If you’re a fan of those pink and white frosted Circus Animal cookies from Mother’s, either stock up or start priming your nostalgia, because this week the company closed its doors abruptly. They’ve cited the expected reasons—the rising cost of raw materials, and an inability to borrow in the frozen credit market.
Unfortunately, the private equity firm that owns the company (it’s passed through at least four owners in the past 18 years) didn’t give employees the federally required 60-day notice, citing “unforeseeable business circumstances.” If they couldn’t secure money to pay salaries, that may very well be the case.
If you’ve got $20 in your household goods budget and can’t live with the idea of a circus animal-less world, you can make your own with this kid-friendly cookie cutter set. Or just buy some vanilla wafers and pretend you’re eating single-celled organisms, you big baby.
“Mother’s Cookies abruptly shut down” [SFGate] (Thanks to Tom!)
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The irony of this article following right on the heels of “5 Expenses To Cut Right Now If You’re In Debt” hurts my brain too much.
@OtterOtter: It’s almost as ironic as rain on your wedding day!
@OtterOtter: that irony made me smile.
OHHHH nooOOOOOOO!!! Those frosted animal cookies were beyond delicious. Maybe JPMorgan Chase can swoop in and save them?
“Your favorite cookies, now even more secure.”
I don’t think I can eat Vanilla Wafers without thinking of amoebas now……
I love those things! Too bad eating more than 3 gives you a heart attack. I think Big Lots will have them for me to stack up on!
OMG OMG OMG
This is horrible news. How am I going to tell my dad? We both love these cookies so much!
Fret not people, Keebler makes their own version of these. You may continue on your paths to type 2 diabetes unabated.
@ArmyOfFun: f*ck yea!
@ArmyOfFun: can you get type 2 diabetes of you already have type 1?
I KNEW i would EVENTUALLY feel some of this “Economic crisis” we’re in, Finally the crisis trickles down to us poor cookie-less folk.
Goodbye Circus Animals, We barely knew the ;-(
I could handle the $2 Trillion Dollar loss. My 401k has taken a beat’n but I’ll survive. The fat cats on Wall Street stealing my kids tax money was pretty bad.
BUT I AM PISSED OFF AS HELL THAT MY FAVORITE COOKIES AS A KID WILL NO LONGER BE AROUND.
THIS
IS
WAR!
@Trick: I could not have said it better. This is really awful. I grew up on those cookies!
I’ve got a little tear welling up in my right eye. I think my childhood is officially over now.
My friend’s dad was a Mother’s Cookies salesman for decades (retired a few years ago). The lard-covered animals were my favorites, but I also enjoyed their peanut butter cookies. Not remotely as good as homemade, but a nice coffee companion.
@yagisencho: When I was a kid the neighbor worked for them. On Halloween he’d give out full size packages of cookies; usually he’d have about 10 cases to give away.
Guess there’s no reason to visit my family on the West Coast now.
@blainer: I’ve never heard of these things before in my life. Is it a regional thing, like Carl Jr’s vs Hardees?
@LastVigilante: All I know is they sell them in Wisconsin.
I love these cookies.
I must go buy some now.
i think i’m going to kill myself
*Darth Vader poser*
NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!
One of all-time favorite cookies, no matter unhealthy for you they were just a great comforting snack…
*Heads off to nearest store to stock up*
Sad days….
What, no federal government bailout?
@cjones27: Unfortunately, there is a government bail out that is supposed to prevent this; you know – that 900 B bailout that has everyone wailing and gnashing their teeth – but unfortunately too many people spent too much time whining about bailing out a bunch of “fat cat bankers” that when they finallly realized that those are the same bankers that lend their small businesses money, it was already too late.
@cjones27: Apparently Mothers Cookies didn’t donate enough to certain campaigns and thusly does not ‘deserve’ a bail out.
It’s all my fault. I used to eat a bag-a-day but quit recently when my husband decided we shoud go on a “diet”.
Thanks alot honey. See what you did?!?!
Nooooo!! Congress, where’s the bailout money here?
I’m going to go buy some. And then get a vasectomy. Because, dammit, I don’t want to bring children into a world without frosted Circus Animal cookies.
