FUCK now I want some cookies.

So no more random occurrences of splurging at malls, I take it?

Oh noes, not another reason for businesses to take the financial beating!

They are nice cookies, but too expensive for what you get. I'd rather bake some at home (right next to my home-baked pizza)...

aye aye capt'n, all for the home bakes pizza, load it up with garlic and ur set!

@ctaylor: I agree. They're good cookies but I can bake my own that are just as good. I also do homemade pizza.

I still can't seem to get homemade ice cream the consistency of the store bought..but mine does taste better.

@ctaylor: I used to get the "day olds", but that was when we HAD a Ms. Fields instead of Hot Topic.

Yeah but sometimes you just one ONE cookie, not a zillion.

Now they're taking our cookies? Noooooooooooooo! Won't someone think of the baked goods? QUICK, SOMEONE DEFEND KRISPY KREME!

Around 25 yrs ago there was a Mrs. Fields store a few blocks from me and the cookies & brownies were wonderful. The building got knocked down. A few yrs ago I had Mrs. Fields cookies at an airport...they were ok but not as good as 25 yrs ago. I also make delicious cookies myself (with really good European butter, also good for piecrust)I make pizza from scratch. Also excellent ice cream without a machine, very easy.

The only thing they're good for is the massive cookie cake, and that's just for the sheer gimmick. Otherwise, they're selling something people have always made themselves in massive portions. Cookie making is not hard. It's just one step above pancakes in terms of difficulty, and even if you screw up, the end result is still okay. The basic trick is to find a good recipe (my favorite is the Tollhouse style recipe in The Best Recipe, but the recipe on the back of the bag of Tollhouse chips is also fine) and take the cookies out before they look entirely done (set around the sides).

Of course, if you get yourself a good cookie scoop (look at a restaurant supply store or go to acemart.com if you don't know one near you) and some parchment paper, that makes the whole ritual a bit easier. A good, thick aluminum jellyroll pan is nice, too (aluminum because it gets hot enough to crisp the cookies, but not hot enough to burn them, jellyroll because it's heartbreaking to see a cookie slide off a sheet pan before its time, and jellyroll pans work for a whole bunch of other things, too.) All in all, it takes about an hour, but it also makes a ton of cookies (5 dozen, I believe). Avoid shortening, as it has little flavor and actually masks the tongue with flavorless fat.

For the record, I tend to go for the traditional size of cookies, which I guess is about the size of a Nintendo Gamecube's DVD. At that size, the cookies are not extremely filling (Who wants to keep half a cookie as leftovers?), and they're just big enough to develop the texture I like, which is crisp at the edge and bottom, and soft in the center.

She always made soft cookies, and tried to get the cookie companies to use her ideas. She then started her own company. They laughed, and said she'd never last. Well, I guess they were right in a way. Personally, I like crispy cookies.

I like cookies, and I mean, I like cookies, but if I'm buying cookies and not baking them (or having a certain special someone bake them for me), they had better be good. I'd much rather go into my local family owned bakery as opposed to some franchised crap with a couple of apathetic teenagers at the helm.

I consider this sweet revenge for Mrs. Fields knocking out the mom and pop cookie shop in my mall. As far as I'm concerned they're finally getting their just desserts. It sucks for the employees but that's just the way the cookie crumbles when your company runs out of dough.

I wondered why the store in our mall closed...huh.

@Sucko-T: It's just deserts. Believe it or not, that's the proper spelling. There's a rarely used, third meaning for the homonym. It means reward/punishment, and is spelled deserts, which can be both positive and negative. An annoying quirk of the English language. First, it's hard to tell apart sweets after a meal (dessert) and barren land/a verb meaning to abandon (desert), but then you get something completely unintuitive to the modern ear. Que libertarians saying that if we would just privatize the English language, we'd be over these stupid rules.

After reading this I ran out to snag me a pack of Pepperidge Farm cookies. Mmm.

