Search Results

How can you turn $1.00-$2.00 snacks into a steady six-figure business? Ask the Vending Machine King, Jaime Ibanez. Ibanez is the owner of Vending Bites, a vending machine service that provides businesses snack and drink options for their employees and customers. He is based in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and has over 50 machines in various locations. He started his business when he was only 18 years old. On social media, he is the face of the vending community through his candid videos on what it is like to own, operate, and manage machines. Ibanez started his business right after high school when he was looking at ways to make money. He remembers how hard it was to start out when he bought a machine in a location and was kicked out a day later. From that experience, and the many others, Ibanez has learned some good lessons that other vending machine business owners should understand as they start their vending journey. He has partnered up with Classic Cookie (one of his fast-moving snack product brands), to share some tips to help your new vending business. Here are Jaime Ibanez's 6 tips for you as a new vending machine business owner. Tip #1 - You Get What You Pay For According to Ibanez, this is the most important tip for any new vending business owner. While securing a location is the first important step, buying the right vending machine is crucial. In Ibanez's experience, vending machines can cost anywhere from $300 - $6,000 before adding on accessories like card readers, coin mechanisms, signs, etc. "Nobody wants to pay $6,000 when they get started," Ibanez says. "You don't have to buy the best of the best that looks good, but if you buy the cheapest, they usually are older machines." Ibanez says that cheaper machines come at a price. He has noticed that the cheaper the machine is, especially when they are used, the less you can do with that machine. For instance, Ibanez cautions, "If you buy the cheapest, they usually are older machines that you can't put a credit card reader on." Credit card readers are crucial for the modern vending business. Parlevel Systems, the creator of the PayPlus credit card reader, did a study where they found that machines in San Antonio, TX with their credit card reader increased average sales by 42% and sold 38% more units on average compared to those machines that did not have the reader. If your machines do not have a credit card reader, you are missing out on potential sales. Ibanez also elaborates on servicing old machines. "With cheaper machines, you have to change more parts because they are out of service more often," he says. "Because of this, you are going to pay more in parts, especially with drink machines. On [older] soda machines, the compressor goes out. This is the most expensive part of a machine." Instead of going with the cheapest deal, Ibanez recommends that you do your research on machine brands. He says that you can find a good middle ground on the type of machines you can get. They may not be the cheapest, but they will keep your long-term vending business' costs low. "Two brands I always go for are AMS for combo and snack machines, and USI (or Wittern) machines," Ibanez says. "USI is my favorite because they have a sleek modern look to them with a touchpad. They are the best to put in high traffic locations like office buildings." While you research different brands, Ibanez also issues a warning. "Buy USA made machines," he says. "Buying machines made in other countries can cause a lot of headaches." At the end of the day, the old adage of, "You get what you pay for," is true. The cheapest machines will have more technical work for you to do to make sure they correctly operate. Newer machines are stress-free but more expensive up front. If you are willing to take the risks on cheaper machines, just be well informed with your decision. Cheaper is not always better. Tip #2 - Be Ready to Get 100 Nos Ibanez's second tip is all about your mindset when finding locations to place your new vending machine. "Be ready to get 100 nos before you get your first yes." To emphasize this tip, Ibanez relates the story of buying his first vending machine. On getting started with his vending business, Ibanez said the following: "When I first started my business, I got my first machine by buying one from a previous vendor in a nursing home location. This machine was making money from day one. "The next day, the nursing home manager calls me and says, 'Hey, we don't want the machine anymore.' "We had a week to take the machine out. I didn't have anywhere to store it, and I needed to find a new location for it. For hours and hours, I talked to hundreds of different businesses. I started to get stressed out. "Finally, after three days of constant calling, I got a yes from a barbershop. We placed the machine in the shop, and I still have that location to this day." *Check out the soft packaged cookies from the photo above: Peanut Butter made with Reese's® Peanut Butter Chips and Double Chocolate made with Hershey's® From this story, Ibanez says how each "No" was hard. He had to call many different businesses before he finally found one that would give him a shot. This constant rejection is something that you may not be accustomed to when starting your business. "You can't give up in this business," Ibanez exclaims. "I see people on social media within the vending community, and they post about their first machine they bought. They are very excited about getting into the business, but they have struggles. They can't find a location for a few months after they get their machine, and they put the machine back up for sale. It's really sad." Ibanez remarks how new vendors need to be ready for rejection, and plenty will come, but in the end they should persevere until they find a location that will work with them. Once you place a machine, your work is not done, but it provides a lot of positivity and excitement. Tip #3 - Create a Good Website A good website is something that can set apart your vending business from your competitors. Ibanez shares some tricks in creating an effective vending website. "This tip seems a little obvious at first," Ibanez says, "But a lot of people don't put focus on their website. I've gotten half of my locations through my website alone." Ibanez points out that having a website is an easy way to get good locations without doing a lot of work. Once you put in the