Archway Cookies Closes Ashland Plant (MI & OH)

Source: Newsnet5

100 Employees Out Of Job

POSTED: 1:08 pm EDT October 6, 2008
UPDATED: 1:40 pm EDT October 6, 2008

ASHLAND, Ohio -- The Archway Cookie plant in Ashland closed Friday, putting about 100 people out of a job.

The company's headquarters in Battle Creek, Mich., also closed, affecting about 60 employees.

"This was one of the staple businesses in Ashland for the last 50 years. Not only are we that worked here shocked, the entire community is shocked," said Michael Davis, machine operator.

No reason was immediately given for the bakery's shutdown.

Ashland Mayor Glen Stewart said he received a letter from Archway officials advising him the plant would be closed effective Monday.

Archway's Ashland plant on Claremont Avenue has been in operation since the 1950s.

Read more: http://www.newsnet5.com/money/17634710/detail.html

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More job loss for Ohio and Michigan...

with the sprinkle of sugar? I grew up on Archway cookies.

The price of everything else has risen so sharply, they have to spend what little they have on "real food" and gas to get to & from the store!

without treats and sweets my life isn't worth living, but other people might be.

My daughter doesn't feed her child much in the way of packaged sweets. Boomers can't eat it anymore. Plus, check your food packages. A lot comes from China. A LOT.

I have a special place in my memory for Archway. My grandma always bought them at Christmas time.

Maybe they will do some updating of their product line so they can keep some of the old favorites. I hope so.

I'm a boomer and I'll be damned if I'll give up my sweets. At my age it's all I have left to live for:)

That has to cut into the cookie market, with more and more boomers aging. I don't think you can personally make up the difference, can you?

I don't eat a ton of sweets but I have to have something sweet every day. I only weigh about 8 pounds more than I did when I got married nearly 40 years ago. I exercise every single day and have all my adult life for the most part. I believe in moderation in all things. And I'm pretty darned healthy for someone who is almost 60.

love those

Supposed to work wonders for IBS and Crohn's.

During the holidays, I always stock up on the cashew nougat cookies too. Bite size bits of heaven. I can't imagine life without Archway.

I don't even know where they sell them anymore here in Milwaukee. :(

Rp

oh, TWENTY YEARS. I have pretty much NO business eating cookies, but when I do, I make them myself, thank you. They are 100x better.

Sad for the people who lost their jobs, but not sad for all the Americans who won't now eat that crap and get diabetes and obesity and heart disease and such.

and don't have the time to come home and play Betty Crocker.

financial pressure. Convenience foods and restaurant meals and fast food are a hideous expense and bad for you.

Besides, cookies are a luxury. If you don't have time to fix them, it's no big deal. Or shouldn't be.

You haven't been to Ohio, have you? Job loss here has been tremendous. People are taking 2nd and 3rd jobs to somehow equate to that first job they lost.

Local news have said that restaurants are taking quite a hit here, as of late. They're empty. People are hurting far too bad.

to cook from scratch. If you aren't at work, you need to pare the budget to bare bones and that means no prepared foods.

FYI, prepared foods have been too much of a luxury for me for many years. It's scratch or nothing at home. And my crockpot has made things SO MUCH EASIER. For a $15 investment.

There are many people here now who are working 2 and 3 jobs. They aren't sitting at home doing nothing, they do NOT have the time to bake.

If you do, consider yourself quite fortunate.

There is a lot of truth in what he/she says. I have an old recipe from a '50's cookbook that I used when I was growing up. It's for a cookie called Hermits. If you make a batch of this recipe it yields about 5 dozen cookies. The small amount of time you spend in the kitchen making these is worth it. You know what you've put in them and you know they weren't made in a factory. You can freeze them too.

I know plenty of people my age who make most of their food from scratch and always have but then again maybe it's just us older folk who do that. I'm not saying I never buy prepared foods, but I am saying that I rarely go out to eat. The eating out experience just doesn't do anything for me any more. Most of the restaurants are chain restaurants with mediocre food loaded with fat and calories. When I was younger eating out was for special occasions only and I so looked forward to it because it would be at a special restaurant. It's just way too expensive nowadays to eat out yet I see Chili's and TGIF's and (yuck) Buffalo Wild Wings parking lots full even during the week on a schoolday evening. Parents are walking in with their three little kids. You just know that has to cost a fortune and the kids leave half the food on the plate or the floor.