@Eldritch: Krispy Kream are killing themselves slowly. Sadly, they went crazy with growth and franchizing right before the low carb craze, because people were beginning to discover them and like them. Then, high carbs were bad, and their donuts, a combination of fat, enriched flour, and sugar, were considered the biggest taboo. Now, they're being hit doubly hard because they're selling a treat at a time where people aren't eager to spend money on treats.

Although I don't like Dunkin Donuts, I have to admit their plans to diversify are good, although the only thing I like are their donuts (Which I eat every two months at most) and their iced coffee shake, which is too expensive. However, there really is something for everyone there, and were I the type to eat breakfast out or buy my coffee from a shop (I use an aeropress), I'd consider them.

However, I don't like their coffee and I don't like that their coffee costs more than Starbucks, which isn't great but is acceptable for when I'm out and about, and am ready to fall asleep at the wheel.

Oh, "rising material prices" are the new "because of 9/11" -- a lot of companies find it convenient to cover their asses using a huge story in the news. Less messy when your internal mismanagement can be blamed on something external.

I kinda like the cookies I make better...on top of that I can make about 30 of them for the price of 2 of their regular sized cookies. Of course last time I got one was a couple years ago so the price has probably gone up since then.

There is no cookie in the world worth $2. There is a pretzel place near me called Auntie Anne's. You used to be able to get a pretzel for $1.25 which was reasonable. Today that same pretzel is $3.50. I just dont get it. I wonder if they will have to file for chapter 11 as well.

@TVarmy: I went ahead and gave Sucko-T the benefit of the doubt. I'm pretty sure Sucko-T spelled it "desserts" as a joke, considering Mrs. Field's sells cookies. That being said, not sure why you defined it, I'm sure Sucko-T knew what it meant, given the context

@TVarmy: Did you mean "cue Libertarians"? I wouldn't normally quibble, but you seem interested in exactness ...

@dantsea: It doesn't sound like you've been paying attention.

All raw materials used in baking are rising. Flour is up from about $10-15 for 50lb to $25-30. Eggs are up about 40% over the last year. Milk is up 25-30% or so. Even sugar is more expensive. High prices for raw materials are squeezing food makers big and small. The small guys go out of business (like the local pizza shops and bakers) and the big guys increase prices (ex Hershey) or file for bankruptcy.

@TomCruisesTesticles: And most well educated people are familiar with the term. But we're all very impressed. Really, we are.

@TVarmy: Desert has one 's' because you only want to be there once. Dessert has two because you always want seconds. ;)

...baked with love by the Stepford Wife prototype...

@magic8ball: I did that only to show that I'm not a total spelling Nazi.

@cmdrsass: Thanks for your concern, but I've been paying attention -- as has Mrs. Field Famous Brands LLC. No one would dispute that materials have increased in price, and no one would further dispute that this is not the first time there have been spikes in the cost of materials over the 31-year history of that enterprise.

However, it is also no secret that many companies have use such events to sweep a great deal of fraud and mismanagement under the carpet, and while that may not be the case with Fields (I'm not an insider), I've attended far too many corporate postmortems to suspend my disbelief just this once.

You know I haven't seen a Mrs.Fields store in eons I only saw them at the mall and the last one I recall seeing was back when I was in high school(class of 2000! I have seen their cookies sold at the grocery stores which are no where near as good as the fresh ones.

I get my cookies at subway 3 cookies for $1 god their white chocolate chip & macadamia nut cookies are addictive!

Starbucks has been struggling because it's a luxury item, now Mrs Fields -- what say we start a lottery on the next 'luxury' business to fall?

I'm putting Cinnabon on the short list.

FYI: Mrs. Fields also owns TCBY (frozen yogurt, etc). There hasn't been one around me for those though..they seemed to have expanded too much in the early-mid 90's before people started to become real health conscious.

@TVarmy: Sieghail das typo fuhrer. GEEZ. Nice save playing the I-did-it-on-purpose card on the que/cue though. Almost believed it.

