Cole National Corporation owned several retail outlets that included Children’s Palace and Things Remembered along with optical departments in anchors like Sears and Montgomery Ward. Joseph Cole, the founder of CNC, and a seasoned shopping center retailer in his own right, most likely knew what he was doing when he decided to enter the cookie market in 1976 when he opened The Cookie Place in Youngstown, Ohio.
Soon thereafter he was contacted by two gentlemen looking for someone to help rescue them from their struggling cookie chain. Based on the success he had been seeing at his Youngstown store Mr. Cole purchased The Original Cookie Company in late 1977 and attained their 24 existing outlets.
Mr. Cole did not hesitate expanding his new chain. Despite having no PR presence and solely relying on mall flyers and good old visibility Mr. Cole opened over 90 more successful cookie stores in a little more than five years. Just in time for the cookie wars to really break out in the early 1980’s.
At the same time The Original Cookie Co. was expanding, other cookie outfits were also setting themselves up to become national chains. Mr. Cole would quickly find himself in direct competition with the likes of David’s Cookies, The Famous Chocolate Chip Cookie Company of New Jersey and Atlanta based The Original Great American Chocolate Chip Cookie Company. But it was Mrs. Fields who would ultimately go head-to-head with The Original Cookie Co.
The Original Cookie Co. was unique from the competition for two reasons. The first, they were the only public chain out of the five national contenders. Secondly their parent company CNC was very used to getting leased space in shopping center locations. This would become very useful when the building of new shopping malls was noticeably coming to a halt in the 1980’s.
The Original Great American Chocolate Chip Cookie Company however was easily leading the war with not only the most retail outlets but also with the lowest prices. But for CNC, The Original Cookie Co. was doing well enough to contribute upwards of 4% of the company’s overall earrings. Not bad for a little cookie shop and their multi-million dollar parent corporation.
Eventually The Original Cookie Co., along with Mrs. Fields, would be attained by Capricorn Holdings, based in Greenwich, Conn. The Original Cookie Co. would start it’s loss of existence in 1996 when Mrs. Fields Original Cookie, or MFOC, was formed.
By February, 2002, there were only 35 Original Cookie franchises in operation with no hopes of any additional stores.
“The Original Cookie Company of Cleveland, Ohio, writes that it is against their policy to reveal cookie recipes.” (From The Cook’s Mailbag, The Indianapolis Star, Oct 4, 1989)
I think The Original Cookie was the best thing that ever happened to The Oaks Mall in Gainesville Florida. I would love to have it back. Those were the best cookies in the world. I wish I owned one here in Gainesville.
They were awesome cookies. Got them at Glenbrook mall in Fort Wayne,In.
I really miss The Original Cookie Company. 🙁
I agree.
Oh how I miss the delicious cookies 🍪 my favorites were the chocolate chip and OMG the sugar cookie 😋! I wish they had a original cookie factory in Southern California!
This place is a very fond childhood memory. These were the absolute best cookies in the world. I share these memories with my children all the time. No cookie 🍪 in 2020 stands up to these cookies in taste, size, moisture and texture. Why, oh why did they ever leave us!!!
This was my first job! Crossgates Mall Albany NY! I had a dream about the cookies last night, they were the BEST EVER!
The real question is do you know the recipe 👀👀👀
Except BLUE CHIP COOKIES
Absolutely, I wish they would bring them back,I have a special glass of milk awaiting there arrival
These cookies are the best chocolate chunk cookies ever made. I reside in Baltimore and back in the 90s i would 2 dozens every friday til the cookie shop close up shop. Where can i get more??????
They have the BEST butter cookies!!! Are any of these open anywhere?!!?!
Definitely the best butter cookies in the world… still trying to find a place that can compete.
Can an ex employee pleeeeease reveal the recipes!!!!!!?
I miss the Original Cookie Company at Via Linda Mall, Santa Fe, New Mexico. They were known for their double doozies (cookie sandwiches).
They had cookie cups filled with frosting. Double Doozies were the Great American Cookie Co. ( but they would make a sandwich cookie on request).
Yes where the heck is the recipe!
