Screenshot / Crumblcookies.com
Crumbl cookies come in over 250 flavors, which rotate weekly and can be packaged in the company's signature pink boxes.
Updated: June 28, 2022
With a first-in-state franchise, Maine is no longer looking for a cookie Crumbl
Photo / William Hall
The first Crumbl franchise in Maine, at Rock Row in Westbrook, is scheduled to open for business on Thursday.
By William Hall
Unless you’re referring to those bits and bytes that advertisers hide on your computer, you probably wouldn’t mention “cookies” and “technology” in the same breath.
But Crumbl Cookies, which opens its first franchise in Maine on Thursday, says the 511-store chain is not just the nation’s largest, fastest-growing cookie company — it’s also a “cookie tech” business. “Delicious, unique, and tech-driven,” the website reads.
Franchise co-owners and brothers James and Jeff Maguire are opening a Crumbl store at the growing Rock Row development in Westbrook, and have already hired about 50 employees. The 1,890-square-foot space features an open, white-tiled kitchen where customers will see the Crumbl crew mix, bake and prepare fresh gourmet cookies in flavors like Coconut Lime and Chocolate Strawberry Cheesecake.
Jeff Maguire believes the Utah-based company’s technology is one of the things that will set his brick-and-mortar business apart from competitors.
“It’s a tech-driven bakery,” he said in a recent interview. “There’s a beautiful tech stack. [The company] has a wonderful tech platform and they use it to get recipes out into the community.”
The tech extends from iPads mounted on kitchen walls — so employees can easily access baking information — to digital customer service. Crumbl heavily promotes its website and app, which Maguire called “beautiful and awesomely designed.” Customers can order cookies online for curbside pickup, shipping or delivery. On Friday morning, the Rock Row shop is offering a free chocolate chip cookie for anyone whose phone has the app, downloadable via a QR code.
The five-year-old company, like any tech startup, also relies heavily on viral marketing. Crumbl founders Jason McGowan and Sawyer Hemsley blew up the internet when they first posted a video about their new business on TikTok. Today, Crumbl has 5.4 million followers on the platform, more than twice as many as fast-food giant McDonald’s.
Much as Apple Inc. whets consumers' appetites for the latest iPhone, Crumbl changes up the cookie flavors available in its stores each week. The company currently boasts over 250 varieties, and every Sunday night drops which five are rotating in. Fansites and social media groups buzz about what’s new and what’s coming next.
This week, the menu is Coconut Lime, Maple Cinnamon Roll, Buckeye Brownie, Confetti (a sugar cookie with rainbow sprinkles) and Vanilla Crumb Cake with Golden Oreos. There’s also Milk Chocolate Chip, the most popular flavor, which is always available.
But what do you do if you have a hankering for a flavor that’s not on the weekly roster — say, Crumbl’s Mango Frozen Yogurt cookie?
“You buy a couple of party boxes when they’re available,” Maguire said, “and keep an eye on the menu.”
New territory
Until now, Maine has been one of only eight states without a Crumbl shop.
In fact, while a half dozen or so major cookie retailing chains and over 2,000 cookie franchises span the U.S., Maine previously was home to only one — a Mrs. Fields store at the Maine Mall. Local, independent businesses, like the Baker’s Bench in Westbrook, provide most of Maine’s cookie fix.
For Crumbl, the entire East Coast is relatively new territory. Maguire and his brother opened the region’s first franchise in Methuen, Mass., during the fall of 2020. Since then, they’ve added two stores in Nashua, N.H. and one in Salem, N.H., and have plans to open in Burlington, Vt., this fall. Two more New Hampshire branches, in Concord and Manchester, could follow next year.
Under other owners, there’s also a Portsmouth, N.H., store, five in Massachusetts and two in Connecticut.
Maguire, who got his start in franchising with New Hampshire-based Planet Fitness, now works and lives in Arizona. But Crumbl, he believes, combines its high tech with a hometown touch.
The brothers grew up in New England. James, a Coast Guard veteran from Pelham, N.H., and his wife, Angela, will provide the “boots on the ground” for the Westbrook shop, Jeff said, along with the local store manager, Bethanie Witty.
Crumbl is unlikely to source its ingredients from Maine businesses, since the company has proprietary recipes and standardized material requirements. But Jeff Maguire said the Rock Row store is eager to be part of the southern Maine business community.
“We hire local and we move local and we think it’s important for people to understand we’re not some giant corporation,” he said. “We’re local to New England and we know the market.”
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