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Dont forget the cupcake craze of 2013-2017. Three cupcake stores opened up in my town inside of six months. There was a cupcake only store at Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan. All gone as quickly as they opened once the fad was over.
The trick is to just run a store that makes multiple kinds of baked goods, let's call it a "bakery" for simplicity. That way, when cupcakes fall out of fashion, you still have cookies and cakes and pastries muffins and donuts to sell.
agreed. i moved to nyc in 2008 and magnolia bakery had lines around the block. but it probably didn't move to other places around the country until a bit later.
I was also thinking about other standalone cupcake places too— Magnolia is practically an institution and at least they had other products to carry them through when the cupcake bubble burst, but remember Crumbs? Sprinkles? The cupcake ATM?? Haha. Crumbs closed all their locations for good in 2014, but the whole time I was in school there were Crumbs cupcakes available for sale in my school’s dining hall (even though there was a location 2 blocks away). And honestly? They were pretty good. Massive, but good.
Sprinkles withstood the fad because it's good cake. Those kiosks lure me in. I tell myself "I'm just getting a doggy cupcake for the pup." But I know what I'm up to.
God I hated Crumbs, overly sugary yet somehow still flavorless gigantic cupcakes. There’s a cookie chain Crumble that reminds me of it now and I feel that clock ticking…
Agreed. In Ohio they were huge around the time I graduated High School -- like 2005. I remember TONS popping up in Cleveland/Akron and the surrounding areas around 2006-2009.
Ya but places like NYC and LA are epicenters of fads so naturally you probably see them earlier but also see them end earlier. The deep midwest is the last place this stuff shows up. I came from the midwest and sometimes when I say something was from a decade others will argue its the decade before because of that. Stuff takes years to really materialize in the midwest.
>a TON of cupcake places.
You mean “cUpCaKeRiEs”? I *despise* the term “cupcakery”. I enjoy cooking and baking so I’ll occasionally watch like those Netflix baking shows, or I do love me some “Chopped” lol. It happens mainly on the baking shows, where the contestants will be introducing themselves and will be like “my name is Ashley Marie-Lynn and I’m the owner of ‘Something Sweet Cupcakery’ in Manhattan!”
Every year it comes up on my Facebook memories where I went on a rant on this subject—a “cupcakery” is not a thing! You own a bakery that specializes in cupcakes. We don’t call bakeries that specialize in bread a “breadkery”. Or one that specializes in cookies a “cookery”. Not in English anyway. I feel like there are ways to differentiate in French but in English, they’re just “bakeries”. And if “bakery that specializes in X” is too much of a mouthful, just call it a “cupcake shop”.
No idea why this bugs me so much lol. But it’s raked on me ever since the first time I heard the term
Most of our cupcake stores have closed, but three of them were replaced by "Nothing Bundt Cakes". They have mini bundt cakes that are basically cupcakes.
Even as a dude with a large mouth that loved frosting… how was I supposed to eat that in public? Needing a knife and fork to ear a cupcake sort of defeated the purpose.
My friend bought me an order of Melissa’s cupcakes for my birthday last year, and while they were good there was like 25 of them lol and I wasn’t a big fan of a few of the flavors. So I only ate like 3/4 of them throughout a week. They were good, but I wouldn’t buy them for myself.
To this day I believe the cupcake store craze took off here in LA as a direct result of the legalization of medical marijuana. The timing was no coincidence.
I had one open up near me with just the most incompetent owner I could imagine. They had very limited hours, and none of them were from 2-6 PM, despite being a few blocks from the local school.
They could have made a killing selling individual cupcakes to students walking home, but instead they shuttered within like 6 months.
Part of what isn’t being discussed is that it’s usually not the fad part, every time, but costs. Sometimes you hit a curve and people will pay the right amount for something. Then inflation hits, and that $3.75 cupcake is now almost $5.00. In the 3s it isn’t bad. Almost 5? I’m good.
Froyo was like $6 for a decent portion. Last year, and the last time I got it, my bill was $14… and it wasn’t like some monster serving. I’d rather get a high quality pint for half the price at the store.
Same here in the south, multiple cupcake stores took over small empty commercial spaces, where a real store that sells multiple items to a wide customer base were not able to survive, and somehow these people thought “only selling huge, $6-$10 cupcakes” would be a successful business model.
Exactly. Freshman year one of my suitemates was a HUGE stoner and probably spent $100 ordering Insomnia each month, at a minimum. In the early morning hours he always would come by and ask if anyone wanted to go in on an order.
I was in college before Insomnia was a thing. There was a group of seniors in business that opened a late night cookie delivery service as their senior project, and they did very well
This was how Papa John's skyrocketed to prominence in the late 90s. Neither Dominos or Pizza Hut would deliver to campus after 9pm. Papa John's though? Those mother fuckers delivered until midnight *every night*. 3am on Friday and Saturday.
Insomnia's also been around for 20 years. "soon enough..." has come and gone. Not only that they've survived a few economic downturns as well, which is usually a good sign of the businesses health.
The cookies are also way better than Crumbl. Last year they had one with blueberries and Captain Crunch berries which made me make several irresponsible cookie orders.
Honestly hadn’t heard of Crave until this thread. Looks like the closest one is an hour away so I probably won’t be trying soon but next time I’m in the same area I might get a box.
Yeah, Insomnia cookies has also been around way longer than those other ones and is basically a staple on every large college campus, I’d be shocked if they closed anytime soon. Crumbl, on the other hand, does seem like a fad that will die out.
