. The plan was to have Twinkies back on shelves before the school year started, and their comeback will be ceremonious: Walmart plans to hold official, celebratory events at 3,000 locations across the country.
It makes sense that the retailer was tapped for the Twinkies "premiere"—it's Hostess' biggest customer. Hostess hopes to be selling Twinkies in 160,000 stores by the end of 2013, twice the number of outlets where they were available before production ceased.
