Fall has arrived around here, even if Mother Nature is reluctant to usher in a new season. Our temperatures will be summerlike for another day or two. Regardless, autumn always brings baking to the forefront of my to-do list. I’ve already cranked out a breakfast pizza (three cheeses!), I’m sure to serve up a pumpkin pie before Halloween, and just this morning I whipped up three dozen gingerbread cookies. But whenever I bake cookies I always find myself thinking, “Should I have just gone to Crumbl instead?”
You know Crumbl, or some other cookie chain just like it. For ten years running Crumbl has tempted impulse buyers with their overly-large, overly-sweet, overly-everything baked goods. Crumbl cookies are so big they’ll sell you a small device much like a pizza cutter so you can share a cookie with friends. But let’s be real – if you’re spending as much on a Crumbl cookie as you would a Starbucks latte are you really gonna share? No, you’ll probably down the entire cookie within thirty minutes of purchase, your only regret arriving somewhere during digestion.
Now for something even harder to digest: Crumbl is on its way out. The clock is close to striking midnight on a company that somehow convinced us five dollars was a reasonable price for a cookie. They’re closing stores in big numbers. Despite the contraction I don’t think Crumbl’s demise is a symptom of the cost of living as much as it is all of us finally emerging from our sugar comas and declaring, “Enough is enough”.
It took me awhile to give Crumbl a try. When we lived in Colorado they opened a store next door to one of our favorite restaurants. For a long time we wondered what the fuss was all about. Then one day we skipped the dessert menu and decided to give the cookies a try. We bought four (for twenty dollars). If I’m being honest they were just okay. Some choices worked (frosted sugar cookie with raspberry jam – yum!) while others didn’t measure up (standard chocolate chip – meh).
Honestly what I remember most about Crumbl was not the cookies, but rather the wait in line to order. While I did I watched the nearby people waiting at the pick-up counter. It didn’t take long to realize most of them were DoorDash drivers, delivering cookies to the college dorms a ten-minute walk from the store. So not only were those students paying big for big cookies, they paid to have them delivered when they could’ve walked off a few of the calories themselves. Can I get a What’s wrong with Americans?
Our daughter embraced the Crumbl craze when she got married in 2022. She ordered two hundred of their “minis”, wrapped them individually in elegant boxes, and placed them next to the dinner plate of each guest at the reception. When the party was over we discovered at least half of the cookies left behind. Perhaps the beginning of Crumbl’s end actually started years ago.
Side note: If you place an order through Crumbl’s website the first decision you’ll have to make is whether to “reject non-essential or accept all cookies”. How appropriate 🙂
Just this week Crumbl announced the closure of seventy-five stores and significant layoffs at its Utah headquarters. The critics are blaming the cutbacks on the failed promotion of “dirty sodas”, another Utah-based product (popular with Mormons and their non-alcoholic ways). I don’t buy it, even though I wouldn’t buy a dirty soda either. I just think we’ve reached our tolerance for high-priced cookies and have moved on to the next comfort-food indulgence trend (like the gelato I wrote about several weeks ago.
The Crumbl store we have here in our small town opened just over a year ago, in the same shopping center as a popular supermarket. People go in an out of the supermarket by the dozens, but I have yet to see any of them wander down the sidewalk to Crumbl. It’s a sad sight when you drive by the storefront: the lone cashier standing behind the counter waiting for anyone to buy a big cookie. Even sadder, it won’t be long before her manager asks her to go into the lobby and lock the front door – for good.
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LEGO Neuschwanstein Castle – Update #10 (read about the start of this project in Fit for a (Fairy Tale) King
The castle is complete at last, even if the surrounding landscape is not. Bags 19 and 20 (of 23 bags of pieces) focused almost entirely on the completion of the western palas (one of two residential buildings). Not only is this structure much taller than I expected but it’s topped by an intricate roof that consumed a good portion of Bag 20. Dozens of pieces went into the black top of the building you see below.