effort to building the website (whether by yourself or through a third-party developer), all you have to do is sit back and wait for the referrals to come in. To bring more traffic to your site, Ibanez suggests the following Make sure your SEO works - When a business owner, HR manager, or other employee type into Google search the phrases "vending machines near me" or "vending machine service near me" your business should be in the top three rankings Stay simple and keep this minimal - "In my head, businesses go to your website to not search through your information to find stuff," Ibanez says. "You need [the website] to be simple and should have your contact information in an easy and noticeable place." Use the custom website resources out there - This will take a little bit of a learning curve, but platforms like Wix and Shopify are great user-friendly custom website builders. With them, you can easily build a simple website for businesses to find you. A good website can be the difference maker in quickly scaling your new vending machine business. Tip #4 - Sound Like You Know When starting out and trying to convince locations to use your vending machine service, you might feel nervous about how new you are to the industry. Ibanez shares this tip to help you overcome these feelings. "You need to be confident," Ibanez says. "You need to make sure you sound like you know what you are doing. I started when I was 18-19 years old, yet I didn't go in to a location telling them that I was just starting. I was confident." According to Ibanez, the key to being confident is research. He advises that you thoroughly research the vending industry. Then, learn everything about your prospect locations to figure out what service they would need. "I knew everything about card readers and other things about the machine and location I was going to talk to," he says. Research can come from YouTube videos, taking online courses (like Ibanez's here: How to Successfully Start a Vending Machine Business), and other vending news outlets. The way you present yourself is also important. When going into a prospect location, Ibanez recommends looking nice (collared shirt, pants, shirt with your logo, etc.) and introducing yourself. "You can say something as simple as, 'Would you like some vending machines for your employees?'" he suggests. "This might be different based on each location you go into, but the concept is the same." As mentioned in Tip #2, you will get a "No" at many locations. Ibanez believes this to be a perfect opportunity to dig a little deeper and show that your business is unique. "Don't just walk away," he says when a business rejects your service. "Most of the time, locations already have vending machines from another provider. Ask [the prospect location] how they like their current service. Some businesses might say that their vendor only comes once a month. Others may say that their machines are always empty or broken. We get a lot of locations from people kicking out their previous vendor." Ibanez says that about 30% of his current clients came from these businesses kicking out their previous machine providers to get better service. "On one of our machines that replaced another vendor's, we put in new credit card readers," Ibanez explains. "The previous company did not have that on their machines. Now, that machine is doing about $1,200 a month in business for us." The opportunities are there for you also. Fixing machines can be another hard aspect to be confident in for a new vending owner. Ibanez has been there. "The first few months after placing machines, we got calls," he said. "I would be really worried going to the location to fix them." To be truly confident, Ibanez recommends that you learn everything about your machine. At one point, Ibanez himself had an extra machine in storage. To gain confidence when servicing his clients, he took apart the machine and then put it back together to learn how the machine worked. With better service and confidence, Ibanez says you have to deliver on your promises. "If your machine is broken, you need to have it back up and running that day," he states. "You can't wait a week." All-in-all, being confident and professional about your business will make you attractive for prospect locations. Tip #5 - Utilize Grocery Stores Now that you have a machine and a location, you need good products that customers will like and buy. Before switching to a major vending distributor, Vistar, Ibanez used a few different places to buy product at a good price. This helped to keep his costs low and make better margin on each sale. When starting out, Ibanez used Sam's Club to get most of his products. However, he shares that grocery stores are a lesser known place where you get more variety and cheaper items at times. Check out Jaime shopping for products in the video below "For the first six months of my business, I bought most of my soda cans from grocery stores like Albertson's, Kroger, and others," Ibanez details. "A lot of times, they have specials where you can get a wide variety of drinks for cheaper." A few years ago, Ibanez shares how 4 cases (12 cans each) of soda totaled $10 from a grocery store. The unit cost per can on this special was about $0.21. At the same time, Sam's Club sold cans at around $0.35-$0.40 per can. "The extra $0.15-$0.19 per can make a difference," he says. "That extra money goes directly back into your pocket." How can you find such great deals for your vending machine business? "What I would do is I would get the newspaper at the house, so I could compare the different grocery stores in our area," Ibanez explains. "Grocery stores usually do a deal each month. Since you could only buy so many on one purchase, I would checkout, take the soda to my car, come back in, and buy the max deal amount again. This would take me about 4-5 trips to my car to get the amount of soda I needed for restocks. Starting out, this is a great method, but we don't really do it anymore because we go through so much soda and need a greater variety which we can get through Vistar." Ibanez also says that his best performing products are soda bottles and cans. "Our top 5 items across all of our machines are all drinks," he reveals. "That's how much better we do in selling drinks than snacks." Jaime Ibanez's Top 3 Best-Selling Drinks Dr. Pepper Energy Drinks (Red Bull & Celsius) Coca-Cola Jaime Ibanez's Top 3 Best-Selling Snacks Regular