“…Kills Off Circus Animals”
Sounds like part of the plot from “Fierce Creatures.”
Ok, forget my rantings about inflation and the inability to secure financing.
America, THIS is how the meltdown affects you!
Noooooooooooooo!
Some of my most memorable field trips as a kid where the Mother’s Cookies and Granny Goose factories in Oakland. I can still remember the taste of those fresh, warm circus cookie as they came off the belt…
*sniff*
@vmxeo: Yes! This! I will always remember the field trip to the Mothers Cookies factory tour in Oakland, and getting free cookies at the end of it. This is a sad, sad day…
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!’
Look like I’ll have to stock up
@fratgirl: couldnt have said it better
I work for a company that does some service for them here in Ohio. I guess they walked in on Friday and told everyone to leave because they had no more sugar. On Saturday the sent all the employees a FedEx letter explaining the situation and they lost all benefits. They had been having financial difficulty for a while.
Guess now they can take all the sales people on a retreat to a posh California hotel or something.
I have a soft spot for their little chocolate chip cookies.
I guess I’ll have to buy up my local supermarket’s entire stock. I really have no other choice.
AAACCKK! We live for their holiday gingerbread man cookies around here. Why, Mother? Why!??
What just hit me is I don’t think I have seen these since I moved to Maryland….
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
My empire is crumbling.
This is sad. My grandfather was a Mother’s route salesman for over 30 years and I spent my childhood in his Mother’s truck. There was nothing better than a summer vacation in the back of a cookie truck!
Bye Mother’s.
These were my favorite cookies growing up (I’m 29). I even liked the oddball vanilla and chocolate chip ones in there.
This makes me very, very sad.
Time to go shopping :’(
Gas prices didn’t scare me.
700 billion dollar bail out didn’t phase me.
Now I’m fairly certain this is the sign of the f’ing apocalypse.
Nooooo!
Although, I have to say, the Incredible Shrink Ray has hit Mother’s worse of all. Their thick, opaque bags made it even harder to figure out with precision how much they were trying to rip me off, but by the shake method, it was pretty bad.
The bag was 1/8 cookies and 3/4 air. And 1/8 shriveled nostalgia of a lost childhood raped by over-leveraged private equity firms who borrowed too much of other people’s money to buy a company that without their interference would probably still be around.
Not that I’m bitter at Wall Street for any particular reason as of late.
Not at all, circus animal cookie murderers. Not. At. All.
RIP
@lordargent: Oh god, I forgot about these ones! These are so good too!
Oh man… my grandma always had a jar of stale ones in her kitchen… *tear*
CRAP. Cleaning out the grocery store today.
I bought a bag of these last night…better go back and stock up.
I LOVE their iced oatmeal cookies. My birthday is in a couple of days, so maybe I’ll ask for some of those instead of a cake.
To quote half of the posts in this thread.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
I’m so upset.
Someone at some other enterprising cookie company needs to buy up the recipes and rights to their more popular cookies … like circus animals … dammit.
i’ve never had one (to my knowledge) but they look delicious. oh well…
It’s as if millions of inner-children cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced…..
Bailout the goddamned COOKIES!! Seriously, can the people of the U.S. bypass our broken government and pool a line of credit for these guys? Please?!
@chrisjames: Make that people of the world. This is a global crisis.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Now I know the world is coming to an end. That is sooooooo sad I Love those cookies.
While I’ve never been much of a fan of the animal cookies myself, I’ll be sad to live in a world without their striped shortbread. No other company makes them nearly as yummy.
… well now I know I’m stopping by the grocery store on the way back from work.
I will stop by and stock up as well. It’s D&D night tonight and I think passing some out would be nice gesture.
Mother’s Cookies is too big to fail! Bush, we demand a confections bailout!
NOOOOO! This really is a depression *sniff* I’m going to have to stock up.
OMG I loved those cookeis when I was a kid!
Are there still some on the shelfs? We must hurry!
Guess I’m going to Wal-Mart tonight.
No. Say it ain’t so. Loved the macaroon cookies. And their frosted oatmeal (horses loved them too, as a special treat) were so good.
The cheap circus cookies I kept around to distract my little kids years ago while I ate from the secret stash of Pepperidge Farm cookies…