There are plenty of healthy, quick, tasty meals you can make in less than 30 minutes.

Just making the point that if one works several jobs, they likely don't have the time to bake cookies.

but I personally don't know too many people who are working two and three jobs here in Michigan because they're lucky to have one! It's nice to have a whole thread about cookies though:)

I know of quite a few people working several jobs to make ends meet.

Ever think that an Archway cookie thread would be so long? I think I've heard everything on this thread...."Republican Yuppie Cookies" and all. And here my main concern was more job loss. ;-)

sugar-free, low-fat, and fat-free versions of their cookies.

Not exactly a substitute for tofu and fresh greens; but at least they made an effort to produce products for people who are concerned about such things. :hi:

My parents couldn't afford to buy them in the 1960's. They were like caviar. My mom would rather make her own Sour Cream Sugar Cookies than buy these expensive rich man's toys, not even from a day-old store (if there was one for these, they never publicized it; I think they burned their leftovers rather than let poor people have them at a discount). They deserve to go under.

As a matter of fact, everyone suffers in depressions. But people making expensive Yuppie Republican cookies, painting elaborate expensive prostitute fashion nails and selling name brand unaffordable fashionable clothing take risks with those jobs.

:rofl:

Why do you hate American workers?

There is no reason that Archway cookies couldn't be priced comparable to real manufactured cookies, such as Nabisco. But because they are "prestige" cookies there's only a few in a package and they're priced to the freaking skies. They are sold for prestige, not for any inherent costliness.

The workers have lost their jobs because their employers ripped off the American people. The same way the banks and loan companies did.

But I'm not going to sit and complain about "cookies" no less, costing a bit more than "Joe's cookies" or refer to them as "Republican yuppie cookies."

What do you think of American manufacturers (what few are left) that produce expensive items?

The bottom line is....More people are out of work and work is hard to come by here in Ohio. Have a heart.

I'll just run out and buy some of them cookies made in China.. those are less Republican???
And as for clothing... There are very few "Made in the USA" products, those that are, are name brand (eg: Hanes).

I would much rather pay a little bit more for a product made here, than to promote the slave labor of China (let alone be poisoned). My cars are old and all made were made in the USA. I refuse to buy foreign (even used), but if I had to buy one I would choose something like a Honda that was made here in Ohio. I understand that not everyone can afford to NOT shop at Walmart. For those who can, they should make every attempt to promote our economy by buying US made products. This sends a clear message to the companies to keep the jobs here and helps your neighbors, and that helps you.

now I have heard it all. I guess you are sending out a big "fuck you" to all those who lost their jobs

So is trying to own your own home. If you didn't go chasing these impossible, stupid, egotistical dreams you might live a better life.

is an egotistical dream? Shit, we didn't have much money at all growing up, but we still got to get some of those molasses cookies every once and a while. And re-reading your post, i have to ask- because I worked my ass off for 20 years to put myself in the position to own a home I am egotistical? Have to tell you, my life has been better since I bought my house. Do I have to do more work now, what with upkeep and all? Yes. But I don't have to hear the next door neighbors yelling at each other through paper thin apartment walls. Oh, and I can plant a garden in the back yard, if I so desire.

You have liberated us all with these wise words.

Is having a "impossible, stupid, egotistical dream?"

Man, do yourself a favor and go have yourself a cookie. Sounds like you're lacking something.

I mean, they're GOOD, but they're not priced out of line with any of the other big national brands.

made most of our cookies herself - it was only after she took a job off the farm to help make ends meet that she sometimes brought home a package of Archway cookies because she didn't have the time anymore to bake them herself. Believe me she would never have bought anything that was overpriced.

They sound delish!

Mrs. Esther Reed's Sour Cream Sugar Cookies

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Either grease the baking sheets or (the easier solution) line baking sheets with baking parchment paper. You can reuse the parchment through several baking cycles.

Blend and/or sift together:

3 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

In the large bowl of your electric mixer, blend until slightly fluffy:

1/2 cup butter flavor shortening (longer life for the cookie) or margarine
1 cup sugar

Scrape the sides of the bowl while the mix is beating. Then blend in until smooth:
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla flavoring
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (optional; adds a Christmassy flavor)

Once that's blended in, add:

3/4 cup sour cream (if allergic to sour cream, plain yogurt can be substituted)

When that's blended in, slow down the blender and slowly mix in the flour mixture. Blend ONLY until just blended in.

