New York has lost twenty-two cookie shops in one sweep, and the story began with a single storefront in Astoria.
Chip City, the chain known for oversized, soft-centered cookies, shut its remaining stores on October 1. Company president Nicolas Baizan told employees that operations could no longer be funded, according to an email reported by QSR Magazine. The company had grown beyond Queens into a multistate business with backing from Danny Meyer’s investment firm.
There is something particularly New York about the rise: a neighborhood bakery becomes an object of social-media devotion, attracts serious capital and starts to look like a national brand. There is also a familiar danger in making the jump. Expansion brings rent, staffing and production costs that a line out the door cannot necessarily cover.
Its abrupt demise leaves both customers and workers with more questions than the company’s explanation of difficult economic conditions answers.
Image: Chip City storefront; Astir Builders. Source and further details.