Hello. I happened upon this site while searching for the recipe myself: https://www.copykatchat.com/forum/recipes/recipe-requests/29824-looking-for-original-cookie-co-butter-cookie-recipe
I have not tried it yet, as I literally just found it myself. I hope it’s what we’re looking for!
The cookies came in boxes as pucks. We just baked them. Sadly, there are no recipes to share.
This is true. They were frozen, but they were still great.
The cookie dough came frozen to the stores. They used nestle morsels. I believe they had a contract with them for a while before nestle started selling their ready to bake in grocery stores.
I used to manage one in WI. They came to us frozen so there is not any retail employee who could tell you the recipe. Sorry!
I wish. I was a manager at one of their stores in 1988. Our cookies were all made to our specifications by a frozen bakery company. If I remember correctly it was Country Homes. The dough came in as frozen cookie “pucks” that we baked. So no recipe. The butter cookies were AMAZING!
Oh my The Original Cookie at Salmon Run Mall in Watertown, NY was my absolute favorite place to go! I loved the chocolate chip cookie cups filled with colorful frosting and sprinkles and their giant and scrumptious melt in you mouth buttery sugar cookies filled with an M&M candy throughout. Wow… I’m salivating. Lol. Boy do I miss the good ol’ skool days. Places just aren’t like they use to be! My sweet tooth was always ready for an “Original!”
Sincerely,
Danielle M. Romano
06/11/2020.
The best cookies ever!!!!!! Far more better than Ms. Fields…… nothing in los Angeles can compare
FINALLY, I found out what happened to the Original Cookie Company. Their cookies were, hands down, the best cookies I’d ever eaten. Ms. Fields’ cookies weren’t even in their league, in my opinion.
Gary where did you find them? And your right Original cookies were the BEST cookies ever!! I used to work for them until Mrs. Fields came along .i would love to fine some to order. I miss that job so much!!!
😫😫😫 I miss their butter cookies
Anybody know if there is still one open somewhere?
Yes these were very delicious cookies 🍪
The BEST Chocolate Chip Cookie ever made . The chewiness of them were addicting . If you showed up a half hour before they closed and bought a pound of bit size Chocolate Chip Cookies they would give you two pounds for the price of one . Bring THIS Company and Cookies back – For everyone’s sake . What a great late 1978 to 1981 memory .
I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE SOME OF THOSE BUTTER COOKIES, THEY WERE THE BEST OF ALL TIMES. I WOULD RIDE FOR 2 HOURS ONE WAY JUST TO GET SOME. I WOULD CALL AHEAD TO LET THEM KNOW I’M ON MY WAY SO THEY COULD COOK ME 2 PANS FRESH. DO ANYONE KNOW HOW I COULD GET SOME NOW?
Do you remember the delicious sugar cookies with M&Ms?
Me and my family miss the Original Cookie Co. Their cookies were No. 1! Mrs. Fields almost beat them when they opened in Sherman Oaks, CA in the mid 1980’s. They had the butteriest cookies with perfect texture and rich flavor. Then they went cheap and ruined a good thing. Original Cookie Co. was always consistently great and were quite addicting. Was sad when they disappeared. Too often small businesses start and prosper because they were authentic. When they grow to a certain size the big guys gobble them up and are too greedy to keep the integrity of the product and cheapen it down and charge more money for it. That kills the product, oftentimes not able to be duplicated so your favorite products only become a memory. 😞
I loved and miss buying cookies at The Original Cookie Company. Please please please open a store in the Chicagoland area. Also, do not change any of the cookie recipes if you do choose to reopen stores.
Aaahhhh… The Original Cookie 🍪 !!!! The best bite size chocolate chip cookies ever !! Way better than Mrs. Field’s. Growing up this was the favorite thing to get at the mall – most times it was the reason you went to the mall. Wish they were still around. A pound bag would never last long enough. This brings me back to simpler times when a bag of cookies could make everything better 🙂.
The building in Cleveland where I work in used to be an Original Cookie co. factory. We sell copiers but the joke when someone new starts is “can you still smell the cookies?”
I really miss those bite size chocolate chip cookies , they were the best thing you could ever experience you never forget the taste I’m 23 and I was 5 or 6 years old when I first had them and I still remember as if it was tomorrow .
