Cookie delivery?

[brooksms]

Hi! I have a small cookie business and hope to offer delivery once the storefront is renovated. My cookies are larger and thick, meaning the centers are gooey freshly baked. They are best enjoyed after setting for a little while. I've never worked in a bakery so this may be less complicated than my mind thinks it is. I'm just having trouble wrapping my head around logistics, making sure the cookies are fresh but cooled enough before being delivered. I'm also not sure what level of gooey-ness people enjoy so it's hard to gauge. Any thoughts or suggestions? 

[JeanneCake]

Do you know how long the cookies maintain that consistency before they become firmer and not to your liking or not how you want customers to enjoy them?  

 

Are you planning to offer only local delivery (within a specific radius of your kitchen)? Or national delivery?

 

Are you asking about how to package them so they stay gooey/soft?

[brooksms]

On 6/15/2019 at 5:36 PM, JeanneCake said:

Do you know how long the cookies maintain that consistency before they become firmer and not to your liking or not how you want customers to enjoy them?  

 

Are you planning to offer only local delivery (within a specific radius of your kitchen)? Or national delivery?

 

Are you asking about how to package them so they stay gooey/soft?

 

No, I currently ship and heat sealed bags keep them soft for days. It's the local fresh delivery that poses an opposite issue! Since they're thick, they're pretty gooey if eaten too soon and I worry people won't like that. I guess I'm just not sure how gooey is too gooey lol. They're better after they've had time for the moisture to set. 

[gfweb]

Unless you are cooking to order you ought to be able to cook in batches that get time to cool down. 

 

What I’m wondering about is the economics of delivered cookies. Are you on a university campus or somewhere that the customers are concentrated?

[brooksms]

27 minutes ago, gfweb said:

Unless you are cooking to order you ought to be able to cook in batches that get time to cool down. 

 

What I’m wondering about is the economics of delivered cookies. Are you on a university campus or somewhere that the customers are concentrated?

 

I suppose we could bake them beforehand in anticipation. It's just hard to guess how many people will be ordering on a given night. We're a 15 min drive from a college campus but there are a ton of homes much closer. Uber Eats and Door Dash are popular delivery services here. We'd be listed on the app and not have to worry about hiring or coordinating drivers. The cookies would just need to be ready to go when they arrive for pickup! It's just an extra way to get cookies into people's hands as it will be our first storefront. 

Edited June 18, 2019 by brooksms (log)

[pastrygirl]

2 hours ago, brooksms said:

I currently ship and heat sealed bags keep them soft for days.

 

1 hour ago, brooksms said:

 

I suppose we could bake them beforehand in anticipation. It's just hard to guess how many people will be ordering on a given night. We're a 15 min drive from a college campus but there are a ton of homes much closer. Uber Eats and Door Dash are popular delivery services here. ... The cookies would just need to be ready to go when they arrive for pickup! ...

 

 

Why not just keep a dozen or two of the heat- sealed ones around for delivery apps? 

[brooksms]

15 hours ago, pastrygirl said:

 

 

Why not just keep a dozen or two of the heat- sealed ones around for delivery apps? 

 

All of the other delivery companies deliver them freshly baked so I don't think that would go over as well. I'm just not sure how to coordinate so the cookies have time to set but the chips are still a bit melty when delivered. 

[pastrygirl]

14 minutes ago, brooksms said:

All of the other delivery companies deliver them freshly baked so I don't think that would go over as well. I'm just not sure how to coordinate so the cookies have time to set but the chips are still a bit melty when delivered. 

 

Don't believe everything people say.  "Fresh baked" at some places means taken out of the Sysco box in the freezer and baked at midnight for the following day.  Are you going to sit around your commissary all night waiting for UberEats orders?  If you have to pay an employee to do that, do you still make a profit?  Even if the cookies get picked up at perfect chip melt level, you can't control the 3rd party delivery driver.  Can they sit in a car for 15 minutes?  30?  45 while the driver goes across town to wait for a more lucrative order?

 

I know you want to sell the perfect cookie, and another way to sell sounds great but the extra revenue needs to be worth the time and labor.  Add instructions to microwave for 20 seconds or something.  

 

Have you ordered from your competitors to see how long it takes and how the product arrives?  Might be worth it to see what you're up against.

 

 

[brooksms]

4 hours ago, pastrygirl said:

 

Don't believe everything people say.  "Fresh baked" at some places means taken out of the Sysco box in the freezer and baked at midnight for the following day.  Are you going to sit around your commissary all night waiting for UberEats orders?  If you have to pay an employee to do that, do you still make a profit?  Even if the cookies get picked up at perfect chip melt level, you can't control the 3rd party delivery driver.  Can they sit in a car for 15 minutes?  30?  45 while the driver goes across town to wait for a more lucrative order?

