just cheap snack cakes [ . . . ]Little Debbie really started pushing their Cocoa Creams and Cloud Cakes (equivalent of Ding Dongs and Twinkies) after Hostess went out and probably have already gobbled up a part of that market share and people realize those types of snacks were not irreplaceable or exclusive to Hostess.
JUST cheap snack cakes?!
You probably thought that Walmart cola was a decent replacement for Coke Classic, when that was unavailable for a time.
This is more than a cheap dessert or snack. For some it starts with being a beloved childhood memory. For others the departure of a faithful friend. Some have figured out how to match it with the right ham sandwich. Heck, I invented Hostess Blueberry Fruit Pie a la mode with the help of liberal luncheonette-meister Henry at "Once Upon a Stove" in Cheshire, Connecticut in 1982. The Blueberry Fruit Pie pre-deeceased the rest of the Hostess lineup.
Regarding the Twinkie, Cloud Cakes had been around for a long time. Decades earlier, a then better competitor, Drake's, tried their own version of Creme Fingers, a product so thoroughly ignored after a trial run that it BARELY exists on Google (see
Drake's commercial at 6:39).
They aren't bad, but they aren't Twinkies.
Little Debbie's BEST products are their own original creations. In my opinion, the Nutty Bar plays to their strengths, good enough to be mimicked by stores and Mrs. Freshley's. The octagonal dry, and slightly stale Cocoa Cremes could not hold a candle to a Ding Dong/King Don/Big Wheel, and certainly not to a pre-Hostess Ring Ding Jr. The Swiss Rolls are cheap imitations of Yodels and Ho-Hos, and taste as such. The Peanut Butter bars are good, as well. I haven't tried the Devil Dog knock off from Little Debbie, but it probably has a prnounced chemical taste absent on Drake's original.
Nobody has made a plausible knock-off of the Drake's Funny Bone, Hostess SuzieQ, Hostess or Drake's Blueberry Fruit Pies (each good in its own way). Hostess successfully copied Drake's Ring Ding Jr., and Yodels, beating out the brand with name recognition and a decent product, like Nabisco Oreo crushed original sandwich cookie Sunshine Hydrox many decades earlier.
WHile some people have certainly substituted Little Debbie products for classics like the Twinkie, Hostess Cup Cake, Hostess Apple Fruit Pie, Drake's Funny Bone, or (Hostess-owned) Dolly Madison Raspberry Zinger, many more will wait for their return, and WE are the main customers, as moms have started to shun these products in their kids' lunches.
When Twinkies return, I may spread a thin coating of strawberry preserves on them, making a Twinkie strawberry shortcake, paired with an icy glass of whole milk, to celebrate.
Hear, hear, good doctor. Are you a doctor of snackfoodology? If not, you should be.
The most irreplaceable of all is the Funny Bone. Be sure to have a glass of milk handy, or you could die of dehydration.