Jump to content

  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

Archway & Mother's Cookies bite the dust

Toliver

By Toliver
in Ready to Eat

 Share

Recommended Posts

Toliver

Toliver

Posted
Posted

I tell ya it's the end of an era...

The sad news:

Mother's Cookies abruptly shut down

Mother's Cookies, an Oakland institution for 92 years, has been shuttered, its owner seeking bankruptcy protection for the company.

The ending was abrupt: Workers for the company, which shifted its baking and distribution operations to plants in Ohio and Canada in 2006, told workers Friday that operations would cease and cookies would no longer be made as of Monday.

The company cited rising prices for raw materials and fuel, and on Monday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

I don't get that last part. Rising prices for raw material and fuel? Then raise your prices just like every other company faced with the same problems. Was there a price line that they felt they couldn't cross?

Goodbye Iced Raisin Cookies, Taffy Sandwich Cookies, Iced Circus Animals...

:sad:

Goodbye, Archway cookies.

:sad:

They weren't the best cookies in the world, but they were what my mom could afford at the Naval Commissary when she wanted to put a "treat" in our school lunches. When we were kids, my mom always baked her own homemade cookies so isn't it funny that we thought of store-bought cookies as a "treat"?

Will another company buy Mother's Cookies? Or will they fade into history?

 

“Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.'

Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.”

– From Fox TV’s “Family Guy”

 

Tim Oliver

Link to comment
Share on other sites
rooftop1000

rooftop1000

Posted
Posted

How am I supposed to make my Sauerbratten without Archway Gingersnaps?????

damn

tracey

The great thing about barbeque is that when you get hungry 3 hours later....you can lick your fingers

Maxine

Avoid cutting yourself while slicing vegetables by getting someone else to hold them while you chop away.

"It is the government's fault, they've eaten everything."

My Webpage

garden state motorcyle association

Link to comment
Share on other sites
heidih

heidih

Posted
Posted

I have not had an iced raisin or an iced sprinkled circus animal in a while but I can taste them vividly in my sensory memory. I was clearly addicted in college. Tried to steer clear after because it was not a pretty dietary situation. As far as I know those 2 were unique to Mother's. Was it all the purple paint they put on the delivery trucks in the last years that put them over the edge? I need to run out and get some of each!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Toliver

Toliver

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted
....I need to run out and get some of each!

I had given the same idea some serious thought...going to the store to get some of my favorites before the supply runs out.

I imagine we'll see cases of Mother's Cookies for sale on eBay soon. :laugh:

 

“Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.'

Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.”

– From Fox TV’s “Family Guy”

 

Tim Oliver

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Lilija

Lilija

Posted
Posted

Oh man, yeah this is really dissapointing, I love their holiday cookies! The holidays have landed, when I can get those little cashew snowball things. Another rare treat, reserved for camping and other occasions when calories don't count, were their iced oatmeals.

Drat. DRAT.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Jaymes

Jaymes

Posted
Posted

For me it was Iced Oatmeals. Always Iced Oatmeals. In fact, I'm down in Houston, and when Hurricane Ike threatened and we all raced off to the grocery store to stock up, Iced Oatmeals were number one on my list of must-have staples.

Are there any rumors of somebody else buying the company?

I don't understand why rappers have to hunch over while they stomp around the stage hollering.  It hurts my back to watch them. On the other hand, I've been thinking that perhaps I should start a rap group here at the Old Folks' Home.  Most of us already walk like that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Toliver

Toliver

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted
....Are there any rumors of somebody else buying the company?

Jaymes, I wondered about that. The fact that they sought bankruptcy protection was interesting to me. It seemed to intimate that they weren't really going out of business but were either trying to reorganize or trying to find a buyer.

I am in hopes that they get bought (though in these precarious financial times, that may not happen). The supplies on the local grocery shelves are dwindling quickly. :sad:

 

“Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.'

Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.”

– From Fox TV’s “Family Guy”

 

Tim Oliver

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Porthos

Porthos

Posted
Posted

Frito-Lay to the Rescue!