M&M's Nutter Butters Hot Fries Chips Check out this video on Ibanez buying products today, including Classic Cookie. Grocery stores are a great way to find deals on cheaper drinks and snacks to make you more money on every sale. Tip #6 - Get Organized Ibanez's final tip is all about making sure you organize your business to be as efficient as possible. Owning a vending machine is one thing, but to operate and manage products, parts, cash, etc. is another side of the business you may not have thought about. The key to success is using your time wisely by being organized. Ibanez says, "You need to not only write down the number of products when you store them from the store, but you need to write down all the items in each of your machines, what has sold, and what is left. This business is a number's game. Write down things and keep track of everything." Credit card readers, like Nayax, can help expedite this process by tracking inventory for you with their premium service. While inventory management is a key part of being organized, Ibanez says that storing product in an effective way is also key. "You need to have everything neatly organized, especially your product," he says. "In some states, there are laws where you need to have food a few inches off the floor." Ibanez also recommends organizing your product in a way that when you are ready to restock, you can easily grab the items that you need to take to your machine. Check out Ibanez's vending warehouse tour video where he organizes product Another thing to stay on top of is the government paperwork and licensing. Ibanez recommends getting these as soon as you figure out that the vending business is right for you. He says, "Make sure you have all your permits at some point so you comply with government regulation. Make sure you get your feet wet and see if owning vending machines is something that you want to do. Once you make that decision, get the permits and licenses with everything." Bonus Tip - Small Towns Can Work The last piece of advice Ibanez has for you as a new vending machine owner is about where a vending machine business can work. "Vending is good if you are in a small town," Ibanez says. In a recent visit to Leal's Snacks in Waco, TX, Ibanez saw the business work up close in a smaller area. Ibanez is based in the Dallas-Fort Worth area that has a metro population of 6.49 million people, while Leal's is based in Waco that has a metro population of about 250,000 people. Of his visit to Waco, Ibanez said, "[Leal's] is in a small town, and he has no competition. When I say he runs that town, he runs it. He has all the locations in that place." Check out Ibanez's visit to Waco in the video below Smaller towns mean less competition and shorter distances to service machines. There are plenty of smaller towns outside of the bigger metro areas that you can find to dominate with your vending machine business. You do not have to think about whether the size of your town will get you the business that you want. Final Thoughts Jaime Ibanez is one of the best sources for tips on starting your vending business. From presenting your service at locations to utilizing local resources for better product prices, Ibanez's six tips are important for you to remember as you begin your new journey. As a summary, here are the six tips for you below: You Get What You Pay For - the cheaper machines are not always the best option You'll Get 100 Nos Before a Yes - persevere when you are out getting locations Create a Good Website - you can get easy leads with a simple, professional site Utilize Grocery Stores - sometimes, you can find goods that cost less on weekly deals Get Organized - make sure you account for and have all your ducks in a row Now, what are you waiting for? Act on these tips to turn your snacks into stacks with a vending machine business today! Comment below on which tip you want to start applying to your vending business today. To take a starter course from Jaime Ibanez click here: How to Successfully Start a Vending Machine Business To see Ibanez's website click here: Vending Bites at DFWVending.org Are you interested in having Classic Cookie packaged snacks in your vending machine? Check out our full selection here: Classic Cookie's Vending Snacks Do you have a Classic Cookie story you want to share? Email us at contact@classiccookie.com for a chance to have your story featured.

Almost all vending machines are built on a business model where customers pay for an item to consume for themselves. What if there was a machine that changed the model to where customers pay for something that will go to someone else they cannot see? There is such a unique vending machine in our world, and it comes around each Christmas season. In 2022, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will place giving machines at 28 worldwide locations starting in late November. The machines are part of the church's Light the World 2022 campaign which encourages community members to serve and give back to those in need. These vending machines are unique by providing a twist to customers. Instead of receiving snack, beverage, or beauty items, customers at the Light the World machines spend money on items to give to various charitable organizations. These organizations help people in need around the world and in the local community. Items that customers can purchase in this year's machines include Clean Water Partner charities for the machine on this item include iDE Global, UNICEF, WaterAid, and Water For People Food and Livestock Partner charities for the machine on this item include Care, Church Worldwide Service, iDE Global, UNICEF, World Food Programme, and local food banks Health and Wellness Items Partner charities for the machine on this item include American Red Cross, Care, Church Worldwide Service, Mentors International, UNHCR, UNICEF, WaterAid, World Food Programme, and other local organizations Educational Supplies and Programs Partner charities for the machine on this item include African Girls Hope Foundation, Mentors International, UNHCR, UNICEF, and other local organizations Housing Services Partner charities for the machine on this item include Church Worldwide Service, Lifting Hands International, UNHCR, and other local charities Clothing Partner charities for the machine on this item include UNICEF and other local organizations Refugee Aid Partner charities for the machine on this item include Lifting