A cafe’s dilemma with leftover cookie dough during lockdown has turned into a runaway success, with the product now stocked in more than 600 Coles stores nationally.
Bondi cafe Bennett St Dairy and its nearby sister spot Blair St Dairy were already selling 800 of their popular giant gooey chocolate chip cookies each week, before COVID-19 hit.
But when the cafes closed during the first lockdown in early 2020, a clear of the fridges uncovered about 100kg of cookie dough destined for the garbage.
“We thought rather than throwing it out, let’s just put it up on social media and see if anyone wants to buy it. We thought it’d maybe put a few extra dollars in our pocket,” co-founder James Meek said.
“Lo and behold, that took off and within two weeks, we were selling a tonne of cookie dough.”
For Meek and his co-founder, chef Cliff Baskin, the timing worked in their favour.
Their two cafes already had a strong following from social influencers needing things to post, while at the same time people were yearning for things to do while stuck at home.
“It tied in really well for us, it got blown up on social media and we went viral. And it’s about that time we thought we’re onto something, we need to pursue this,” Meek said.
Fortunately their cafes were not operating at that time, allowing the duo to focus all their attention on cookie dough and “push it out there as far as we can”.
Their 30 staff were diverted into roles including dough making and delivery driving.
“As a business, we were fortunate we weren’t too big, that it wasn’t hard for us to change what we were doing and we could move really fast in regards to the demand that was out there,” Meek said.
“At the time it was like, ‘Oh, if we’re not making that much we’ll get the JobKeeper’, but it actually turned over more than the cafes.”
The 500g dough range was rolled out nationally in March in more than 300 Woolworths stores. Last week, it was stocked in more than 600 Coles stores.
Dozens of other independent retailers, including IGA, also sell the pre-packaged dough, while select Ampol Woolworths MetroGo service stations supply the hot cookies.
About 10,000 rolls of the dough are now sold each week in flavours including Original Choc Chip, White Chocolate & Macadamia and the new Salted Caramel & White Choc.