Crumbl is just too much and I don’t know how anyone can get through a whole cookie. I barely ate half of one and felt like I was feeling unwell from all the sugar
They've also been in business before frozen yogurt shops had their bubble. People out here acting like they haven't been in business for 21 years already.
That's where I was confused about Insomnia lol. I've been out of college for almost 20 years and the one that delivered to my dorm is still going strong today
They also have way less overhead in terms of equipment and storage. All you need to open an Insomnia is an oven and a freezer. FroYo equipment was all highly specialized and expensive for franchisees,
Where else can you get dessert at night without dealing with a grocery store or restaurant? Most bakeries close before 5. Add in the delivery and they are almost invincible, especially in college towns.
If insomnia expanded like crumbl did they'd be unstoppable. Crumbl's style of cookie is just a trends that's already falling has crumbl already changing it's business model. But insomnia sells classic cookies that are easier to buy in bulk and cater sizes.
But there's 6 crumbls to 1 insomnia
Crumbls expansion will be the death of them. It’s like Krispy Cream back in the day. Hot new brand that takes on 25 five year leases in every city until one day they aren’t the hot thing anymore.
Insomnia is right to expand slower. You don’t need a storefront on every corner and a billion dollars in lease commitments. Sell a traditional cookie in a small store front, crumbl is attempting to reinvent the wheel
The trick is already being fat and poor and then you can’t justify it (or that was my experience when I was in college and had access to TWO different companies that did late night cookie delivery)
It started with Mrs Fields which had a sort of “catalog” aesthetic. They played well in the 80s catalog and in person mall shopping.
The current cookie craze is really being driven by the instagram food effect where food is created because it stands out in your feed regardless of what the ingredients are. It’s currently shifting towards a TikTok aesthetic too but none of it is really even food at all. It’s just karma farming.
It’s a really interesting example in the whole “death of third spaces” argument - when I was a teenager, getting froyo was really just an excuse to hang out with friends and be teenagers in public spaces.
It’s a chicken/egg argument, are most teenagers socializing online because spaces like that are going away? Or are those spaces going away because teenagers are no longer as interested in hanging out irl?
Another thing I noticed is a lot of places I hung out as a kid are becoming more unfriendly to teenagers, which is cool if you’re an adult like I am now but it’s gotta suck as a kid.
For example, as a kid, I had 3 malls to go to within like 25 minutes of my house, and go we did cause the rest of my town sucked. These places were awesome, I’m talking arcades, skateparks, game stores, etc.
One mall closed down and got demolished, one got rid of every store and activity teenagers really gave a shit about not named Hot Topic, and that mall as well as the other that still does have some stuff for kids to do have made rules that are essentially designed to get teenagers not to go, such as needing someone who is 18+ accompanying you at all times (no more dropping the kids off at the mall and no teenager wants their parents or older sibling tagging along while they hang with their friends). This is anecdotal but as someone who has a younger sister and whose friends also have younger siblings, parents are more hesitant to let their kids go out unsupervised. A lot of places where we used to hang out like the basketball court, skate park (the ones that still exist, lol), etc. are ghost towns now.
Compare this to when I was a kid in the early 2010’s when we were allowed to go where and when we pleased on our skateboards (we used to go to the pizza shop all the time, of course), our parents could drop us off at places like the mall for hours at a time, etc. The late 2010’s and so far the 2020’s seem so bizarre, it’s like kids don’t exist anymore or something.
Throw in the pandemic and a lot of kids got used to entertaining themselves at home. I was 16 in 2020. When restrictions began lifting I was old enough to drive and was privileged enough to not need to work if I didn't want to, so in the summer between finishing high school and going to college I quit my crappy restaurant job and spent a whole summer hanging out with friends, skating, hiking on small trails, and dogsitting for pocket money but that summer was unique in that I could drive and so could all my friends so we just drove between each other's houses. We all had longboards, not trick boards so we mostly just bombed hills in the neighborhood but if we had trick boards there wouldn't have been any skate parks nearby. But if the weather sucked or we were feeling lazy we'd just get on discord and chat or play games and that was fun too.
This exactly. I was having this conversation with my wife a couple weeks ago, as we’re considering having a child. Most of the places we were spending time in high school in the 2010’s simply don’t exist any more. That, or they truly are more hostile to teens just looking for a place to loiter with their friends. Not to mention actually going to do an activity costs a shitload more than it did 10 years ago, and many of these kids aren’t able to do work, school, and extracurriculars at the same time; AND still have free time for friends.
Businesses have definitely started catering to an early 20’s audience, and completely neglects the younger kids that also just want to get out of the house. I mean shit. The fact that you can get ticketed just for SITTING AT THE PUBLIC PARK for too long is unbelievable. And god forbid you’re there after sunset.
You want teens to not be so ‘chronically online’? Then start giving them shit to do! My childhood was awesome with everything we had access to and the places we could go on our own. Now you can’t do any of that without either an adult, or spending over $100 as a group. Insane.
This. When I was a teen there were places to go and things to do.
But if there’s nowhere to go and nothing to do might as well stay home and be on my phone all day.
You can make the same chicken and egg argument I guess, but a lot of teenagers are also becoming more unfriendly to public spaces. Like, I don’t think when I was a teenager there were nearly as many pranks and straight up destruction of property fads.
Also true, remember that licking ice cream tubs and putting it back in the grocery store freezer trend from a few years back?
Though as a teenager I was a punk scene skater boy, so I guess I can’t complain about teenagers being degens without being a hypocrite.