I also felt like I was building a couple of rocket ships today. Neuschwanstein’s tall, dramatic stair towers start out as long plastic LEGO dowels, onto which you spin circular piece after circular piece. Finally you set the whole assembly upright and snap it into the surrounding castle. Two of Neuschwanstein’s stair towers are located intentionally where the terrain of the ridge below takes a bit of a turn; a very “castle” look.
Sometimes LEGO pieces have a hard time mimicking the small details of a structure. The western palas claims to have “a copper lion atop the court-side gable, while a knight’s likeness is on the outward facing gable, offering a protective touch to the castle.” The knight is up there on the rooftop all right but I didn’t find a “copper lion” anywhere in the bags (let alone in my pile of leftovers).
The very last step in today’s build was to add thirty-two tree trunks to the landscape. That’s a lot of logs. You have to zoom in on the photo above to see these tiny brown poles but tune in next week, because in a flourish of a finish, we’ll use the final three bags of pieces to top them off with bursts of color.
Running build time: 10:55
Total leftover pieces: 65 (including 2 tree trunks!)
Accompanying movie soundtrack: Pride & Prejudice (2005). Today’s choice was something of an experiment. Pride & Prejudice shows up regularly on “elegant soundtrack” lists but I’ve never seen the movie (let alone read anything by Jane Austen). So I figured, maybe the music will have me wanting to watch the film. The soundtrack includes several classical-sounding piano solos, probably tied to slow, dramatic scenes. You also get a few instances of lively fiddle-playing, probably connected to formal dance scenes. But for the most part the soundtrack had me imagining moments where the camera dwells on a character’s face, and their expression says it all. Will I watch Pride & Prejudice? I just might. After all, any movie that dwells on Kiera Knightley is worth the watch.
Some content sourced from the bonappétit.com article, “The End of Cookie Chains”, and the ksl.com article, “Utah-based Crumbl closes dozens of locations…”.
It’s sad when businesses fail, but overpriced junk food. Eh, was that really good for anyone? Also, I’d never heard of Crumbl. Apparently they didn’t make it out my way.
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Our own experience with Crumbl was probably typical of most people (try it once, never go back) which wouldn’t sustain any business. Definitely a trend. The fact they made it fully ten years is actually impressive.
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I’ve read similar comments about some of the fast food restaurants – the prices have got too high for the quality of the product.
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You’re right about that, Margy. Years ago I never thought I’d see a fast-food franchise close. Now it seems to be happening regularly. No guarantees anymore, and then that massive franchise fee goes out the window. Ouch!
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Wow, I’ve really gotten behind on WP. I didn’t realize I have logged in for a few weeks. Yikes – you finished the castle!! Looks GREAT! You can start a mini Lego museum!! Great job.
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I just tried to post a comment, I thought to this post, not sure where it went. Did you close comments to your OTHER posts? It shows comments as being closed. GREAT job on the Castle. It looks FANTASTIC. Quite a piece to admire.
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Kind of sad to see the castle come to completion. There’s not another LEGO set out there that interests me (they’re expensive too!) I’ll just have to be patient, since I’m sure LEGO’s designers are coming up with new ones as we speak. Yes, comments close after a couple of weeks (a setting I chose), which avoids a whole lot of spam.
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Dave, I’ve never heard of Crumbl, but I Googled and learned there is one in Woodhaven, not all that far from me. Maybe this one needs to advertise more. 🙂 That is a little outrageous for a big cookie, however, I can remember going to the mall and the smell of Cinnabon cinnamon rolls wafting through one entire section of the mall would entice you to walk over to look at them at least. Those cinnamon rolls were huge and at the time were pretty pricey, probably the equivalent of the $5.00 for a Crumbl cookie, when Cinnabon first opened. They also had a smaller size cinnamon roll too as I recall. Who was Lucky Pierre that got to eat all the leftover wedding cookies?
That’s a very big LEGO build, between the base and the castle – no wonder you barely fit it all in the photo. I’ve never seen, heard, nor read “Pride and Prejudice”.
P.S. – you were in my Reader today, but on a Wednesday!
