The idea of the “viral” cookie chain emerged in the late 2010s when the Utah-based Crumbl Cookies opened its first store on a college campus in 2017 and quickly gained a major following on social media through creative, photographable flavors and a business model that leaned into “FOMO” with weekly cookie drops and rotating flavors.
The runaway success led to a wave of “cookie wars” and other businesses offering endless spins on what was once a simple homemade dessert opening on its heels, including fellow Utah competitor Crave Cookies and New York brand Chip City Cookies.
But amid shifting trends and an oversaturation of the market in certain cities, the period of growth for cookie businesses appears to have reached its ebb. Data from Restaurant Business Online shows that Crumbl store units dropped by 16% from 2024 to 2025 as the chain closed multiple underperforming stores while sales in the wider category stayed flat at $11.85 billion in the 52 weeks leading to July 2026.
Chip City cookie chain closes all three Connecticut stores
Launched out of the Queens borough in 2017, Chip City Cookies expanded quickly to nearly 50 locations both across New York and neighboring states such as New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Texas, Virginia, Florida, and Illinois.
This week, local newspaper The Hartford Courant reported that all three of the cookie stores that Chip City had been operating in Connecticut were quietly removed from the chain’s website and marked as permanently closed on Google.
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The three locations were in Fairfield, Darien and West Hartford. The chain did not provide a comment and could not be immediately reached on the sudden exit from this market.
Chip City quickly found a fan following with a gooey texture and unique flavors such as cannoli, apple cider donut and the brownie-cookie “brookie” fusion. When they opened Chip City in 2017, childhood friends Teddy Gailas and Peter Phillips also leaned heavily into social media to quickly set off their brand by putting up a big sign telling visitors to follow them on Instagram at the original Astoria location and continuing to tease temporary flavors online.
Chip City
Why is Chip City and so many other cookie chains now shutting down locations
The last time Chip City announced a new location was in December 2025 when it signed a contract to open a store in the 800-square-foot Marlton Commons shopping mall.
Once the store opens, it will bring the total number of Chip City locations in New Jersey to four.
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The wave of cookie chain closures and downscales has been in place for the last two years both as the trend for a specific type of food passes on to other things and, amid ongoing inflation and an economic downturn, consumers watch their spending on hyped-up, social media-viral artisanal versions of a common food more carefully.
In August 2026, 20-year-old New York State cookie bakery The Cookie Factory closed its last remaining brick-and-mortar stores to focus on selling exclusively at supermarkets and regional convenience stores. The entity behind The Cookie Factory had earlier filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of New York in September 2024.
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