Hands International, UNHCR, and other local organizations “These vending machines offer a unique and memorable way to share light by serving and caring for others around the world,” the Church said in a press release. “Giving Machine items include groceries, meals, fresh water, child vaccines, beds, hygiene kits, farming equipment, medical care, job training, educational supplies, beehives and livestock. The machines will be stationed at 28 sites around the world.” For 2022, machines will be placed at the following locations Brisbane, Australia Calgary, Alberta Cebu City, Philippines Denver, Colorado Glendale, Arizona Gilbert, Arizona Guatemala City, Guatemala Honolulu, Hawaii Houston, Texas Kansas City, Missouri Las Vegas, Nevada Manila, Philippines Mexico City, Mexico Nashville, Tennessee New York City, New York Orem, Utah Sacramento, California Salt Lake City, Utah Seattle, Washington Washington, D.C. The other eight will be placed in cities participating in what the Church describes as a “mobile giving machine experience.” These machines will briefly stay in one city and then travel to another location. (The Daily Universe) These additional eight machines will be in the following locations: Atlanta, Georgia Birmingham, Alabama Charleston, South Carolina Charlotte, North Carolina Flagstaff, Arizona Gila Valley, Arizona St. Augustine, Florida Tucson, Arizona Close to Classic Cookie's headquarters in Sevierville, TN, a giving machine will be placed in Nashville for the second straight year. In 2021, the city placed machines outside of Bridgestone Arena where the NHL's Nashville Predators play. This one machine raised over $195,000 for local charities including ABLE Youth, Elmahaba Center, N.I.C.E., One Generation Away, and Sleep in Heavenly Peace. These unique vending machines first launched in 2017 and have raised over $15 million dollars to support those in need. 100% of the donations go to the charity you choose while the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints covers the operational costs. While you may be buying cookies and soda from vending machines during the holiday season, be sure to visit and donate with one of these Light the World vending machines. Nothing compares to giving to those who are less fortunate than you. Do you want to have the most memorable Christmas party food when your family and friends come over, but don't want to add another dish to your cookie schedule? Check out our soft and tasty packaged cookies that work as easy Christmas snacks: Soft Baked Cookies Do you have a unique vending machine you want to share? Email us at contact@classiccookie.com for a chance to have your machine featured. Are you a vending machine business owner looking for the best vending machine snacks? Email us at contact@classiccookie.com to see how you can get the best packaged cookies for your customers.

Christmas season is cookie season! This period would not be the most wonderful time of the year unless it involves soft delicious cookies. Every year, we see creative Christmas cookie outfits that are cute, festive, trendy, and delicious. From what we see, there are two different types of holiday cookie outfits: Cookie Pajamas Regular Cookie Apparel Each type of outfit has its own unique style, color, and vibe that can match whatever you want to do during the holidays. From both categories, you can see the 21 best cookie outfits below that will give you instant snack cravings and a festive mood. Best Christmas Cookie Pajamas People love cookies. When they wear them on pajamas, their holiday becomes much sweeter. Check out some of our favorite Christmas cookie sleepwear designs below that showcase tasty treats. Newborn Gingerbread Pajamas Gingerbread cookies are classic holiday cookies. They make for great pajamas too, especially with newborns. The newborn below is dressed up in comfortable gingerbread cookie pajamas with a beanie, onesie, and gingerbread doll. Taken at Nicki Kristof Photography Pink & Green Christmas Cookie Footie PJs Along with gingerbread cookies, sugar cookies are a staple of the Christmas season. In these Christmas cookie footie pajamas from Melodi's, each set has sugar cookie cutouts of Santa, Christmas trees, glasses of milk, presents, and more. Plus, there are red and green chocolate chip candy cookies on the designs too. Interested in the pink Christmas cookie footies for your child? Click here. Interested in the green Christmas cookie footies instead? Click here. Not interested in footie pajamas at all but just want some soft sugar cookies? Click here to get a traditional Classic Cookie sugar cookie. "I Ate Santa's Cookies" Pajama Shirts Santa is not the only one trying to grab some quick easy snacks during Christmas. With these pajama shirt tops, you can now know who are the biggest culprits when the cookies go missing. Jessica, owner of the J Lucas Label boutique, says that these shirts make her kids the perfect Christmas cookie monsters. "You Can't Catch Me" Pajamas The Gingerbread Man is a classic fairy tale about an energetic cookie. Eloise, from @lifewiththehealeys, put this fun Christmas pajama combo together in honor of the classic story. She used leggings from Kiddin Around Clothing (based in the UK) and a t-shirt from The Punky Leopard. Gingerbread Polka Dot & Stripe Pajamas These pajamas are a great fit for your son and daughter. They show off different gingerbread cookies (one with a bowtie and one with a head bow) and different Christmas-colored patterns. Both patterns are very cute and highlight the holiday red you are accustomed to seeing every December. Interested in these polka dot pajamas? Click here for more details: My Christmas Pyjamas Polka Dot Gingerbread Jammies (based in the UK) Interested in these stripe pajamas? Click here for more details: My Christmas Pyjamas Stripe Gingerbread Jammies (based in the UK) Cookies & Milk Pajamas These pajamas come with a matching onesie and hair bow. While many other pajamas on this list heavily lean into classic Christmas colors like red and green, this one uses lighter color shades. The pink and white polka dot pattern helps to show off the darker chocolate chip and gingerbread cookies. Interested in the hair bow? Check out the creators Tatum Lexi Boutique. Not interested in the bow or onesie, but just want some chocolate chip cookies to munch on? Click here to order some soft chocolate chip cookies for your holiday snacking: Chocolate Chip made with