They're baaaaaaaaaaaack!

That's right, ladies and gentlemen. Twinkies are back!

Unless you've been living in a cave for the past several months, you know that there was a time when it looked like Twinkies were gone for good. Once Hostess, the maker of Twinkies, announced it was going out of business, people started buying them in bulk, then selling them on eBay. One person tried to sell a single Twinkie for $5,000, while another offered up a box with a starting bid of $200,000 (including shipping, of course).

Well, don't those folks feel silly now? Hostess was bought by Metropoulos & Co. and Apollo Global Management, and on Monday, after an eight-month drought, Twinkies returned to store shelves. With them, Ding Dongs, CupCakes, Snoballs and other Hostess snack cakes appeared in retail locations, but as everyone knows, it's all about the Twinkies.

I put in some calls to local retailers to find how the new Twinkies have been received and whether they're still available or have already sold out.

My first call was to Kroger's PR office, but when I couldn't reach anyone there, I went straight to the store. An employee informed me that Kroger has been fielding bulk orders since Monday because people are concerned that the amount of Twinkies in the store is insufficient. There are still some on the shelves, but apparently the hip thing to do is order massive quantities that you can then presumably pick up at a loading dock. Like a boss.

Next I contacted H-E-B, and again the media office was unavailable. I spoke to a super enthusiastic and helpful employee, though, who told me that the Montrose location is already sold out of Twinkies. He explained that they got the delivery in on Saturday and put up a special display of the treats on Sunday. By Monday, more than 200 boxes had sold. Though they're out of Twinkies, the employee told me they still have plenty of other revamped Hostess products. H-E-B expected to get a new shipment sometime Tuesday.

A Valero inside the Loop confirmed that they have Twinkies in stock once again, and that sales are going well. Of the 24 boxes Valero received, only a couple are left, but the woman I spoke to assured me she'd be getting another shipment in Tuesday.

An individual Walmart store informed me that they got in a shipment of Hostess snacks over the weekend and put them on sale on Monday. When pressed to tell me how many boxes had sold, the Walmart employee told me to call corporate and hung up. Apparently the Twinkie business is very hush-hush at Walmart.

I received a similar directive from an employee of Randalls, who also explained that she was not at liberty to tell me about Twinkie sales. It's cool, lady. I'll just call up the government and see if PRISM has some info on the subject.

Finally, I got in touch with Fiesta Mart and spoke with someone who seemed a little confused about the whole thing. Twinkies? Yeah, he'd heard of them. Did they have them? No. They used to, though. The man I spoke with eventually decided that they would probably be getting some new and improved Twinkies and other Hostess products in the store soon. By this point, I didn't really care what he had to say. I was totally jamming to the sweet mariachi music Fiesta Mart plays when they put you on hold.

So if you're out in search of Twinkies and find that the cupboard is bare, let us know. Not that we're going to do anything about it, of course, except maybe direct you to a nice local bakery.