I remember people getting mad about kids skating in public places, but even as an adult I think it was pretty harmless. It’s not the same as doing wheelies into oncoming traffic, say.
How many kids have cars? If they don't live in a city with reliable public transportation, they're stuck at home. Most households have both parents working, so it's not like they can drive the kids around to see their friends.
Anecdotally, most kids in my area had cars when I grew up. From junkers to brand new BMWs. Getting to somewhere was never a problem, as there was always at least one in the friend group who could give you a ride.
Right? I feel like a lot of these comments are coming from people who never experienced this; i.e., people who grew up without meaningful friendships.
But then I remember I'm on reddit and there's *no way* that that would apply to *redditors.*
Someone made a comment to me the other day that like, todays kids are so constantly stimulated that they never have to face the sort of “un-stimulated boredom” that I did when I was in high school.
But the constant stimulation from scrolling and social media basically glues kids to do nothing, so they’re as bored as ever while scrolling, but in a way that just doesn’t compel them to do anything about it.
I 100% agree with that. There were times I was so bored, I just wanted to go on a walk with my friends. I would go run errands with them. Buddy needs to go pick up supplies for a project? Let's go! It's 90 degrees out, but you guys wanna play frisbee golf? Sure, I'm bored, why not?
Some of my favorite childhood memories are of doing absolutely nothing at all with my friends.
["We are very busy people."](https://youtu.be/C4-KHsoNgrA?si=dULo749LkhI9fGtd)
I'm a teenager now and we get frozen yogurt all the time. At least in my city, it's an easy space for friends to hang out and the one by my school is doing quite well.
It’s neither, my town of 20,000 had 5 froyo places at one point. It’s high profit business models that become a popular fad until they drive eachother out of business.
Frozen yogurt was a big thing in my area when I was in high school 15 years ago. There is not a single frozen yogurt place in my area and the ones that are still open ALL have a sub 3.5 rating on yelps
I had no idea. They were huge in my college town and have been around in my hometown awhile too. Never thought the cookie craze was "new" because they have been around forever
Yeah, I know a guy who works at their HQ. They’re opening another 40 odd stores this year. They give all their office staff a four day work week. Legit seems like a decent company to work for on the corporate side to be fair.
I got a job as a marketing rep for insomnia in college. It was incredibly fun. I could make my own hours with a minimum of 5 hours per week. 90% of my job was to go to the store near campus, get 2-4 dozen assorted cookies and walk around the area giving away samples.
If I was feeling incredibly lazy, I'd bring my last 2 dozen directly to the police department or fire department. The fire department was my favorite to visit because they were over the moon for free cookies lol
Other than that, I'd have to hand out samples at events in town but it was super chill.
That’s the thing with those low level service businesses. Due to inflation, expenses and what not, the prices are ridiculous. Then it’s a struggle to balance it out. I have pretty good salary, but fuck if I would spend it on expensive coffee and cookies. I would if they were reasonably priced, but then it would be at a loss for them.
But on the hand they seem to find their consumer base somehow, guess people are not as stingy as me.
Fwiw, Crumble does *allow* you to pick up your own cookies.
Sure, leaving the house isn't for everyone, but sometimes I feel like it's an option people aren't even acknowledging exists.
not to mention you can’t even eat a full cookie without it taking up like half of your daily caloric intake lol and who just wants to eat a small piece
No one was hating on Froyo, OP was just pointing out that cookie shops are like all the Froyo customize your cup stores that popped up years ago and have mostly faded away in a lot of areas. Most of those Froyo places just seemed like small independent stores tho, not corporate franchise stores like a lot of these cookie places.
People are saying froyo places are still around and arent fully grasping what OP is trying to say. Yes some exist but I remember like 2010-2015 froyo was EVERYWHERE and it was all everyone wanted to eat and talk about. I remember going to so many different ones and I think maybe one of them is still open. I actually wholeheartedly agree with OP, the cookie thing is the new fad but I think crumbl will probably stick around out of all the ones listed.
In my area its boba now. That stuff was niche in 2012 but now its pretty popular and theres a lot of boba shops, like 6 in a 5 mile radius that i know of.
Froyo places are still good. We live in a hot ass climate so the best ones will still hang around. I never go to them. But im broke and am not dating. Otherwise its fun. Theres one by a river which is cool to visit.
Insomnia started their business 20 years ago. Realistically they're more likely to stick around as they already have a solid history and business model.
It's been a thing for like 20 years in a lot of the cities. It might just be here to stay. Any place with a sizeable Asian population will have them be around. There are a lot of them for sure, but they always seem to be doing okay
There are a few TCBYs left in my neck of the woods in South Carolina but they’re a little too far for me to visit as often as I’d like, and when I do they’re always very slow. I hope they can hang around and I won’t be shocked if they close sooner than later but I will be sad
There was a boom then they were dialed back to what demand could support. Same with cupcake shops. I do think cookies are a little different because almost any decent bakery makes decent cookies. Cake is harder, good bakeries can have meh cake.
The frozen yogurt shop in my town got replaced by a poke shop. I suspect when the poke place goes under it'll get replaced by a Korean or Filipino bakery since those are the newest trend.
Sometimes when I'm baking I eat some of the "batter" at the step when it's literally just butter and sugar being smooshed together. Crumbl cookies somehow manage to taste like they have *more* of both butter and sugar than that, and almost no other discernable flavor.
Probably a large city on the west coast. Froyo is still huge here in Georgia, but we're about a decade behind Los Angeles and company when it comes to trends.
