Comments on: Wonder Bread Bakery in Italian Village to Close

By: Walker

Walker — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 14:55:58 +0000

There’s no reason you should be basing your expectations of the potential redevelopment of the Wonderbread site on the slowness at Jeffrey place. It doesn’t have anything to do with location. Seems to be more of a problem with the actual developer.

By: mstimple

mstimple — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 13:50:44 +0000

That sign is an icon. It must be saved, hopefully the plant wont be dormant for too long. I’m not optimistic though, based on snails pace of the Jeffrey Place across the street. BTW does anyone have any updates on J.P.? I know its a little off topic, but if joev can rant against white bread for being the anti-christ I guess I can ask about the Jeffrey.

By: Daz

Daz — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 11:33:05 +0000

I live less than a block away from there. So sad on the inside.

By: Horse Chestnut

Horse Chestnut — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 04:20:08 +0000

We can’t get rid of Wonder Bread. What will people use to catch the catfish in the Schiller Park lake?

By: KyleEzell

KyleEzell — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 03:28:00 +0000

Sucks. At least please save the neon sign– for god’s sake SAVE THE SIGN.

By: L.I. to Buckeye

L.I. to Buckeye — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 03:21:59 +0000

Ugh. I’m not sure that I can take anymore bad business news. Everyday something else closes or downsizes. This totally has to stop. Love Wonderbread or think it’s the debil, it’s closure still has ripple effects on the local economy and puts people out of jobs.

I’m really going miss the smell when I’m at CSCC. Boooooo.

By: jeffz

jeffz — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 02:39:57 +0000

Man oh man, this is sad. I make a point to jog past there in the evenings just to take in the smell. It’s especially nice when the flour truck just hooks a hose up to the side of the building and pumps in flour like an oil tanker.

I think that preserving that neon sign is a great idea. When the building is inevitably turned into studios/lofts/retail or some combination therein, I would think it a nice selling point in marketing the building.

By: lifeontwowheels

lifeontwowheels — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 23:33:17 +0000

heresthecasey wrote >> This is awful news. This is maybe my favorite smell in all columbus. :( :( And if wonder bread is the biggest thing that you can think of wrong with this country, then we all must be in pretty great shape. btw anyone scope out what kind of odor is coming from the kroger bakery on cleveland ave? any comparison?

Every time I come out of class at CSCC in the afternoons, the area smells of donutty goodness.

By: gramarye

gramarye — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 23:33:01 +0000

Well, one hopes that this isn’t the end of the story. In happier times, the company might well have invested in retooling a plant like that for new product lines (keep in mind that the reason this is closing is that it’s an older factory incapable of handling a shift to what appears to be a healthier product line). Hopefully it won’t stay empty for too long. Perhaps another local/regional bakery company will find a use for it (Nickles’, Schwebel’s, etc.).

I have no idea what condition it’s in on the inside, but judging by everyone’s accounts of the smells, it’s at least operational. That means it ought to have at least some value as a marketable asset, which could likely be acquired on the cheap in this market.

As to whether it’s a good idea to be eating white or wheat bread, well, it’s been a long, long time since I had anything on Wonder Giant (when did they stop with the “Big,” anyway? That was funny), and I buy mostly multi-grain and high fiber breads when I shop for myself, but I don’t presume to dictate others’ diets. After all, I might not eat white bread, but I’ll occasionally indulge in one of Wonder’s muffin loaves, and those things have more calories than a tank of rocket fuel.

By: CDS sherman

CDS sherman — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 23:32:35 +0000

dru wrote >>
as for the smell/aroma – Kroger actually has a bakery on Cleveland Ave just north of 670 that produces the same aroma. So it’s not always wonder bread giving free smells on the highway!
but this saddens me. i lived next door to the wonder bread sign for my first 4 years in Columbus, and actually have wedding photos in front of the neon sign and the ‘home of the wonder fresh guy’ mural on 4th. i hope the IV can do something to protect the neon sign as some sort of architectural landmark. i would hate to see the light go out.

i was gonna say, its not just wonderbread your smelling. kroger has a huge bakery on cleveland where they not only make bread but corn chips.

By: Rocknrolloutlaws

Rocknrolloutlaws — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 23:32:17 +0000

dru wrote >> i hope the IV can do something to protect the neon sign as some sort of architectural landmark. i would hate to see the light go out.

+1 I really hope that they make sure the sign stays. I've seen tons of cool pictures of it (and have taken a few, whether they qualify as cool or not is debatable.) It would be a real shame to have it disappear.

By: misskitty

misskitty — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 23:32:04 +0000

I like how people bash the bread I mean wonder did make a whole grain.
But I bet y’all drink beer huh? That will make you fat as well and you consume more of that in a sitting then bread so.. there are no rights and no wrongs really.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 23:31:47 +0000

As a member of a family that has owned a bread bakery for 3 generations up until May, I never quite understood how Wonder Bread called it baking. Chemical bread is more like it. I hate to hear about the workers losing their jobs though.

By: Manatee

Manatee — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 23:31:22 +0000

Boyd wrote >>
If we all start eating the ‘hearty breads of our grandparents’ all the time…we will actually get fatter than we already are. One of the reasons why those breads were made so hearty and heavy is that two pieces of bread accounted for nearly 1/2 the calories a person was going to eat in an entire day due to the general state of poverty of much of the US population back in those days (early 1900′s).
***I will definitely miss the smell.***

Well, a big difference is what you get for those calories. Wonder Bread is pretty empty calories. Real, honest-to-God actual bread has a pretty good nutritional profile stacked up with those calories, not to mention fiber.

And flavor ;)

But whatevs. To each their own. At least we have bread.

By: dru

dru — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 23:31:08 +0000

as for the smell/aroma – Kroger actually has a bakery on Cleveland Ave just north of 670 that produces the same aroma. So it’s not always wonder bread giving free smells on the highway!

but this saddens me. i lived next door to the wonder bread sign for my first 4 years in Columbus, and actually have wedding photos in front of the neon sign and the ‘home of the wonder fresh guy’ mural on 4th. i hope the IV can do something to protect the neon sign as some sort of architectural landmark. i would hate to see the light go out.