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Cinnabon opened in airports, which is probably why they’re still in business (esp. with indoor malls on the decline). I remember Mrs. Field’s and Famous Amos years ago and thought they were expensive too, though surely not $5.00. Both companies were smart to move their products out of their standalone stores and into mass-marketing. Like Shakespeare, I somehow avoided Jane Austen in high school, but her stories were common in the literature curriculum. And yes, I posted early yesterday by accidentally hitting the Publish button. Can’t take that one back! 🙂
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I remember the Mrs. Field’s stores at the mall – another store for wonderful smells and yes, they were quite pricey for such small cookies. I had to read some Shakespeare and “Beowulf”, neither which I enjoyed, for literature classes. I recall using CliffsNotes for “Beowulf”. I’m quite a few posts ahead and set the publish date right away as I did that once a long time ago and learned from it!
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I remember the Crumbl craze. A few weeks ago a popular cookie place in NYC, Chip City, closed all its stores unexpectedly. Cited the market dwindling but I think there was also some drama with the owners. I’m into fall baking too. I am making my pumpkin sugar cookies this week.
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Chip City was mentioned in the same article as Crumbl. I’ve never heard of that chain but it certainly suggests the end of a trend. Maybe (like coffee) the local options have taken too much business from the franchises? And to your point, just bake them at home instead! We have your recipe with the brown butter and maple sitting on the counter just begging to be baked 🙂
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I’ve never even heard of Crumbl. Interesting that they’re closing so many stores. Who doesn’t like cookies? People pay for premium ice cream at Hagen Das; why not premium cookies at Crumbl? P.S. Congratulations on the near-completion of the castle. Well done!
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I’ve always wondered why the cookie Crumbls … We never got one here in our town. Right now we are seeing a lot of fastfood places going under or struggling. Part of it is price and part is that lots of people just don’t want the product they’re making.
And great progress on the castle!
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I never thought I’d see the day a fast-food restaurant would go under, but I’ve seen it myself lately as well. A fair segment of the younger generations either has the means or the preference for better and/or healthier choices. Seems to be taking its toll on the big names you and I remember from our own childhoods.
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The big expense cookie trend seems to have displaced the big expensive Cupcake trend. I wonder what will displace the cookies?
I think I first heard of these from one of my kids during the college years. I think it’s a great business for satisfying a late-night sweet tooth, but one that most of us in the adult world can avoid.
Actually, I prefer pies, other pastries and ice cream for expense sweets. Also, I work with a guy who has started a cookie business and once a month he brings in a selection. His run about $5 apiece too. I will sometimes buy a couple – it’s a lot more convenient if nothing else. 🙂
I have read some Jane Austin but it’s been awhile. I have not seen the movie. Nor have I heard any of the music. Maybe I should remedy these holes in my experience. Maybe with a cookie.
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I thought the pricey cupcake trend was a thing of the past until a “cupcake ATM” showed up in our little town. It’s a vending machine that dispenses fresh refrigerated cupcakes. I’d seen one on the West Coast but that was a decade ago. Maybe that’s how long it takes for trends to show up in the South? 🙂
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I had never heard of Crumbl Cookie, but I got a delightful 10-minute dialogue about it from my then 9-year old grandson, who seemed impressively knowledgeable on the subject!
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I’d expect 9-year old to be all over Crumbl!
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We don’t have that cookie chain here, although I’ve seen a few big cookie indie shops and wonder how they stay in business? I think even Mrs. Fields cookies have had their day, and they used to be in every mall – oh the smell of those cookies! 32 tree logs! It’s looking impressive. P&P with Keira Knightly was okay, but I didn’t like the guy who played Mr. Darcy. The best version is the 6 part BBC 1995 one with Colin Firth, but Elizabeth was just okay. Let me know if you ever read the book, as I’ve never met a man yet who has! Although some who have suffered through the movie!
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PS. The theme song from the 1995 BBC P&P is a very catchy tune – it’s probably on youtube.
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We bought our share of Mrs. Fields’ cookies back in the day. They were very good (and of reasonable size!) I have not read, nor seen the film for Pride & Prejudice. Safe to say I never will. At least the soundtrack was a nice accompaniment to LEGOs.
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