I just noticed new packaging on Mother's Oatmeal Raisin cookies and bought them. It's now Mothers C/O Frito-Lay, Dallas Texas. Let's hope they don't monkey with the recipes.

WhoooHoooo!!!

Porthos Potwatcher
The Once and Future Cook

;

Link to comment
Share on other sites
maggiethecat

maggiethecat

Posted
Posted (edited)

Frito-Lay was my knight in shining armor every twenty four days for many years. For Mother's/Archway fans I'm glad they've picked up the pennant and tucked Mother's hanky into their armor.

I'm glad for you guys, and who can deny the power of cheap cookies and youth? (Like Peak Freans Nice Biscuits where I grew up.)One person's madeleine is another person's Oatmeal Raisin.

So, no judgment here -- I'll love you if you're a Little Debbie's fan and assert your right to adore Nasty Cakes.

But, just sayin': Mother's and Archway made really cheap nasty cookies. Shudder. (Moving to my witness protection home.)

Edited by maggiethecat (log)

Margaret McArthur

"Take it easy, but take it."

Studs Terkel

1912-2008

A sensational tennis blog from freakyfrites

margaretmcarthur.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Abra

Abra

Posted
Posted

I still remember the field trip my 6th grade class made to the Mother's Cookie factory. It was fascinating, and was probably the beginning of my interest in food production. That, and a trip to the Tillamook Cheese factory. It's been decades since I had a Mother's product, but I hate to see institutions vanish into modernity and/or bankruptcy.

Abra

Blogging our French adventures at French Letters

My first eG foodblog

My second eG foodblog

Chufi and I blog in France

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Lilija

Lilija

Posted
Posted
Frito-Lay was my knight in shining armor every twenty four days for many years. For Mother's/Archway fans I'm glad they've picked up the pennant and tucked Mother's hanky into their armor.

I'm glad for you guys, and who can deny the power of cheap cookies and youth? (Like Peak Freans Nice Biscuits where I grew up.)One person's madeleine is another person's Oatmeal Raisin.

So, no judgment here -- I'll love you if you're a Little Debbie's fan and assert your right to adore Nasty Cakes.

But, just sayin': Mother's and Archway made really cheap nasty cookies. Shudder. (Moving to my witness protection home.)

Sometimes, I *like* cheap-nasty. Just sayin' :raz:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
MomOfLittleFoodies

MomOfLittleFoodies

Posted
Posted

Cheap and edible (but not fabulous) food has it's place. For me, Mother's Circus Animals are a nostalgia thing. I openly acknowledge that they're not the best cookies I've ever put in my mouth, but eating them reminds me of being a child picking through the "Cookie Parade" bag for the Circus Animals... and those memories can be comforting.

Cheryl

Link to comment
Share on other sites
ghostrider

ghostrider

Posted
Posted

Were Archways not the first major packaged-brand sold-in-supermarkets-&-delis bakery to offer soft cookies? That's my recollection from the early 1970s. I had not encountered such an item before I mofved to NYC in 1971, apart from what we now term artisanal bakeries that baked their own soft cookies.

Yep, they were full of nasty stuff, but they were soft & chewy and topped off many a night when we were much younger.

Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea? How did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea!

- Sydney Smith, English clergyman & essayist, 1771-1845

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Pierogi

Pierogi

Posted
Posted

I can't recall seeing Archway cookies out here on the Left Coast until, maybe 10 or so years ago. Certainly they were never one of the brands of my childhood.

Mother's, however, were. They used to make a variety pack that was the commercial cookie offering of my dreams: it had Gauchos (P/B sandwiches), Iced Raisins, a coconut bar whose name eludes me, something I believe were called "Taffy" somethings (can't remember the specifics of them either, but I do remember I liked them) and some actually-pretty-decent thick but crisp chocolate chip cookies that actually tasted of *gasp* butter. There may have been another variety in the mix, but it too escapes me.

I loved them because, not only were they actually pretty decent cookies, there were only 4 of each variety in the package. Enough to keep you interested,but not enough to burn you out. I get bored quickly with anything food (not a leftover lover, I...) and this suited my tastes to a "T". I haven't seen this variety package in several years, and I've kept looking. I can still find bags of the Gauchos and the Iced Raisins, but not the mix. I miss it.