Hershey's® Mini Kisses White Gingerbread Adult Pajamas Adults can have fun with Christmas cookie pajamas too! The white gingerbread cookie pajama top and sweat pants are very comfortable. They are the perfect set to wear when you lounge around the house. Vicky Bruce, a professional European soccer player, loves wearing these with her friends and teammates during the holidays. Newborn Tree Pajamas with Cookies & Milk Newborn babies might not be able to eat cookies yet, but they can still hold some fake ones with their Christmas pajamas. Willow Mint Props has the perfect felt accessories below. These props, along with the Christmas tree onesie, will make your newborn photos even sweeter. White Gingerbread Personalized Kid PJs Kids love having ownership over things, including items that have their names on it. Dinky Downes makes these great, personalized gingerbread pajamas that not only look great, but add a special touch to regular Christmas pajamas. Interested in having a personalized cookie pajama set for your kids? Click here for details: Dinky Downes' Family Pyjama Set (based in Europe) Short-Sleeved Kid Pajamas In some parts of the world, the Christmas season has no cold weather. These kid pajamas from Baby Forest (based in Australia) are meant for people in those regions. The sleepwear is 100% ethically handmade and inspired by nature. They are perfect in keeping your child comfortable, cute, and cool in the warmer parts of the world during the holidays. Whether you have some for yourself or your kids, Christmas cookie pajamas are a great way to stay cute and show off some festive goodies. Best Christmas Cookie Apparel While you probably wish that you and your kids could wear Christmas pajamas all day, sometimes, you need to put on "real" clothes when going out. These clothes do not have to be bland though. With Christmas cookie patterns, your regular clothes can still standout. Check out some of our favorite Christmas cookie apparel below. White Gingerbread Cookie Skirt Elana, from Room 334, shows off a beautiful gingerbread Christmas skirt. The colorful, simple shapes around the piece's edge are perfectly spaced from the waistline so that the skirt can match with more tops. Plus, Elana's gingerbread cookie earrings add to the overall holiday vibe of the outfit. Gingerbread Cookie Dog Bandana Your pets can also be decked out in great Christmas cookie gear. Here, Irene's dog Leo has a fashionable gingerbread cookie dog bandana to accompany his Santa hat. "He always wears this bandana to remind [me] to feed [him] more cookies," Irene says in an Instagram post. "It hasn't worked yet." Sugar Cookie Dress While gingerbread cookies are popular on Christmas apparel, sugar cookies also look great. Sally (@diewrecktorofmayhem) has the perfect sugar cookie dress. You can see frosted stockings, Christmas trees, snowmen, snowflakes, and more in this colorful outfit. Crochet Gingerbread Baby Outfit This gingerbread baby outfit is spectacular! Not only does it have a good onesie, but the knitted hat is very cute. Kaileigh, from @kaileighkrafts, crocheted the apparel below. Place your child in this outfit next to some fresh-baked cookies, and your holiday treat experience will be much sweeter. Various Disney Gingerbread Cookie Outfits Jenn, from @pbandjellyjenn, loves all things gingerbread and Disney. She combines her two passions with some DIY Disney gingerbread outfits to celebrate the holidays. Here are a few of her creations below including dresses, headbands, sweaters, onesies, and more! To see more gingerbread creations and holiday outfits from Jenn, click here. Gingerbread Cookie Newborn Outfit Newborns deserve to be dressed up as something sweet for Christmas. If you put them in a gingerbread cookie outfit, they will be just as happy as the baby below. Taken at Nicki Kristof Photography Gingerbread & Sugar Cookie Skirt Elena (@queenbee_e) shows off a wonderful sugar and gingerbread cookie skirt. The cookies look great against the red color of the skirt. The added gingerbread broach, red hat, and white top are wonderful complements to the cookie piece. With this cute outfit, you are ready to go out in style for your Christmas shopping. Baby Gingerbread Cookie Tutu Outfit The best part of this outfit is how beautiful the smooth brown gingerbread cookie fabric looks with the vibrant red buttons. Willow Mint Props did a great job with this outfit that looks so comfortable for any baby that wears it. Disney Gingerbread Cookie Cardigan While some gingerbread outfits go all in on the look, the cardigan below worn by Kailey from @pretty_hate_machine is a great, simple look. This cardigan is perfect to wear to work, school, or other more formal settings where you want to look festive, but not overbearing. Interested in this cardigan or holiday clothes like it? Click here to see Etsy shop owner Jackie Rodriguez's full collection. Baby Gingerbread Cookie Dress Baby Bella is beautiful in this gingerbread dress. All parts of the outfit, including the big headband and candy cane ruffles, will make any baby gorgeous. When you dress your baby in this outfit for family holiday parties, your aunts, uncles, cousins, and parents will "ooo" and "ah" over how cute your child is. Full Gingerbread Cookie Adult Outfit To be covered in gingerbread cookie apparel from head to toe is a sweet gig! Sarah from the Irregular Voice shows you how this can be done. She wears the candy cane brown skirt, mouse-ear beanie, brown shoes, and striped shirt and leggings to to make a great custom outfit. She even has a gingerbread house purse as a stylish accessory. Other Christmas Cookie Outfits? All these cookie-themed pajamas and outfits are great for the Christmas season. They will impress your family, show off some good style, and help others get in the holiday spirit. Whether you are out gift shopping, or at home snuggling up in bed, your Christmas season will be much sweeter when you wear something with cookies on it. Is there a cookie outfit you have seen or made that we missed? Comment below with a photo of it. Do you want to have the most memorable Christmas party food when your family and friends come over, but don't want to add another dish to your cookie schedule? Check out our soft and tasty packaged cookies that work as easy Christmas snacks: Soft Baked Cookies Do you have a Classic Cookie story you want to share? Email us at contact@classiccookie.com for a chance to have your story featured.

