As I’m sure everyone has heard by now, our store shelves soon will carry Twinkies again. While not a big fan, I’m pleased for two major reasons.

* It wasn’t so long ago that people were blaming the Hostess strikers for destroying the company and killing such an immortal product. I can only imagine the collective shock when America heard an investor decided to keep one of the most famous products in our grocery stores.

* More importantly, this provides us with a rare opportunity to carry out an experiment of sorts. I remember quite clearly from the days of the strike where critics lamented the wasteful and lazy union workforce, how their unrealistic demands for things such as fair wages and for their company to not steal their retirement fund was driving up costs to consumers.

Well, we’ll soon see the return of the same product, presumably made the same way of the same ingredients, often in the same factories, albeit with non-union labor — as it tends to be when investors step in to “restructure.”

Now, with all things being the same, save for that union workforce driving costs, how much cheaper do you think Twinkies will be when they return to the shelf at your local store?

Scott Neumeyer

Augusta

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