I blame whole wheat

[Miss Neecerie]

Interstate Bakeries Corp. said today its Wonder bread brand would disappear from Southern California grocery stores after it shuts down bread baking operations in the region Oct. 29.

Kansas City, Mo.-based Interstate said it planned to close all four of its Southland bread bakeries, located in Glendale, Pomona, San Diego and in Los Angeles southeast of USC. The company will also close 17 distribution centers and 16 outlet stores.


Wonder bread was first marketed more than 80 years ago and has been sold in Southern California since at least the 1940s, the spokeswoman said. Interstate acquired the brand when it bought Continental Baking Co. from Ralston Purina Co. in 1995 for $461 million in stock and cash.

Interstate will continue to operate two Los Angeles bakeries that produce the company's Hostess and Dolly Madison lines of snack cakes and doughnuts, which include Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Snowballs. Those plants employ about 840 workers.

The company has closed several other bakeries around the country since filing for bankruptcy, including two in San Francisco in 2005.


http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-wonderbread29aug29,0,1394775.story?coll=la-home-center

 

[dashiell]

Whaaaaat? No Wonder bread? Several jobs lost, there. It doesn't seem as though Wonder should ever be *missing* from the bread aisle...that's like not seeing Blue Bonnet in the refrigerated section.

 

[Lady Day]

Dont blame whole wheat, blame Krispy Kream for puttin the bread out of a job.

LD

 

[dhermann1]

Sad, yes. An iconic label. But the bread, to use my mother's phrase, was "flannel". Yucky stuff.

 

[Hondo]

I know as a kid, Wonder bread was fun to play with lol
I don't eat much bread these days, still...
It will be sad, lots of lost jobs, lets hope some other bakery takes
over sites now being closed.

BTW: I hate Krispy Kream, gives America a bad name "FAT" :eusa_doh:

 

[scotrace]

Any company named Interstate Anything will never have the imagination to market products well.


But the crux of it is probably Wonder bread becoming the poster child for Bad Old Foods (how long till Crisco is gone?).

Wonder bread still makes the best PB&J. I wouldn't use LizzieMaine's loaf, though. lol

 

[dhermann1]

Here's an indication of the present age, and an example of a non vintage thing I do: My current equivalent for PBJ consists of any fancy schmancy heavy duty multi grain bread, with almond butter (peanut butter gives me a tummy ache, sadly!) and Chiver's Ginger Preserves. NOOOOOO Wonder Bread!
Does that make me a bad person? That that automatically disqualify me from the lounge???

 

[Miss Neecerie]

I may be forced to switch to the comically named

Which is available here in Mexifornia....and is the next best thing....

 

[The Wingnut]

I've never liked white bread, even when I was a little kid. My personal preference is Home Pride butter-top in the yellow bag.

Wonder always stuck to the roof of my mouth. It had no substance, but it made great dough balls that you could get a pretty wicked bounce out of if you packed it together hard enough.

No big loss to me, but it is a rather annoying sign of the times...less to choose from.

Here's a fun book review on a Wonder Bread recipe book...hey, look, bread balls!

 

[Haversack]

Growing up and going to public school in Sacramento in the '60s, THE field trip that everyone looked forward to took place when you were in the Thrid Grade. This was a tour of the Wonder Bread factory out next to I-80 across from where Cal Expo is now. Besides it being a field trip and all the factory mechanical assembly-line fascination of the place, (queue _Powerhouse_), everyone got a miniature sample loaf of Wonder Bread to take home. For me, it was pretty weird stuff as we never had supermarket bread at home only bakery-made.

I remember when they closed the Wonder Bread bakery in San Francisco just a couple of years ago. It was around behind fom where Seals Stadium used to be. In the morning, one could stand nearby where the baking smells from the bakery and the malt smells from the Anchor Brewery, (still there!), met and combined. Excellent nose-hit.

Haversack.

 

[carter]

Originally posted by Scotrace
Wonder bread still makes the best PB&J. I wouldn't use LizzieMaine's loaf, though.

Just how old is LM's loaf of WB?

 

[The Wingnut]

Hey, I remember those miniature loaves! The Hostess shops used to give them out to kids when they came in with their parents. I've fuzzy memories of the shop in Santa Clara circa 1979, looking at the loaf in its tiny bag thinking how neat it was that I got the me sized version of the big loaf that mom bought.

 

[scotrace]

Boy, you just kicked up memories! The ketchup used to soak right through my Wonder Bread and Baloney sammich. Was just a big soaky pink blob by lunchtime! lol

 

[Prairie Dog]

You gotta blame the 'South Beach Diet'.
Wonder Bread has too many bad carbs.

And you just can't make good french toast with Wonder Bread.
But then again I cringe at the thought of whole wheat french toast. Never had it and never will.

And bread pudding? Usually use a stale loaf of French or Italian bread.
I would think that a stale loaf of Wonder Bread is highly toxic.
Having all those additives has extended it's shelf live into oblivion!!

It's still sad to see a piece of Americana disappear.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

When I was about six I used to take a slice of Wonderbread, eat the crust, then mold the remaining fluff into a dough ball and then eat it. Mmmmm

 

[LizzieMaine]

My brother and I used to make dice out of Wonder Bread, punch in pips with a fork, and shoot craps while waiting for supper to be served. Loser had to eat the winner's leftovers.

 

[Diamondback]

Dont blame whole wheat, blame Krispy Kream for puttin the bread out of a job.

*spit-take* [voice=Gunnery Sergeant Hartmann, [i]Full Metal Jacket[/i]]"Holy Jesus! What is THAT? WHAT ... IS THAT?!"[/voice]
Burger on a donut? That is just so wrong... Call me a purist or a snob if you must, but for some reason meats and sweets don't really strike me as mixing well generally.

 

[Fletch]

I almost hesitate to say this, but if I were presented with a donutburger, I'd very likely scarf the dang thing and beg for seven or eight more. 'Spesh'ly with the bacon and the no lettuce or tomata or nothin'.

 

[Diamondback]

fftopic: : I'm looking for something that scores the 10.0 on the TexasBurgerGuy.com "Herd Killer" scale--1.5 pounds of beef only gets you a 9.0...

I'm with ya on "ditch the rabbitfood", though, Fletch.

 

[scotrace]

It's a new record - a military post in a Wonder Bread thread.