In the 19th century, a nursery rhyme coined the phrase: Sugar and spice And everything nice This classic rhyme was comparing what little girls are made of to what little boys are made of. Today, we are utilizing this key phrase for something different. Two New Flavors Instead of talking about what children are made of, we are taking the "sugar and spice" line to promote its two new 3oz soft-baked snacks. "Sugar" - Sugar Cookie Introducing the new 3oz Sugar Cookie snack from our American cookie factory. This is the "sugar" half of the nursery rhyme line. The perfect balance of vanilla and fine baking sugar transforms this traditional sugar cookie recipe into an irresistible treat with just the right amount of sweetness! After seeing the success of the smaller lunchbox-sized sugar cookie, we decided to upgrade to a bigger version. This new 3 oz cookie is 4 times bigger than the original lunchbox-sized cookie, yet just as soft and chewy. This cookie in a yellow package is the perfect Thanksgiving and Christmas snack to serve dinner guests, eat with a cup of hot chocolate, or munch on to get in a festive holiday mood. The soft individually wrapped sugar cookie is a great treat to enjoy this holiday season. *You can order this new cookie in an 8-count box that will directly ship to your door here. "Spice" - Snickerdoodle On top of the new sugar cookie, we also launched the new packaged snickerdoodle cookie. This snack represents the "spice" half of the nursery rhyme line. This snickerdoodle is a flavorful take on the classic flavor. Our popular sugar cookie base with cinnamon mixed throughout makes this a fantastic snack. Unlike other individually wrapped snickerdoodle bakery products, this snack eliminates the excess cinnamon sugar problem. Other snickerdoodle brands dust the top of their products with cinnamon sugar that falls off completely once you pull the treat out of the package. This can be messy as you try to eat the cookie on the go or at your desk. Do you want cinnamon sugar all over your clothes? Classic Cookie snickerdoodles do not have this extra coating of cinnamon sugar on the top of the cookie. Instead, our snickerdoodle has more cinnamon baked into the cookie. This helps you to stay clean and enjoy a hassle-free snickerdoodle while on the go. The new soft snickerdoodle cookie is a classic holiday snack you will enjoy. *You can order this new cookie in an 8-count box that will directly ship to your door here. Sugar and Spice The Sugar and Snickerdoodle cookies are wonderful new additions to the Classic Cookie family. Both have our brand's signature soft texture, great taste, and American-made qualities. If you need some easy, festive holiday snacks for you or your family to enjoy, these are the best to get. Check the new cookies out for yourself today: www.classiccookie.com #SugarandSpice __________________________________________________________________________________ Do you have a Classic Cookie story you want to share? Email us at contact@classiccookie.com for a chance to have your story featured.

Just like adults, children love Halloween snacks that they can only eat during the Fall. These treats make the season special! From ingredients like pumpkin, peanut butter, caramel, chocolate, nutmeg, cinnamon, and more, Halloween snacks have a lot to offer. With all of the options out there, you may be wondering, which snacks should I make to let my kids get in the season's spirit? Here are five Halloween snack ideas that are great to make and won't scare your kids away from eating them. Soft Baked Mini Classic Cookies Your kids love cookies, and these ones are the easiest to put in a lunchbox or bag. Classic Cookie's soft baked mini cookies are only 80-90 calories each, come individually wrapped, and are made with pure cane sugar as opposed to corn syrup. Three flavors are available including Chocolate Chip made with Hershey's®, Peanut Butter made with Reese's® Peanut Butter Chips, and Sugar Cookie. The peanut butter is especially great for Halloween because of its orange wrapper. Each flavor requires no baking and is a quick easy snack to throw in a lunchbox as a treat for your child. Click here to order today: Soft Baked Minis Monster Mix Monster Mix is one of the easiest treats you can quickly make in bulk. Think of this type of mix as the festive upgrade to regular trail mix. Most Monster Mixes are made with just dry ingredients. This means you can just throw products into a bowl, mix or shake the bowl, and voila! You now have a great treat for your kids to snack on. If they want to take some with them to school, this treat can easily be bagged or put in containers. Some ingredients you can consider to put in this mix include: Shelled Nuts - you want the nuts to be free so your kids don't accidentally swallow a shell when they are eating everything else in the mix Peanuts Pistachios Sunflower Seeds Candy Corn - regular candy corn will do the job, but you can add candy pumpkins as well to make your mix more festive Pretzels - long and thin, traditional, or waffle types are all wonderful Chocolate Chips - if you want to be bold, you can add Hershey's® white chips, or even Kisses Chocolate Candies - Reese's® Pieces are especially good if you want to stick with Halloween colors Raisins - gives the kids some sort of fruit in the mix Marshmallows - something fluffy in the sea of harder ingredients Cereal Bits - this can include Cocoa Puffs® and Cinnamon Toast Crunch® bits that add some extra fall flavor to the mix Popcorn - lightly salted without butter will complement other ingredients And More! For different recipe variations, check out these below House of Nash Eats Monster Mix The Love Nerd Monster Mash Halloween Mix