And I do admit to the guilty pleasure of the Iced Circus Animals many, many times, especially in times of stress.

That being said, the quality of Mother's cookies has tanked in the past few years. They, like many other things, are not what they used to be.

But it will be sad to loose yet another iconic West Coast brand. I can't remember a time when I didn't see trucks (not semis, but the smaller, local-delivery type panel trucks) with the Mother's logo and colors (pink & purple) on the area freeways.

--Roberta--

"Let's slip out of these wet clothes, and into a dry Martini" - Robert Benchley

Pierogi's eG Foodblog

My *outside* blog, "A Pound Of Yeast"

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 4 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
Kouign Aman

Kouign Aman

Posted
Posted
Mother's...... some actually-pretty-decent thick but crisp chocolate chip cookies that actually tasted of *gasp* butter. 

Angelfood Chocolate Chip cookies was how I remember these. For years, they were sold separately as well as part of the variety pack, then sadly they lost their independent existence. I love those damn things. Some weeks more than others. I havent had one for ages because I dont want the rest of the variety pack particularly.

Maybe FritoLay will bring them back :fingers crossed icon: :begging icon: :praying icon:

"You dont know everything in the world! You just know how to read!" -an ah-hah! moment for 6-yr old Miss O.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
P1800Girl

P1800Girl

Posted
Posted

When I first read about the Archway demise in October, I knew I would really miss the Nutty Nougat cookies that come out only over the holidays.

Somehow, someway, someone must have stepped in and resumed production at Archway because I did find a package of them (among many other Archway products) on a grocer's shelf when I was shopping in Massachusetts.

I haven't looked lately, and I've found an acceptable homemade substitute for them now.

-sabine

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Pierogi

Pierogi

Posted
Posted
Mother's...... some actually-pretty-decent thick but crisp chocolate chip cookies that actually tasted of *gasp* butter. 

Angelfood Chocolate Chip cookies was how I remember these. For years, they were sold separately as well as part of the variety pack, then sadly they lost their independent existence. I love those damn things. Some weeks more than others. I havent had one for ages because I dont want the rest of the variety pack particularly.

Maybe FritoLay will bring them back :fingers crossed icon: :begging icon: :praying icon:

YES, YES ! *That* was the name......ohhhhhhhh, so good.

Joining in with you KA on the fingers crossed/begging/praying/wishin'&hopin'.....

Can you still find the variety pack in SD? Oh no, I'm not jealous *MUCH*. I so pine for that variety pack, and absolutely none of the grocery chains in Long Beach carry them. :sad:

--Roberta--

"Let's slip out of these wet clothes, and into a dry Martini" - Robert Benchley

Pierogi's eG Foodblog

My *outside* blog, "A Pound Of Yeast"

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 4 weeks later...
YWalker

YWalker

Posted
Posted
Somehow, someway, someone must have stepped in and resumed production at Archway because I did find a package of them (among many other Archway products) on a grocer's shelf when I was shopping in Massachusetts.

Lance to the rescue!

ASHLAND, Ohio (AP) -- A cookie plant that closed two months ago in Ashland is reopening under a new company that surprised former employees with $1,500 Visa gift cards.

Charlotte, N.C.-based Lance, Inc. will begin operations next week at the former Archway plant with a staff of 50 to 70 workers. Nearly 300 employees lost their jobs when Archway filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October.

I saw Archway cookies back in my grocery store again last week.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Susie Q

Susie Q

Posted
Posted (edited)

I miss Archway's soft molasses cookies. I hope we will find them on the shelves again here in Los Angeles.

I have 4 packages of Mother's Taffy cookies in the freezer along with 6 loaves of La Brea Bakery's Fruit Nut Loaf. At least the bread will be available again in the fall.

I saw Beaman's Gum back on the shelf. Time to stock up again!

Edited by Susie Q (log)
Link to comment
Share on other sites
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...