 

I know you want to sell the perfect cookie, and another way to sell sounds great but the extra revenue needs to be worth the time and labor.  Add instructions to microwave for 20 seconds or something.  

 

Have you ordered from your competitors to see how long it takes and how the product arrives?  Might be worth it to see what you're up against.

 

 

 

A lot of cookie shops I see online are for sure baking relatively soon before delivery! I'm not sure if they bake to order or begin baking knowing orders will roll in soon. I'll have to try it and see if it's popular enough to be worth the time. As long as I don't advertise "fresh warm cookies" they'll be good regardless of the driver's schedule. It would be more of an issue of the drivers being too fast than too slow. Baking to order would be ideal to avoid waste but I don't see that working with thick cookies that need time to set. Maybe the question to answer is...how gooey is too gooey? 

[teonzo]

There is a procedure called "rigenerazione" in Italian, literal translation is "regeneration", don't know which is the correct translation in English. I don't even know if there is a term, never seen this process described in any English book.

It just consists in reheating a cooked dough in the oven. You bake a good amount of cookies, store them in some place, then "regenerate" the required amount. You just need to put them in a 180°C / 350°F oven for about 3-5 minutes (depends on the oven, the cookie size and so on). Cookies get warm and almost as freshly baked.

So you can cook a big batch only once during the day, then rewarm if needed and following requests.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[Merry Berry]

8 hours ago, pastrygirl said:

 

Don't believe everything people say.  "Fresh baked" at some places means taken out of the Sysco box in the freezer and baked at midnight for the following day.  Are you going to sit around your commissary all night waiting for UberEats orders?  If you have to pay an employee to do that, do you still make a profit?  Even if the cookies get picked up at perfect chip melt level, you can't control the 3rd party delivery driver.  Can they sit in a car for 15 minutes?  30?  45 while the driver goes across town to wait for a more lucrative order?

 

I know you want to sell the perfect cookie, and another way to sell sounds great but the extra revenue needs to be worth the time and labor.  Add instructions to microwave for 20 seconds or something.  

 

Have you ordered from your competitors to see how long it takes and how the product arrives?  Might be worth it to see what you're up against.

 

 

I definitely second what PG is saying.  Order from your competitors.  Or better yet, if they have a semi-open kitchen, go there and order and then watch their process.  You can always ask innocent questions as a "customer".  Most counter workers (from my experience), are unaware when a "customer" is asking probing questions.  You are just a curious customer, killing time, by talking about cookies.

[Chris Hennes]

6 hours ago, brooksms said:

Maybe the question to answer is...how gooey is too gooey?

I’m not sure that to my taste there is such a thing as “too gooey” for a cookie. Are you getting the centers up to a food-safe temperature?

[JoNorvelleWalker]

4 hours ago, Merry Berry said:

I definitely second what PG is saying.  Order from your competitors.  Or better yet, if they have a semi-open kitchen, go there and order and then watch their process.  You can always ask innocent questions as a "customer".  Most counter workers (from my experience), are unaware when a "customer" is asking probing questions.  You are just a curious customer, killing time, by talking about cookies.

 

Never having been in the cookie biz but having been in business, I feel it is unethical to talk to a competitor without identifying oneself as a possible competitor.  Besides, you may then find the competitor even more interested to talk to you.

 

Simply ordering product from your competitors is something else again.

 

[brooksms]

12 hours ago, Chris Hennes said:

I’m not sure that to my taste there is such a thing as “too gooey” for a cookie. Are you getting the centers up to a food-safe temperature?

 

Good to know! I mean, Levain's cookies in NYC are incredibly gooey/underbaked and people love them. Maybe no need for concern from that aspect! Some larger/thick ones I've baked at home can't get to 160 F before the outside is done but I'm still adjusting recipes, cookie size, etc.. and not testing in the commercial oven yet.

[brooksms]

17 hours ago, teonzo said:

There is a procedure called "rigenerazione" in Italian, literal translation is "regeneration", don't know which is the correct translation in English. I don't even know if there is a term, never seen this process described in any English book.

It just consists in reheating a cooked dough in the oven. You bake a good amount of cookies, store them in some place, then "regenerate" the required amount. You just need to put them in a 180°C / 350°F oven for about 3-5 minutes (depends on the oven, the cookie size and so on). Cookies get warm and almost as freshly baked.

So you can cook a big batch only once during the day, then rewarm if needed and following requests.

 

Teo

 

 

16 hours ago, Merry Berry said:

I definitely second what PG is saying.  Order from your competitors.  Or better yet, if they have a semi-open kitchen, go there and order and then watch their process.  You can always ask innocent questions as a "customer".  Most counter workers (from my experience), are unaware when a "customer" is asking probing questions.  You are just a curious customer, killing time, by talking about cookies.

 

Thanks for the suggestion! I did call one cookie shop yesterday. They pre-bake a few and keep them in warmers. That may be the easiest!