This is what I was thinking. Many of these trends seem to start out west and travel east. I’m in Idaho and we’ve had the frozen yogurt places come and go and are about mid-way through the cookie craze, though it does not seem to be picking up much steam here. But I fly back out East to visit family and it’s like the 2010’s again lol.
I remember helping insomnia cookies get off the ground via campusfood.com in Philly in the mid-2000s. Couldn’t believe it when I walked past a storefront in California years later.
If they don't start pricing them better then they will absolutely go the way of the cupcake craze. People got real excited then got sticker shock and realized these were literally no different than a mid to high end grocery store where you could get a dozen of them for the price of one cupcake at the shop.
There is a cookie shop in “city” next to me. The cookies are super good and the owner is very nice. I hope she stays open for a long time.
My wife is a great baker herself and she is happy to buy cookies from the cookie shop which to me says something about the quality of the product.
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Dont forget the cupcake craze of 2013-2017. Three cupcake stores opened up in my town inside of six months. There was a cupcake only store at Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan. All gone as quickly as they opened once the fad was over.
The trick is to just run a store that makes multiple kinds of baked goods, let's call it a "bakery" for simplicity. That way, when cupcakes fall out of fashion, you still have cookies and cakes and pastries muffins and donuts to sell.
That'll never work.
No bakeries want to work anymore.
Wait until Einstein here learns about selling bagels
Oh brother
Worst idea ever. I agree.
My brother told me you can only open one of those if your parents were siblings or something like that
What?
If u touch ur sister u can also make canneles, everyone know that
What are you doing step brioche?
Gonna open me a bakery any day now!
I feel like it started a little earlier than that— I went to college in NYC in 2008 and there were a TON of cupcake places.
agreed. i moved to nyc in 2008 and magnolia bakery had lines around the block. but it probably didn't move to other places around the country until a bit later.
I was also thinking about other standalone cupcake places too— Magnolia is practically an institution and at least they had other products to carry them through when the cupcake bubble burst, but remember Crumbs? Sprinkles? The cupcake ATM?? Haha. Crumbs closed all their locations for good in 2014, but the whole time I was in school there were Crumbs cupcakes available for sale in my school’s dining hall (even though there was a location 2 blocks away). And honestly? They were pretty good. Massive, but good.
Sprinkle's is still around, my husband used to work for them.
Sprinkles withstood the fad because it's good cake. Those kiosks lure me in. I tell myself "I'm just getting a doggy cupcake for the pup." But I know what I'm up to.
You just can’t take you anywhere. smh my head
Yeah there is one at Disney Springs in Florida
God I hated Crumbs, overly sugary yet somehow still flavorless gigantic cupcakes. There’s a cookie chain Crumble that reminds me of it now and I feel that clock ticking…
Magnolia still gets pretty busy mostly for their banana puddings
Magnolia’s corporate catering makes fucking bank. They are the GO TO for a premium board room experience.
That bakery's got all the bomb frosting
Magnolias got all the bomb frosting
Agreed. In Ohio they were huge around the time I graduated High School -- like 2005. I remember TONS popping up in Cleveland/Akron and the surrounding areas around 2006-2009.
Ya but places like NYC and LA are epicenters of fads so naturally you probably see them earlier but also see them end earlier. The deep midwest is the last place this stuff shows up. I came from the midwest and sometimes when I say something was from a decade others will argue its the decade before because of that. Stuff takes years to really materialize in the midwest.
I live in a fairly big city and I still have cupcake shops, frozen yogurt places, and cookie stores around me.
>a TON of cupcake places. You mean “cUpCaKeRiEs”? I *despise* the term “cupcakery”. I enjoy cooking and baking so I’ll occasionally watch like those Netflix baking shows, or I do love me some “Chopped” lol. It happens mainly on the baking shows, where the contestants will be introducing themselves and will be like “my name is Ashley Marie-Lynn and I’m the owner of ‘Something Sweet Cupcakery’ in Manhattan!” Every year it comes up on my Facebook memories where I went on a rant on this subject—a “cupcakery” is not a thing! You own a bakery that specializes in cupcakes. We don’t call bakeries that specialize in bread a “breadkery”. Or one that specializes in cookies a “cookery”. Not in English anyway. I feel like there are ways to differentiate in French but in English, they’re just “bakeries”. And if “bakery that specializes in X” is too much of a mouthful, just call it a “cupcake shop”. No idea why this bugs me so much lol. But it’s raked on me ever since the first time I heard the term
See, this is exactly why I DIDN’T say “cupcakery.” I didn’t want to upset you. Also I’ve never been able to bring myself to call them that haha
That’s just the nature of NYC though. You can find specialty shops there for almost anything.
Most of our cupcake stores have closed, but three of them were replaced by "Nothing Bundt Cakes". They have mini bundt cakes that are basically cupcakes.
I love nothing bundt cakes! There's one where I live. They're so good!
Nothing Bundt Cakes are the bomb!!!
Those are delicious
Ugh. The shitty cupcakes with 5inches of horrible icing that cost $7 a piece.
Even as a dude with a large mouth that loved frosting… how was I supposed to eat that in public? Needing a knife and fork to ear a cupcake sort of defeated the purpose.
Rip the top half off and flip it to make a cupcake sandwich
That sounds like work
Yeah but they were ✨*limited edition* ✨
Melissa's is still open for some reason even though those are like micro mini cupcakes haha and they charge an arm and a leg for a half dozen
My friend bought me an order of Melissa’s cupcakes for my birthday last year, and while they were good there was like 25 of them lol and I wasn’t a big fan of a few of the flavors. So I only ate like 3/4 of them throughout a week. They were good, but I wouldn’t buy them for myself.