You may prep the cookies, either by rolling out on floured rolling cloth/waxed paper and using cookie cutters, or simply drop tablespoon-full amounts onto the baking sheet. Decorate with sugar sprinkles or a mixture of sugar and powdered cinnamon.

Bake for 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees, or until cookie bottoms turn light brown. Remove cookies from rack and cool on baking racks or paper towels.

This cookie dough can be rolled up in waxed paper and frozen; to bake cut 1" slices and quarter the slices.

These cookies keep well, especially if you use butter-flavored shortening instead of margarine or (God forbid) butter.

I had no idea my family was so elitist when I was growing up. They were my mom's good "tea and coffee" cookies, and she made minimum wage. They're just slightly-higher-priced cookies, guy, not a status symbol.

My father didn't have money for that sort of stuff, and he couldn't eat cookies anyway (he never used his Navy-installed uncomfortable false teeth). The only way he could eat my mom's cookies were if he soaked them in milk until they turned to mush.

And he put three of us through college and saw to our basic needs, because he scrimped and saved on many things, not just expensive store-bought (I repeat) rich man's elitist Yuppie Republican scum bastard cookies.

Relax, man. They're not that much more. Good Lord.

If he bought one package of cookies. You may have never gotten your degree. :eyes:

you left the sarcasm tag off. Yuppie cookies? What other cookies fall into this category? Famous Amos?

And yes, Famous Amos is a pretentious yuppie cookie. It isn't even made by Amos any more, which would have at least made it something from an entrepreneur. It's made by a famous corporation and given a name that lets them hike the price up three times. You buy this crap and think it's heaven...and you're a fool.

I also like Schneider's pretzels and I just ate a small bag of Fritos. I guess I am a bad person, hahahaha. :eyes:

:sarcasm:

:)

A) They started making them in the 1950's, and the term "yuppie" wasn't coined until the '80's.
B) Archway is hardly one of the more expensive cookie brands.
and
C) So glad your mom was Donna Reed, but my mom was, and then as a single parent I was, working too much to bake cookies.

You yuppie scum you! I know you and you, intheflow, are not a yuppie.
:rofl:

probably doesn't make their own latter, either :)

by using melamine.

regardless of the melamine.

My grandmother made special baby cookies for me just to shut me up. I hope this does not mean my archetypal tribe is becoming extinct. Perhaps there are enough stay at home grandmothers to keep us going.

but maybe that meant they went easy on preservatives.

Still, I feel bad for the people who lost their jobs. I don't know what prospects are in the cookie industry, but they can't be terrific.



(edit because I couldn't spell the name of the stupid cookie properly)

And then they were gloriously soft and chewy! :loveya:

...and kick out reTHUGlicons?

Poll: Obama keeps lead in Ohio

49-42

http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/cleveland/index.ssf?/base/politics-3/122285786620620.xml&storylist=cleveland

and life without Mother's Iced Animal cookies ain't worth living....seriously.

I would if I had a mold. They are an icon of Southern hospitality and the only cookie I routinely dunk in my coffee. So sad for the folks in Ashland.

http://www.wzzm13.com/news/story.aspx?storyid=99505&catid=2

"Archway also has a plant in Kitchener, Ontario. The company is owned by Catterton Partners, a private equity firm based in Greenwich, Conn."

"Archway was founded in Battle Creek in 1936 and operated a bakery here until 1993. Parmalat Bakery Group purchased the company from Specialty Foods for $250 million in 2000. Parmalat sold to Catterton Partners in 2005."

Parmalat, you will recall, is an Italian company involved in financial scandals there.

I guess I haven't been eating enough of their goodies! But I sure look as if I have been! What's a mother to do????

:scared:
:scared:

great timing. Maybe if their recipes were better........

Looks like cookies will be outsourced too
prolly we will import melamine flavored cookies

This is getting bad. :(

McBush would accelerate this downward spiral. The Hemorrhaging needs to be slowed down so we can turn it around.

I couldn't tell if they were going to set up shop somewhere else or not.

I've purchased some of their foods, like veggie pizza before.