Where do you guys by Hostest products?

[Willow Valley Vending]

The best I can find is $1 at my local grocer. Any advise would be great! Thank you, Jonathan

[cvending]

We do not use Hostess any longer. Been a few years now. Sams Club has Cloverhill and Mrs. Freshleys at about 50 cents. Much better luck with them

[Southeast Treats]

Vistar has a few Hostess items, including some that are shipped frozen.   If you can store them frozen until needed it really extends the shelf life.

[vendcobros]

I'm with cvending on this - get cloverhill or mrs freshleys, they're much more cost effective and essentially the same product.

[Willow Valley Vending]

1 hour ago, vendcobros said:

I'm with cvending on this - get cloverhill or mrs freshleys, they're much more cost effective and essentially the same product.

My only reservation in doing this is just brand recognition or do customers not care?

[AngryChris]

I also agree with cvending.  Hostess is too expensive and difficult to get unless you order in large quantities.

[AngryChris]

1 minute ago, Willow Valley Vending said:

My only reservation in doing this is just brand recognition or do customers not care?

I highly HIGHLY doubt that many vendors are selling hostess products anymore.  Hostess went completely out of business for a while (over a year I think) and you could NOT buy hostess products at all during that time.  I haven't sold hostess products since I have been in business (since 2011) but I DID put them in machines when I worked somewhere else.  I don't think hostess do any better than cloverhill or mrs. freshley's.  What do you think customers want?  Do they want to pay $1.00 - $1.25 for a Mrs. Freshley's chocolate cupcake that looks and tastes pretty close to hostess? Or do they want to pay $1.75-$2.00 for the hostess variety?  They were 67-75 cents each a few years ago when mrs. freshley's and cloverhill were 43-50 cents.  Now, I think they cost close to $1.00 each for most flavors IF you can get them.  You're wasting your time and money if you sell hostess products in my opinion.

[Willow Valley Vending]

3 minutes ago, AngryChris said:

I highly HIGHLY doubt that many vendors are selling hostess products anymore.  Hostess went completely out of business for a while (over a year I think) and you could NOT buy hostess products at all during that time.  I haven't sold hostess products since I have been in business (since 2011) but I DID put them in machines when I worked somewhere else.  I don't think hostess do any better than cloverhill or mrs. freshley's.  What do you think customers want?  Do they want to pay $1.00 - $1.25 for a Mrs. Freshley's chocolate cupcake that looks and tastes pretty close to hostess? Or do they want to pay $1.75-$2.00 for the hostess variety?  They were 67-75 cents each a few years ago when mrs. freshley's and cloverhill were 43-50 cents.  Now, I think they cost close to $1.00 each for most flavors IF you can get them.  You're wasting your time and money if you sell hostess products in my opinion.

Thanks for the reply.

[PHX1]

We don't sell any hostess products. Only cloverhill and never had issues with it. 

[PHX1]

The cloverhill raspberry and cheese danishes sell very well!!!

[vendcobros]

56 minutes ago, Willow Valley Vending said:

My only reservation in doing this is just brand recognition or do customers not care?

I sell plenty of pastries and none of them are Hostess. Customers care about taste and freshness. Blind taste test the Hostess products vs freshley's or cloverhill and I'd be amazed if you can tell the difference.

[tc vending]

Hostess is not a factor in vending since they went bankrupt. The product was higher when it came back and they changed it to where the customers didn't want hostess. I use Cloverhill or Mrs. Freshly.

[AZVendor]

Back in the heyday Hostess from Continental Baking  and Dolly Madison from Interstate Bakeries were the only pastries to use and they sold like crazy.  They were so popular that every vendor sold them and they would be delivered by route drivers to vending companies with stales being returnable.  As business costs went up the stales returns ended and pricing started to rise.  This led to upstart pastry manufacturers and as more and more frozen pastries came on the market the pricing of the branded stuff still kept going higher, mainly due to the union wages paid to all the bakery and delivery workers.  Mrs. Freshleys and Cloverhill were the first frozen pastries and they have only become a better product over the years.  IBC bought Continental in the mid 90's and they had enormous issues combining the two companies and infrastructure.  This eventually led to the final one of 2 or 3 bankruptcies that finished them off in 2012.  

The aftermath is the cheap-azz venture capitol company that bought the pastry brands.  They now make the products smaller, less tasty and they are only shipped frozen now which kills the original taste.  This led to the upstart frozen pastry companies to take the pastry segment from the Dolly and Hostess products.  

The best price to find now is $1.00 per unit which will be in grocery stores.  Convenience stores are all at $1.99 now and the price will never go down.

[Willow Valley Vending]

On 4/13/2017 at 9:30 PM, PHX1 said:

The cloverhill raspberry and cheese danishes sell very well!!!

Where are you getting the raspberry? I can only find cherry and cheese and the plain cream cheese. Thanks

[tc vending]

Vistar should have cloverhill raspberry available.