I think of the Original Cookie Company every year at my birthday, the double layer cookie cake with the white frosting was the best cake ever. Even (lots of) years later, I can still recall the smell and taste… wish I could find the recipe.
Does anyone have the recipe for the fudge that was in the peanut butter cookie cups?! Best part of my teenage years was going to the mall and getting these!
it was a chocolate fudge icing that we received in big buckets.
If you are talking about the location on Grant Ave, that wasn’t a factory, it was the corporate offices. It also was the corporate office for Hot Sam Pretzels and Corn Dog On a Stick. I worked there for 9 years. Best job I had. We had a test kitchen there, and often we would have fresh cookies, pretzels and corn dogs!
These cookies were incredible. I used to finish off every meal at the food court with a bag of the bite size cookies. Anytime my friends went to the movies we would grab a bag. My girlfriend worked there and I even once got dressed up as a giant cookie to promote the business! I’m have tried every chocolate chip cookie known to man and nothing has ever compared to these cookies!
Bring them back please!!😭
omg.. i remember when my grandmother used to take me to oakland mall in detroit, mi my favorite was the huge sugar cookie with the blue cookie icing and pearl rainbow sprinkles!!! best childhood memory!!!!
Man I’m not the only one trying to find a cookie that can compete with the chocolate chip cookie I used to get from the mall. It really was a gift and a curse, I will forever be on a quest to find something similar.
As a teenager growing up in Boston, My friends and I loved Original Cookie. They had a location downtown in the Lafette Mail . The cookies were amazing , along with the giant cookie “cakes” and the absolutely delicious cheese cake brownies they sold were a favorite of my mom’s.
I worked at an Original Cookie store in a mall in Farmington, NM. All the cookies were amazing. My favorite was one that had dates and pecans, but there wasn’t a bad cookie in the bunch. I learned a few tricks I still use in baking. Bake four minutes, then rotate the pans: spin them front to back, and also move the top pan to the bottom rack and vice versa. Bake four more minutes and remove from oven, let cool five minutes on pans then remove to wire racks and let cool about 20 minutes. Always use parchment paper! Make a double batch; shape half into small balls using melon baller and freeze for a later date. Thaw before baking. Separate dough in half and make some with nuts and some without (for chocolate chip cookies).
We didnt have the recipes…they were shipped to us frozen and ready to bake to assure consistency in all shops. My favorite cookies ever..I worked for them for 10 years as a district manager.
Which location did you work as a district manager for The Original Cookie Vompany?
I remember the original cookie company was in the fox hills mall and Hawthorne Mall…much better than Ms.Fields
Many trips were made to Fox Hills Mall back in the day just to get cookies at Original Cookie Company. First they were on the ground floor then they moved upstairs by the food court then they were gone. Forgot they had a location at the Hawthorne Mall too. Went there too, but not as much as Fox Hills. I will never ever forget my trips to Original Cookie. Was always the best part of going to the mall.
I remember grabbing a cookie and running through the orange stair maze in the middle . Best cookies
I was the second to last manager at the Original Cookie Company in Bellis Fair Mall, Bellingham, WA. They had some great cookies and it was fun working there even if it was for only 4 months of my life.
I was a manager at one of their stores, I loved all the cookies, perfect for breakfast with coffee, I wish they were still around, much better than Mrs. Fields or Famous Amos.
Beautiful sweet memories of The OCC. They had my favorite combo, chocolate chip and pecans! Our mall in El Paso, Tx would give you warm ones if you asked 🤤
Brings back memories of my childhood! My mom would bribe me into going to the mall with her by giving me a few bucks. First stop, cookies! I believe it was three very large ones for 99 cents. Two chocolate chip and one double chocolate mint. Then on to the arcade for a good 2-2 1/2 hours of Pac-Man, Donkey Kong and Galaga. A few bucks could buy a kid a good time!
To this day, every cookie I eat is compared to the Original Cookie Co. and I have not found one that comes close. Mrs. Fields was not even in the running, as a kid I always found it too sickeningly sweet. Original Cookie Co needs to come back!!!