Simply 2 Moms Monster Munch Mix Banana Ghosts These ghoulish treats are a quick easy snack for breakfast or for lunch. All you have to do is cut a banana in half and then stick chocolate chips in for the eyes and mouth. Depending on what you like for your kids, the ghosts can have regular chocolate chips for the mouth or a Hershey's® Kiss. You can also switch out the chocolate chips for tiny chocolate sauce dollops. You can find various online chocolate sauce recipes to make with your kids. Pumpkin Bread Pumpkin flavor is all over the place during the Halloween season. One of the best snacks your kids will love is a warm slice of this bread. There are many different variations of this type of bread that your kids will love. The most common version of pumpkin bread is a regular loaf with the pumpkin puree in it. Other spices like nutmeg and ginger are usually added. Other bread variations include doing more of a pumpkin roll that has cream cheese filling in the middle. Some recipes even call for a cream cheese frosting. Other recipes include chocolate chips, poppy seeds, or cinnamon sugar coatings. Any way that you make it, your kids will love the warm taste and can easily take a few slices to school to snack on. Here are a few pumpkin bread recipes to try: The Bake School Perfect Pumpkin Loaf Cake Sally's Baking Recipes Pumpkin Bread Recipe Simply Recipes Pumpkin Bread Sliced Apples & Caramel Dip Caramel apples are a popular Halloween treat, but they take a long time and some skill to make. However, sliced apples dipped in caramel sauce is faster, easier, and tastes great! Caramel dips are easy to make and only have a few ingredients (usually a mix of brown sugar, heavy cream, and butter). After mixing ingredients, you can put them over the stove to boil and then cool to get the soft dip consistency. Kids will love having this side with their apples for lunch. Here are a few different recipes you can check out to find the best caramel dip for you. 12 Tomatoes Homemade Caramel Dip Belly Full Caramel Sauce Recipe A Farmgirl's Dabbles Homemade Caramel Dip Recipe The Snack End Halloween snacks should be fun, festive, and flavorful. With pumpkin, peanut butter, and other spices to play with, your kids will be excited at all the seasonal snacks they can have. Quick easy snacks are the best option for lunches, parties, or just taking a road trip through some beautiful fall scenery. Try wrapped soft baked mini cookies, Monster Mix, banana ghosts, pumpkin bread, and apple slices with caramel dip for the next time your child says, "I'm hungry - what is there to eat?" __________________________________________________________________________________ Do you have a Classic Cookie story you want to share? Email us at contact@classiccookie.com for a chance to have your story featured.

Did you know that Alzheimer's disease is the sixth-leading cause of death for adults in the United States? (CDC) Every year, more and more adults suffer from this heartbreaking disease. In Classic Cookie's hometown of Sevierville, TN, the disease is also prevalent among its adult population. To help find a cure, Classic has teamed up with the local Alzheimer's Association branch to raise awareness and funds for the organization in the month of August 2022. To kick off their fundraising season, the Alzheimer's Association coordinated a Paint the Town Purple event across Knox and Sevier County. The association encouraged businesses to decorate storefronts and ask employees to wear purple to show support and awareness in the community. Without a current storefront, Classic Cookie decided to take its purple individually packaged oatmeal raisin cookie and make it the focus of the event's efforts. For the entire month of August, the company will be giving back 15% of online sales on oatmeal raisin back to the Alzheimer's Association. Support the cause today by ordering your Oatmeal Raisin cookies: www.classiccookie.com #RespecttheRaisin __________________________________________________________________________________ Do you have a Classic Cookie story you want to share? Email us at contact@classiccookie.com for a chance to have your story featured.

“That’s just the way the cookie crumbles.” How many times have you heard that phrase when someone is trying to get you to accept how things are? Do not settle for the status quo, especially when it comes to your snacks. Choose a cookie that crumbles a different way… Introducing Classic Cookie’s latest bakery creation – Cookies n’ Créme made with Hershey’s® White Chips. The original recipe mixed with cookie crumbles and Hershey’s® creamy chips make the perfect blend. Customers are already raving about this new product. “Love the new cookie! So good!” Matt, VA "I'm usually not a fan for packaged cookies, but this cookie is top notch," Natalie, MO "It was bussin. Mmmm. Delicioso. Oh it was just so good," Shyla, SC The Cookies n’ Créme cookie is great for convenience store, vending, and retail owners looking to sell a great snack to their customers. With an individual wrapper that keeps the product from getting dried out, the cookie will maintain its fresh, home baked flavor for 10 months on the shelf. Classic Cookie’s signature of great taste and soft texture makes their products, including this new cookie, the best shelf-stable packaged cookie product line in the market right now. The product just crumbles a different way than other snacks. Check the new cookie out for yourself today: www.classiccookie.com #CookiesnCreme __________________________________________________________________________________ Do you have a Classic Cookie story you want to share? Email us at contact@classiccookie.com for a chance to have your story featured.