Anyway I worked in the mall once upon a time and always went to Mrs Fields for sodas. Their cookies are ok I guess, but they did taste like they were made by a corporation. I'm sure the ones Debbi made in the 70s were better.

Sucks to see them go, it's things like this that really make you aware of the problems with the economy.

So, what's the difference between bankruptcy & bittersweet bankruptcy? Cookies? A big fake cheesy smile?

Am I the only one who really dislikes Mrs. Feilds cookies? Always tasted like mass produced crap (like Little Debbie stuff) to me.

awww thats sad

@Marshfield: My bet is on Coldstone. They're already in trouble, and way, way overpriced.

My secret for great cookies? Lard. Seriously.

YAY! Mrs. Fields, I told you karma was a bitch.

Your nasty cookies at cheaper prices ran a smaller beloved chain, the Original Cookie Company, out of business.

And now it's YOUR turn to file a BK.

::insert evil laugh::

@buckinggrimace: Word. Ice cream should not be a production. It's like the Starbucks of frozen dairy treats.

So where's the government bailout, huh? I NEED my cookies.

@pixiegirl1: That's the real problem right there; cookies are not a "specialty" thing, especially not the way Mrs. Fields did them. Any half-assed fast food chain has cookies at 3 for $1. The only unique thing Mrs. Fields did was bake huge cookies and slather them in buttercream icing, which looked gross.

If they had even expanded into mass-produced cake slices or something, they might have come through, but no one goes "Damn, I need to go to the mall and get me some Mrs. Fields!".

Coldstone can die. CPK can die. Krispy Kreme got what it deserved (speaking as someone who lived near one of their new shiny franchises and had to deal with the traffic).

Of all the ones on the chopping block next, I expect Tastykake taking a big hit. Less stores are stocking them due to lack of sales. They just cost much more than other brands for the size. Tastykakes are better, but a good majority of consumers do not shop on the "better" factor anymore. Now its about what fits in your budget, and high price snacks are in the budget of most people these days.

One of my aunts went to high school with the actual Mrs. Fields. Apparently she was a stuck up snob who was really mean to people. What comes around goes around.

Wow, did everyone choke on their Bitter Pill this morning?

I mean, I don't shop at Mrs. Fields because I always thought the cookies tasted off, but I don't think we should gloat over a company going bankrupt considering the implications for the economy.

Moreover, I really wish all of you Mom & Pop Shops Rock people would get a new habit, cause your cracked-up addiction to the nostalgia of the Mom & Pop Shop (that never was as good as you hype it to have been) is really getting old and as predictable as the "Sue Everyone!" club.

When you guys have a post regarding a bankruptcy, you always make remarks about how the crappy economy took 'em down. ALWAYS. Cmon guys, it's like crying wolf! Jeez. Companies fail when their products aren't wanted anymore. HELLO.

I did a case study in college on Mrs. Fields and some of its business choices... And Mrs. Field's wasn't that sweet. She's a very controlling person and was very anti-change. She made some pretty bad decisions along the way, like all of us do, but shes pretty much to blame for the down fall of the biz more than economy. She had no actual business plan for international expansion, and thats pretty much when it went down hill.

Although I must say, she valued freshness and made the clerks throw cookies away that were an hour old. Waste of product, but I'm sure that didn't help either.

@crescentia: I used to work for a company that did their point of sale. That was *exactly* the impression of those coworkers that had to deal with her.

sounds like the only people to loose anything on this are the "noteholders"

@Sucko-T: *Clenches chest in agony* So....many....cliches....heart....failing....

Wages are low (happy now, Entitled Consumers?), prices are rising, the rational person would eliminate all extraneous costs. So the great unwashed, who had borrowed to continue a working-class lifestyle, are now unable to even cover minor splurges. Feel the cold, harsh winds of cheap labour.

@ShortBus:

Nah, you're not the only one. Her cookies are just too gooey -- and I can't believe I"m saying this -- too much melted chocolate in them. I like chocolate, but the cookies are kind of gross.