QSR May 2023

| GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT | fresh ideas

a gourmet cookie delivery service and since has added physical stores. When Wilson and her husband, Sean, launched the company, “we saw a gap in the market for a warm gour met cookie,” she says. “When we started we thought our customers were going to be pregnant women,” but they quickly discovered it could be much more inclusive. Chip has four standard big, hot cookies—the OG (orig inal chocolate chip) and Biscoff Chip among them—plus hundreds of recipes for one more that rotate weekly, and all stand up well in delivery. Wilson states product qual ity is key to the company’s growth beyond its 11 original, company-owned units to new franchised stores in the 50-plus territories it has sold. “You have one product, so it better be the best cookie,” she says. That extends to delivery, including experiment ing with drone service. “We historically have done our own delivery,” she notes. “We find that with third party that last mile doesn’t always work out. Controlling the quality is important.” Cookie Plug’s chocolate-chip cookie is also named OG, and that moniker—urban slang for something original— fits in nicely with the company’s hip-hop ambiance. The stores feature 15 daily thick cookies, including three keto, called “phatties”—another takeoff on urban lingo—with names like SnooperDoodle, a snickerdoodle referencing well-known rapper, Snoop Dogg. An advantage of a concept like Cookie Plug, CEO Wyland says, is the relatively low cost to open and oper ate stores. Cookies are prepared off-site and baked in shops, requiring only a few employees daily to run each 800- to 1,000-square-foot unit. The average ticket is $23, as most customers buy several cookies to take away. Cookie Plug has some 180 units in development and projects 50 openings this year, Wyland states. “It’s always great to sell deals, but we want to be strategic and open successfully.” At this point, “There is room for multiple players, and room for everyone to play well,” he notes. Still, “You need to have a great product; you can’t just throw it out there.” Eventually, a shakeout may come, according to ana lyst Webster. “There’s always the danger of over-saturation of the marketplace when too many operations focus on only one category,” she explains. There’s also a danger that chains that grow too quickly “will result in variability, availability, etc.” that can damage a brand. Smart operators will constantly look to create expe riences that will tie consumers to the brand, including creating a social media presence, as Crumbl has done. “If it’s just a good cookie, that going to be less compel ling,” Webster says, “because there are a lot of good cookies out there.”

CHIP COOKIES BEGAN IN 2016 AS A GOURMET DELIVERY BUSINESS.

Slab Creamery, creating multi-option dessert outlets. Chip Cookies is among the originators of the recent boom of fresh-baked gourmet cookies, born in Wilson’s off-hours crav ings—while pregnant in Los Angeles—for a warm, hot chocolate chip cookie delivered to her home. The business began in 2016 as

Barney Wolf is a regular contributor to QSR and is based in Ohio.

CHIP COOKIES (2)

20

MAY 2023 | QSR | www.qsrmagazine.com