For every topic, there is always debate on who or what is the G.O.A.T. (greatest of all time). A few examples include Fast Food McDonald's vs. Burger King Science Fiction Franchises Star Wars vs. Star Trek Pets Cats vs. Dogs Soda Coke vs. Pepsi Basketball Player Michael Jordan vs. LeBron James Home Improvement Store Home Depot vs. Lowe's The list goes on and on. What about in the cookie world? Types of Cookies In the snack world, cookies come in all different types and flavors. Different cookie types include regular, sandwich, fortune, gingerbread, wafer, molasses, macarons, and macaroons. All these types have good and bad elements about them. A regular chocolate chip cookie is generally regarded as the most popular cookie in the world. However, a large contingency of people are starting to realize that there is another level of cookie that delights taste buds and makes the perfect snack. They are saying that it is the GOAT cookie (greatest of all time). That cookie type they are referring to is the oatmeal cookie. The GOAT Cookie Soft baked oatmeal cookies are the greatest cookies of all time. These cookies come in many different flavors (including oatmeal raisin) and have another taste tier to them compared to regular cookies. See what fans of this cookie type are saying on social media: "Oatmeal cookies are so underrated." Madison "Growing up is realizing that oatmeal cookies are top tier." space man "Oatmeal raisin cookies > other cookies. I'll die on this hill." Marc H. "Yes they fire." Blake L. "I love soft oatmeal raisin cookies!!" Amanda J. Now, a new member joins the GOAT oatmeal cookie family. New Oatmeal Cookie Introducing the new cookie to the GOAT family: Oatmeal Créme made with Hershey's® white chips. Oatmeal Créme is a tasty modern take on the classic oatmeal cream pie snack. Delicious cinnamon, Hershey's® white chips, oatmeal, and other spices come together to form this nostalgic flavor in a cookie form. Customers have already been raving about this new cookie: "Oatmeal creme is delicious and kid approved. [My son] is obsessed with them, and my husband agrees." Britt H. "These [oatmeal creme cookies] didn't last very long in our house at all, and we need to order more already!" Kekoa S. "They are slap yo momma good...I never anticipated such a rich cookie. Will seek these out on every road trip. These taste like home." Jordan Y. A G.O.A.T. cookie with a goat. When you need some snack food ideas for a road trip, business meeting, or the beach, the new Classic Cookie Oatmeal Créme cookie will give you the flavor and satisfaction you deserve. These individually packaged cookies are in high demand, so check some out for yourself today. #OatisTheGOAT __________________________________________________________________________________ Do you have a Classic Cookie story you want to share? Email us at contact@classiccookie.com for a chance to have your story featured.

What comes to mind when you think about the most popular cookie flavors: chocolate chip, peanut butter, snickerdoodle, sugar? What about oatmeal raisin? For centuries, a variation of this cookie has delighted people around the world. The first form came in the Middle Ages when the British and Scots made oatcakes. They would blend these cakes with raisins and nuts and give them to soldiers as a mid-battle energy snack. (Biscuit People) The modern oatmeal cookie itself came from Fannie Farmer who published the first recipe in 1896. (Oregon Live) The cookie became popular when Quaker Oats put it on their packaging in the early 1900s. (National Day Calendar) From there, the sweet treat grew to be a staple snack in American society. Even with this history, the oatmeal raisin cookie is a polarizing treat with equal amounts of staunch supporters and malicious critics. Critics claim, "Why would you ever put raisins in something as good as cookies, especially when you have chocolate chips?" In rebuttal, defenders state that the perfect blend of cinnamon and oatmeal with the gummy raisin texture provides a great tasting treat. Some go as far as saying that only those with mature taste buds can enjoy the flavor. Whether it is mature taste buds or something else, oatmeal raisin supporters are right when it comes to how flavorful and on-the-go the cookie can be. Those in a morning rush can grab the cookie on their way out and easily put it in a purse, travel bag, or lunchbox. For those who drink something in the morning, the treat nicely pairs with smoothies, coffee, and juice beverages. The cookie is also great for convenience store, vending, and retail owners looking to sell a great snack to their customers. With an individual wrapper that keeps it from getting soggy or dried out, the cookie will maintain its freshness for 12 months on the shelf. Classic Cookie's soft oatmeal raisin cookie has great taste and is a big hit with consumers who are looking for more out of their snacks. With this, business owners can expect a fast-moving product with great margins. While it still polarizes cookie lovers everywhere, the oatmeal raisin cookie deserves more respect than what it has faced. From having great flavor and a massive support group, Classic Cookie's new individually packaged cookie is one that consumers are demanding (many say it is the best oatmeal raisin cookie), and businesses will easily sell. Check the new cookie out for yourself today. #RespectTheRaisin __________________________________________________________________________________ Do you have a Classic Cookie story you want to share? Email us at contact@classiccookie.com for a chance to have your story featured.