Crumbl has taken the country by storm. From Floridians braving hurricanes to Canadians making day trips to the United States, Crumbl has driven people to do irrational things for dessert. This weekly cookie splurge is more of an obsession than a simple treat.
The famous light pink Crumbl boxes have been all over social media. The company has gained over fifteen million followers across TikTok and Instagram. Several influencers make weekly reviews of the cookies, normalizing over-consumption and giving the company a lot of publicity. These reviews create an artificial sense of urgency to try the newest flavors and encourage subscribers to participate in Crumbl culture.
Crumbl’s appeal is due to its rotating menu, which features eight large, heavily-decorated cookies. Every week leading up to Monday, thousands of customers eagerly anticipate the announcement of new flavors. These customers create a certain ‘buzz’ surrounding the weekly change. In other words, Crumbl is gaining attention because of the variation of the menu rather than the quality of the cookies.
Granted, some of the cookies are pretty good, like ‘Peppermint Bark’ and ‘Chocolate Oreo’. However, others are just flavorless and underbaked. Crumbl keeps its clientele interested by offering a variety of cookies—some tasty and some not—and constantly rotating them; the company makes you wonder if the next cookie you buy will be as good as your favorite.
I have also fallen victim to this marketing strategy. When I first tried Crumbl, I got their classic chocolate chip cookie. As much as I wanted to like it, I couldn’t comprehend how a renowned cookie shop managed to butcher a chocolate chip cookie. This simple dessert tasted like a watered-down version of Insomnia Cookies. For a five-dollar cookie, bland and raw doesn’t cut it. Even so, I told myself that it was just one bad flavor because I had heard so many good things about the company. Countless Crumbl trips later, I have yet to find a cookie worth its price.
Crumbl was originally a family-owned business founded by cousins Jason McGowan and Sawyer Hemsley in 2017. The company began gaining popularity during the pandemic when people turned to social media for new recipes and food recommendations. Today, with over a thousand stores across the United States, Crumbl is one of the fastest-growing dessert companies in the country. In addition, as of 2024, the franchise has reached an annual revenue of $1 billion. A big part of its success comes from its ever-changing menu and the media buzz accompanying it.
Crumbl has offered a fun excursion and some good sweets, but gambling your money on whether or not a cookie will be good is never worth it. Instead of spending money on overpriced cookies that aren’t guaranteed to be up to par, why not find a company that offers consistently tasty cookies that aren’t too expensive? A good dessert shop is known for its quality rather than its marketing. Try one of your local bakeries!
