The ‘Classic Cookie’ rescue
Katrina Hase and Carolyn Marshall
Contributors
St. Paul Classic Cookie owner Katherine Novotny knew she had all the ingredients for disaster on March 3. Her family-owned bakery, located in the heart of the St. Paul Skyway system in the Alliance Bank Center food court, was suddenly crumbling under the pressure of skyrocketing commodities prices. She found herself caught between paying the bills and continuing to buy the supplies needed to provide her customers with made-from-scratch cookies, muffins and other bakery items.
Seemingly overnight, her suppliers’ prices increased over 500 percent. Novotny feared her bakery would be forced to close.
In an effort to keep her family’s cookie tradition going she sent an e-mail plea to her fellow businesses, networking contacts, and loyal customers to place an order by the end of the business day on March 6. She also posted her plea to her blog at saintpaulclassiccookie. blogspot.com.
Lisa Cotter Metwaly of the Q Kindness Café contacted the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber’s Michael Belaen e-mailed a notice to the Chamber’s 3,400 e-newsletter subscribers. And Linda Labarre of Linda Labarre, LLC passed out flyers to folks in downtown St. Paul asking them to help.
"When I got Katie’s e-mail, I knew it was the right thing to do, to pass it along," said Metwaly, who is chair of the Chamber’s Central Business District Council. "The community here is so kind, it’s just a matter of letting them know what they can do, and ask them for help. There’re 68,000 people working in downtown St. Paul, but a lot of people that work here stay in their buildings, so there’s not a lot of retail awareness. I chose to get involved to build awareness and see our retailers succeed. Plus, I’m a loyal customer."
The public’s response was overwhelming.
"People suddenly started coming up and ordering a dozen cookies at a time. It was unbelievable, the amount of support—we could almost not keep up!" Novotny exclaimed. "Enough people responded that we were able to pay our bills, meet our deadlines and stay open. And we were also able to talk to our customers so they understood why we raised our prices the next week.
"It’s funny," she said, "we never really realized what a tradition we were for people down here until this happened. I honestly don’t know anywhere but in St. Paul this could occur—we have an amazing community here."
