In late August, Interstate Bakeries, makers of Wonder Bread, Millbrook Dodger Dog hot dog buns, and Hostess cakes, announced its exit from the Southern California bread market. The Los Angeles Times reported the sad demise of the historic icon and brand Wonder Bread. The announcement included its bakery outlet stores, which sell at substantial discount compared to those in stores of the Southern California supermarket trust, Ralph's, Von's, and Albertson's.

The announcement did not mention the company's specialty restaurant and hotel bread products.

Apparently the right hand and left hand in the company don't have their stories straight.

According to company employees speaking anonymously, some outlet stores will remain open, and others will relocate. The outlet in Burbank on San Fernando Road will relocate to another location on San Fernando Road. No one should assume that any particular outlet store has or will close without checking at the location.

They also say Wonder Bread and other products will continue to be available. Interstate will truck them in from a new Interstate bakery in Henderson, Nevada that opened in 2003. Exactly what products will continue is not known. That year Interstate closed a bakery in Bosie, Idaho, but continued to supply the market by truck from Salt Lake City and Ogden. http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-2757403/IBC-Announces-Bakery-Closing.html

The "exit" is for purposes of negotiating with the unions. The company will close its Southern California union plants and terminate its union agreements while continuing to sell with product from Nevada. After a year or two, the company will decide that trucking is too expensive, build new bakeries in Southern California, and say prior union agreements from its closed bakeries no longer apply.

the closure of these stores means that many poor that rely on them for inexpensive bread for their diets will now have to do without or pay for outrageously priced union market bread.

Wonder is F'n expensive. Poor people go for the 99cent loaves, and rich people want whole grain artisinal. Immigrant Mexicans might go for Bimbo, which is kind of expensive, but has the ethnic edge. Weber's is still holding in there. They have a lot of thrift shops.

All unions will be pretty much gone within the next twenty to thirty years. Business wants to out source overseas as many jobs as they can. The ones they can't out source will be shifted around to break-up the unions and be moved to states with lower minimum wage laws. This trend has been going on for years and no one should be surprised. Free tade is not free,

With the economic down turn expected, if not already occuring, the housing market on the verge of collapes, energy costs at record highs, and credit instutions tightening there grip, making a living in the U.S. is going to be difficult if not impossible for most.

There is no politician from either party that can or will stop this trend so get use to it and save every penny you can, you will need it in the future.

Watch the new bakeries hire immigrants as you like to call them (illegal aliens). They will be willing to work for Minimum Wage, and live a communal lifestyle, while undercutting the labor market. This won't lower inflation or improve the economy, but the corporate rich will continue to get richer. When all workers join in a general strike and demand a living wage ($17)for all, workers, then we take control of the corporate greed machine.

It's crazy, Interstate use to own Weber's and when they bought CBC which owned Wonder, the government made them sell one of the labels because they had too much market share. It's amazing how their market share dissapeared in the last few years.

Why not just go ahead and import all the bread, honey buns, and twinkies from Mexico and get it over with? We know that is what they , IBC management would like to do. That would really increase profits. The other bakeries will soon follow. That day is soon coming and we Americans will buy the products, regardless of the fact that it costs our neighbor his/her job.
If the consumers stuck together and bought only locally made products...............Who am I kidding, we would by bread or any other item made in China, Mexico, Russia, Indonesia, or North Korea, in a second if it was cheaper. We could not care less if everyone on our block was put out of work. Just keep supporting companies that take jobs away from your town until it is you who is out of work.

The funny thing is, one of IBC's competitors is Bimbo USA, a part of Bimbo, a Mexican bread company. They sell the Bimbo brand, which competes with Wonder, but also own Oroweat, a premium brand that tastes a lot better than Wonder. This stuff is baked in SoCal, but I don't know if it's unionized. Web searches turn up evidence that they are using "independent contractors" to undercut unionized employees. But they have some unionized workers.

http://www.nwlaborpress.org/2005/9-16-05Bakers.html - Bimbo in Oregon is union.

I work for a Wonder Bread competitor in the NorthEast. My position is in Upper Management I do feel sorry for the union employees that will be forced to earn lower wages or lose there jobs all together. With increased cost of flour, benefits compounded with a weak economy,it will be very hard for any union to survive in the bakery business. My company has elimated hundreds of management jobs over the last few months. This is after reporting to us that this is the best year we have ever had. The company sees a unpredictable future and just like Wonder, they need to protect there assets

How can any one write in an article that Bakerys are going to hire illegal aliens because they are willing to work for lesser wages? People who write or talk like that are full of ignorance and fear. In order to be able to work in a bakery you need legal documents, just like in any other decent job. If people think they know what they're talking about and are really wrong, that usualy means they're full of sh....