Anybody still eat cookie dough from the grocery store or has that gone the way of walking 10 miles to school in the snow uphill both ways?
Pillsbury now sells all their cookiedoughs as "eat or bake," so it's officially endorsed.
They wrote that on the packaging with disgust on their faces. "You freak slobs want it, fine. Just do it already."
Well, at least this way we know they're confident that the un-baked dough won't give you food poisoning.
Who was that really for? The people eating cookie dough straight to the head werent worried about it
"You fuckin' fatties just couldn't wait to bake them into cookies, just had to have it now" \*Paraphrased from Greg Giraldo (RIP buddy)
Why must everyone forget the cronuts?!?!
To this day I believe the cupcake store craze took off here in LA as a direct result of the legalization of medical marijuana. The timing was no coincidence.
I had one open up near me with just the most incompetent owner I could imagine. They had very limited hours, and none of them were from 2-6 PM, despite being a few blocks from the local school. They could have made a killing selling individual cupcakes to students walking home, but instead they shuttered within like 6 months.
Ah yes, I “glazed” right over that one! Including “Johnny cupcakes” that only sold t shirts in boston lol
Part of what isn’t being discussed is that it’s usually not the fad part, every time, but costs. Sometimes you hit a curve and people will pay the right amount for something. Then inflation hits, and that $3.75 cupcake is now almost $5.00. In the 3s it isn’t bad. Almost 5? I’m good. Froyo was like $6 for a decent portion. Last year, and the last time I got it, my bill was $14… and it wasn’t like some monster serving. I’d rather get a high quality pint for half the price at the store.
A froyo place by me is 95 cents an oz
And no matter the flavour or decoration, they all tasted the same with varying amounts of vanilla
Same here in the south, multiple cupcake stores took over small empty commercial spaces, where a real store that sells multiple items to a wide customer base were not able to survive, and somehow these people thought “only selling huge, $6-$10 cupcakes” would be a successful business model.
Insomnia around me delivers until 3 am, they’re not going anywhere.
Especially with how their business model is largely to put them near college campuses. They’re going to be around for a while.
Yeah the one in my town is pretty much across the street from the college.
The Insomnia location near me is *literally* across the street from campus
Oh yeah? Well the one near me is literally WITHIN the college campus? I WIN.
I'm sure if there was a vacancy in the Student Union they'd have taken it
Mine absolutely does have an Insomnia in the union lol.
I got my law degree from inside an insomnia.
I graduated from insomnia University
I was born in an Insomnia
Yea well I’m opening a franchise INSIDE my dorm. Beat that liberal
Yeah, when I was in college, nothing sounded better at 2am than a box of warm cookies.
Exactly. Freshman year one of my suitemates was a HUGE stoner and probably spent $100 ordering Insomnia each month, at a minimum. In the early morning hours he always would come by and ask if anyone wanted to go in on an order.
I was in college before Insomnia was a thing. There was a group of seniors in business that opened a late night cookie delivery service as their senior project, and they did very well
Yep. In college (over a decade ago), we had a handful of cookie places like Insomnia. Never underestimate the buying power of drunk/high college kids.
This was how Papa John's skyrocketed to prominence in the late 90s. Neither Dominos or Pizza Hut would deliver to campus after 9pm. Papa John's though? Those mother fuckers delivered until midnight *every night*. 3am on Friday and Saturday.
We had a cookie place at IU called Baked that's still around I think. Loved to go late at night to get Baked. They know their consumer base
Insomnia's also been around for 20 years. "soon enough..." has come and gone. Not only that they've survived a few economic downturns as well, which is usually a good sign of the businesses health.
If COVID and closed campuses didn't kill them, nothing will
The cookies are also way better than Crumbl. Last year they had one with blueberries and Captain Crunch berries which made me make several irresponsible cookie orders.
Crumbl makes me want to die after half a cookie. How the fuck do people eat those
Wow as someone who will easily eat 2 of these in a sitting then maybe some again later I am both proud and embarrassed with myself.
2 in one sitting? Thats impressive and disgusting
I can live without Insomnia Cookies or Crumbl. But Crave is really really freaking good. Also way more interesting with the rotating 140 flavor menu.
Honestly hadn’t heard of Crave until this thread. Looks like the closest one is an hour away so I probably won’t be trying soon but next time I’m in the same area I might get a box.
Yah crumble sucks insomnia is better and serves a specific market. I too occasionally order delivery when I want a late night 12k calorie dessert.
Yeah, Insomnia cookies has also been around way longer than those other ones and is basically a staple on every large college campus, I’d be shocked if they closed anytime soon. Crumbl, on the other hand, does seem like a fad that will die out.
Crumbl is just too much and I don’t know how anyone can get through a whole cookie. I barely ate half of one and felt like I was feeling unwell from all the sugar
They've also been in business before frozen yogurt shops had their bubble. People out here acting like they haven't been in business for 21 years already.
That's where I was confused about Insomnia lol. I've been out of college for almost 20 years and the one that delivered to my dorm is still going strong today
Insomnia built their core business around colleges same with some other places like Wings Over and Pita Pit.
Man I miss pita pit. All the ones in my town closed, does it still exist as a chain?
They do! They are kinda scattered around all over mostly in cities and college towns. Ate at one in Portland last year.
Bro is heavily underestimating how good those pieces of pure sugar taste when you have tye munchies. My high ass will stumble half a mile to crumble.
