Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Cooking the Books / Foods / News Favorite Cookie Company Crumbles Under Credit Crunch, Alleged Chicanery
Posted by Nicki Wood on Wed, Jun 3, 2009 at 10:06 AM
I rounded the corner at the Belmont Bi-Rite, Nashville's finest urban grocery store, some months back and something caught at the corner of my brain. Something was different. Oh--the endcap display of Archway cookies was gone.
I didn't really think about it until I read this heart-breaking story in the New York Times about the inglorious demise of Archway/Mother's Cookies. You remember Mother's Cookies, don't you? They sponsored the Bozo show in the 1960s, but more important, they were irresistible.
The management company is currently in litigation over concerns about accounting irregularities. Along the way, sources said the company began to take shortcuts with the cookies, and in the words of one former employee, "Our cookies turned to crap."
Everyone has a favorite Archway cookie. Mine was the soft molasses, unless there were soft ginger or lemon to be had.
I returned to the Bi-Rite recently. Best Choice, the private label distributor, is making a range of cookies that look like Archway's and are similarly packaged. And I promise the soft ginger cookies seem almost as good as Archway's, as if someone had bought the equipment and recipes. But I could be wrong...so you try your favorite and report back to Bites.
Comments (10)
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I don't remember Mother's Cookies, but I used to love Archway cookies. My fav was also the soft molasses.
Lesley, I KNOW! General Motors dying = bad. Archway closing = bad AND relevant to my daily life.
But I'm telling you, these Best Choice, they are very close to an archway, in texture, flavor and range of varieties.
Yon need to dig a little deeper on the Intertubes. Try typing "archway cookies" into google. 5th item down mentions "Lance Inc."
Seem that they bought the assets of Archway, reopened a plant, saved 60 jobs, gave those 60 people $1500 gift cards for xmas 2008, and are promising to reintroduce the archway brand.
That's how I read it.
But really, what does the ingredients list look like on one of the cookies?
Thanks for the update, Big Swingin Richard Tracy -- as you see, my "research" was to read the Times and buy some cookies. And the ingredient list looks pretty good. Sugar flour, corn syrup, molasses, raisin paste, spices. Not homemade, but not bad either.
I believe Mother's is more of a West Coast tradition than Archway. Their circus animal cookies were big, as were their oatmeal and others back in the day. I remember ginger snaps as well, even though they're not in the current lineup - it seems the good folks of Kellogg's have seen fit to rescue the Oakland institution as well.
Trader Joe's makes knockoff Archway almond cookies shaped like windmills. A childhood favorites.
FYI - the Publix in Goodlettsville has Archway cookies. I just bought some last night in fact, the Frosty Lemon ones. Still pretty tasty according to the hubby.
Lance bought Archway and Kellogg's bought Mother's Cookies.
Our family is goofy for Mother's Taffy Cookies so we eagerly bought the first one of the line we could find. Dissappointing. Not bad but not special like the original. I haven't seen the new Archway cookies in this area yet and we don't have a Bi-Rite here.
http://www.archwaybakeries.com/
http://motherscookies.com/