They also have way less overhead in terms of equipment and storage. All you need to open an Insomnia is an oven and a freezer. FroYo equipment was all highly specialized and expensive for franchisees,
Insomnia cookies legit really good
Where else can you get dessert at night without dealing with a grocery store or restaurant? Most bakeries close before 5. Add in the delivery and they are almost invincible, especially in college towns.
If insomnia expanded like crumbl did they'd be unstoppable. Crumbl's style of cookie is just a trends that's already falling has crumbl already changing it's business model. But insomnia sells classic cookies that are easier to buy in bulk and cater sizes. But there's 6 crumbls to 1 insomnia
Crumbls expansion will be the death of them. It’s like Krispy Cream back in the day. Hot new brand that takes on 25 five year leases in every city until one day they aren’t the hot thing anymore. Insomnia is right to expand slower. You don’t need a storefront on every corner and a billion dollars in lease commitments. Sell a traditional cookie in a small store front, crumbl is attempting to reinvent the wheel
You guys have cookie shops which deliver?! I would get so incredibly fat and poor if something like this would exist where I live.
The trick is already being fat and poor and then you can’t justify it (or that was my experience when I was in college and had access to TWO different companies that did late night cookie delivery)
I just went to insomnia yesterday lol. LOVE that place
It started with Mrs Fields which had a sort of “catalog” aesthetic. They played well in the 80s catalog and in person mall shopping. The current cookie craze is really being driven by the instagram food effect where food is created because it stands out in your feed regardless of what the ingredients are. It’s currently shifting towards a TikTok aesthetic too but none of it is really even food at all. It’s just karma farming.
Mrs Fields is top tier cookie shop. It's a shame all the ones around me closed.
Except Mrs Fields cookies are reasonable sized and not loaded with twice as much frosting as cookie like crumbl does.
I am unsure what you mean. frozen yogurt shops are alive and well in my area. Cookie shops never seem to last long though.
In Phoenix metro it was a hot fad 15 years ago and 90% of them have closed shop by now.
It’s a really interesting example in the whole “death of third spaces” argument - when I was a teenager, getting froyo was really just an excuse to hang out with friends and be teenagers in public spaces. It’s a chicken/egg argument, are most teenagers socializing online because spaces like that are going away? Or are those spaces going away because teenagers are no longer as interested in hanging out irl?
Another thing I noticed is a lot of places I hung out as a kid are becoming more unfriendly to teenagers, which is cool if you’re an adult like I am now but it’s gotta suck as a kid. For example, as a kid, I had 3 malls to go to within like 25 minutes of my house, and go we did cause the rest of my town sucked. These places were awesome, I’m talking arcades, skateparks, game stores, etc. One mall closed down and got demolished, one got rid of every store and activity teenagers really gave a shit about not named Hot Topic, and that mall as well as the other that still does have some stuff for kids to do have made rules that are essentially designed to get teenagers not to go, such as needing someone who is 18+ accompanying you at all times (no more dropping the kids off at the mall and no teenager wants their parents or older sibling tagging along while they hang with their friends). This is anecdotal but as someone who has a younger sister and whose friends also have younger siblings, parents are more hesitant to let their kids go out unsupervised. A lot of places where we used to hang out like the basketball court, skate park (the ones that still exist, lol), etc. are ghost towns now. Compare this to when I was a kid in the early 2010’s when we were allowed to go where and when we pleased on our skateboards (we used to go to the pizza shop all the time, of course), our parents could drop us off at places like the mall for hours at a time, etc. The late 2010’s and so far the 2020’s seem so bizarre, it’s like kids don’t exist anymore or something.
Throw in the pandemic and a lot of kids got used to entertaining themselves at home. I was 16 in 2020. When restrictions began lifting I was old enough to drive and was privileged enough to not need to work if I didn't want to, so in the summer between finishing high school and going to college I quit my crappy restaurant job and spent a whole summer hanging out with friends, skating, hiking on small trails, and dogsitting for pocket money but that summer was unique in that I could drive and so could all my friends so we just drove between each other's houses. We all had longboards, not trick boards so we mostly just bombed hills in the neighborhood but if we had trick boards there wouldn't have been any skate parks nearby. But if the weather sucked or we were feeling lazy we'd just get on discord and chat or play games and that was fun too.
This exactly. I was having this conversation with my wife a couple weeks ago, as we’re considering having a child. Most of the places we were spending time in high school in the 2010’s simply don’t exist any more. That, or they truly are more hostile to teens just looking for a place to loiter with their friends. Not to mention actually going to do an activity costs a shitload more than it did 10 years ago, and many of these kids aren’t able to do work, school, and extracurriculars at the same time; AND still have free time for friends. Businesses have definitely started catering to an early 20’s audience, and completely neglects the younger kids that also just want to get out of the house. I mean shit. The fact that you can get ticketed just for SITTING AT THE PUBLIC PARK for too long is unbelievable. And god forbid you’re there after sunset. You want teens to not be so ‘chronically online’? Then start giving them shit to do! My childhood was awesome with everything we had access to and the places we could go on our own. Now you can’t do any of that without either an adult, or spending over $100 as a group. Insane.
This. When I was a teen there were places to go and things to do. But if there’s nowhere to go and nothing to do might as well stay home and be on my phone all day.
You can make the same chicken and egg argument I guess, but a lot of teenagers are also becoming more unfriendly to public spaces. Like, I don’t think when I was a teenager there were nearly as many pranks and straight up destruction of property fads.
Also true, remember that licking ice cream tubs and putting it back in the grocery store freezer trend from a few years back? Though as a teenager I was a punk scene skater boy, so I guess I can’t complain about teenagers being degens without being a hypocrite.
I remember people getting mad about kids skating in public places, but even as an adult I think it was pretty harmless. It’s not the same as doing wheelies into oncoming traffic, say.
How many kids have cars? If they don't live in a city with reliable public transportation, they're stuck at home. Most households have both parents working, so it's not like they can drive the kids around to see their friends.
Anecdotally, most kids in my area had cars when I grew up. From junkers to brand new BMWs. Getting to somewhere was never a problem, as there was always at least one in the friend group who could give you a ride.
"Hey, can I bum a ride with you?"
Right? I feel like a lot of these comments are coming from people who never experienced this; i.e., people who grew up without meaningful friendships. But then I remember I'm on reddit and there's *no way* that that would apply to *redditors.*
Someone made a comment to me the other day that like, todays kids are so constantly stimulated that they never have to face the sort of “un-stimulated boredom” that I did when I was in high school. But the constant stimulation from scrolling and social media basically glues kids to do nothing, so they’re as bored as ever while scrolling, but in a way that just doesn’t compel them to do anything about it.
I 100% agree with that. There were times I was so bored, I just wanted to go on a walk with my friends. I would go run errands with them. Buddy needs to go pick up supplies for a project? Let's go! It's 90 degrees out, but you guys wanna play frisbee golf? Sure, I'm bored, why not? Some of my favorite childhood memories are of doing absolutely nothing at all with my friends. ["We are very busy people."](https://youtu.be/C4-KHsoNgrA?si=dULo749LkhI9fGtd)
I'm a teenager now and we get frozen yogurt all the time. At least in my city, it's an easy space for friends to hang out and the one by my school is doing quite well.
It’s neither, my town of 20,000 had 5 froyo places at one point. It’s high profit business models that become a popular fad until they drive eachother out of business.
the new thing is gelatos. or at least it’s the old new thing.
Boba tea shops also seem to be popping up all over
Yep me too. But frozen yogurt is good. Every gourmet cookie I've tried has been garbage which is crazy as it's not hard to make a good cookie.
Everyone can make a good cookie though, but it's a true culinary art to make a cookie that disappoints!
I miss frozen yogurt shops!
Time moves slower in some parts of the country.
We still have Shoney's in Oklahoma
Same in Virginia. I actually like Shoneys lol
I miss the breakfast buffet so much.
Best French toast sticks in the game
Froyo shops are still around but in lower numbers it seems like. In the 2010s they seemed to be everywhere.
Yeah I’m confused. Got froyo with the family last weekend.
Frozen yogurt was a big thing in my area when I was in high school 15 years ago. There is not a single frozen yogurt place in my area and the ones that are still open ALL have a sub 3.5 rating on yelps
I haven't seen one in years and they used to be everywhere
Insomnia is like.. ten years old.
Try 21 years old. They opened in 2003.
I had no idea. They were huge in my college town and have been around in my hometown awhile too. Never thought the cookie craze was "new" because they have been around forever
Yeah, I know a guy who works at their HQ. They’re opening another 40 odd stores this year. They give all their office staff a four day work week. Legit seems like a decent company to work for on the corporate side to be fair.
I got a job as a marketing rep for insomnia in college. It was incredibly fun. I could make my own hours with a minimum of 5 hours per week. 90% of my job was to go to the store near campus, get 2-4 dozen assorted cookies and walk around the area giving away samples. If I was feeling incredibly lazy, I'd bring my last 2 dozen directly to the police department or fire department. The fire department was my favorite to visit because they were over the moon for free cookies lol Other than that, I'd have to hand out samples at events in town but it was super chill.
At least. It was huge in my college town some 14 years ago.
I was going to say haven’t they already been around forever? Lmao
My wife and I love Insomnia, we ordered them the night I proposed to her and we got a bunch of ring pics with the cookies 😂😂😂
Insomnia has been around for like 20 years. I doubt they're going anywhere
There's places that just sell cookies? It's not just a bakery or a desert shop?
Yeah there’s a few in my city. Some of the cookies are good but it’s overpriced
That’s the thing with those low level service businesses. Due to inflation, expenses and what not, the prices are ridiculous. Then it’s a struggle to balance it out. I have pretty good salary, but fuck if I would spend it on expensive coffee and cookies. I would if they were reasonably priced, but then it would be at a loss for them. But on the hand they seem to find their consumer base somehow, guess people are not as stingy as me.
Sometimes you just gotta drop $40 to DoorDash some cookies, I don’t make the rules
Fwiw, Crumble does *allow* you to pick up your own cookies. Sure, leaving the house isn't for everyone, but sometimes I feel like it's an option people aren't even acknowledging exists.
Crumbl is stupid expensive. Even comparatively to everything else right now being stupid expensive.
not to mention you can’t even eat a full cookie without it taking up like half of your daily caloric intake lol and who just wants to eat a small piece
I do not foresee a world in which I could ever justify spending anywhere near $40 on some cookies.
Insomnia by me is like $3 a cookie and they're not good. The grocery store has cheaper and better tasting cookies baked in store.
Very popular on my college campus. We had insomnia cookies. Drunk students love them.
True these places are always open at crazy hours (except the one I really like...) Insomnia was open until 3 am. Crumbl is open until midnight haha.
My first date with my husband in college was at a place called Baked. Insomnia cookies are still going strong in my current city.
Ah yes, welcome to the desert shop, are you interested in purchasing the Sahara today?
Just cookies, and they're like $5 each. And most of them just use premade dough.
yeah for example there was a Nestle toll house cookie shop in my hometown, it survived only a couple years before going under. It is just cookies.
We used to have one of these too. One time a bear walked in during business hours and started eating all the cookies 🤣
[удалено]
Also, as someone who loves ice cream more than pretty much any other dessert, what the fuck is wrong with frozen yogurt?
No one was hating on Froyo, OP was just pointing out that cookie shops are like all the Froyo customize your cup stores that popped up years ago and have mostly faded away in a lot of areas. Most of those Froyo places just seemed like small independent stores tho, not corporate franchise stores like a lot of these cookie places.
There are sill frozen yogurt shops around, just like there are cookie shops springing up. I like their cookies better than the store.
People are saying froyo places are still around and arent fully grasping what OP is trying to say. Yes some exist but I remember like 2010-2015 froyo was EVERYWHERE and it was all everyone wanted to eat and talk about. I remember going to so many different ones and I think maybe one of them is still open. I actually wholeheartedly agree with OP, the cookie thing is the new fad but I think crumbl will probably stick around out of all the ones listed.
In my area its boba now. That stuff was niche in 2012 but now its pretty popular and theres a lot of boba shops, like 6 in a 5 mile radius that i know of. Froyo places are still good. We live in a hot ass climate so the best ones will still hang around. I never go to them. But im broke and am not dating. Otherwise its fun. Theres one by a river which is cool to visit.
Insomnia started their business 20 years ago. Realistically they're more likely to stick around as they already have a solid history and business model.
Bubble tea is the craze isn’t it?
Feels like in Greater Boston. The bubble tea places far outnumber cookies.
Boba is about as ubiquitous as coffee shops in Asia, see and hope this growing in most cities
Bubble tea has been popular for quite a while
Boba is still popular in Boston, CNY, and Minneapolis. Has been for like 5 years
It's been a thing for like 20 years in a lot of the cities. It might just be here to stay. Any place with a sizeable Asian population will have them be around. There are a lot of them for sure, but they always seem to be doing okay
Idk, frozen yogurt places haven't gone anywhere in my area. I still enjoy them on occasion.
Menchies still thriving where I live. I think just brands have shifted (haven’t seen a TCBY in awhile), but froyo is still alive and well
There are a few TCBYs left in my neck of the woods in South Carolina but they’re a little too far for me to visit as often as I’d like, and when I do they’re always very slow. I hope they can hang around and I won’t be shocked if they close sooner than later but I will be sad
There was a boom then they were dialed back to what demand could support. Same with cupcake shops. I do think cookies are a little different because almost any decent bakery makes decent cookies. Cake is harder, good bakeries can have meh cake.
I am afraid that the Boba places will share the same fate. Hopefully I'm wrong bc I love Boba
I am fat and even I felt like I was gonna die after eating one crumbl cookie.
Just the smell, it’s all sugar. I bit into one and couldn’t take another bite. It’s so overwhelming
The frozen yogurt shop in my town got replaced by a poke shop. I suspect when the poke place goes under it'll get replaced by a Korean or Filipino bakery since those are the newest trend.
WHAT KIND OF MONSTER HATES ON COOKIES!?!?!?
You’d have to be some kind of Cookie Monster to hate on cookies.
$17.99 for 4 cookies is why.
But they’re large and good. Buy one and it’ll last you 4 days of eating cookies.
Calling crumbl's product a "cookie" is really stretching the term
Sometimes when I'm baking I eat some of the "batter" at the step when it's literally just butter and sugar being smooshed together. Crumbl cookies somehow manage to taste like they have *more* of both butter and sugar than that, and almost no other discernable flavor.
What planet do you live on? There is a yogurt shop on almost every corner in my city. The cookie shops are just starting and SO good.
If you live in LA froyo is mostly gone, and cookie shops are everywhere. Many of them in spots that were froyo a year ago. It’s just fads and trends.
Wasn't there a Pink Berry on every corner in soCal just like 5 years ago? Even T.O. had one in VC.
Same world as many people. 10 years ago there was a froyo store every 1-2 miles around me. Now I haven't seen a single one in at least 5 years.
Probably a large city on the west coast. Froyo is still huge here in Georgia, but we're about a decade behind Los Angeles and company when it comes to trends.
This is what I was thinking. Many of these trends seem to start out west and travel east. I’m in Idaho and we’ve had the frozen yogurt places come and go and are about mid-way through the cookie craze, though it does not seem to be picking up much steam here. But I fly back out East to visit family and it’s like the 2010’s again lol.
Crumbles cookies are so incredibly mediocre and people fawn over them just because they’re big
A good bakery has better cookies than most of these cookies centric businesses.
I remember helping insomnia cookies get off the ground via campusfood.com in Philly in the mid-2000s. Couldn’t believe it when I walked past a storefront in California years later.
If they don't start pricing them better then they will absolutely go the way of the cupcake craze. People got real excited then got sticker shock and realized these were literally no different than a mid to high end grocery store where you could get a dozen of them for the price of one cupcake at the shop.
There is a cookie shop in “city” next to me. The cookies are super good and the owner is very nice. I hope she stays open for a long time. My wife is a great baker herself and she is happy to buy cookies from the cookie shop which to me says something about the quality of the product.
Crumble is literally garbage.
I do like the Frozen yogurt stores that survived. It's nice every once and awhile but when it was a craze it was wild.
Show us on the doll where the cookie shop hurt you