SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) – Now two years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain shortages continue to impact small businesses.
“Customers have that panic like ‘Oh my God, we didn’t get the cookies and now she’s closing so we can’t get the cookies’ and it’s hard to try to explain to them because it’s not their problem,” said Sheila Coon, owner of Hot Oven Cookies.
Hot Oven Cookies in Springfield forced to close their doors on Tuesday due to supply chain shortages. From flour to paper goods to now cream cheese, Coon told Western Mass News that this wasn’t the first time they have had to close since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic due to a lack of supplies.
“We were closed yesterday because we were expecting a shipment of some of the ingredients we need and some of the flour and stuff and we didn’t get it because it’s still late, so I had to go and look for the stuff ourselves,” Coon explained.
Sometimes, that leaves her to go out and search for the ingredients herself to make over 1,000 cookies a day.
“If we can’t get it brought to us by a certain time and we can afford it, guess what, we have to go to Stop and Shop, Target, Big Y. We go all over the place to find the ingredients that we need,” Coon noted.
One of the ways Hot Oven Cookies has adapted to the paper good shortage is by using these pizza boxes to give cookies to their customers.
“We are trying not to raise our prices. We’re trying to keep our prices consistent, so our customers don’t have to take a hit. That’s why we are doing the pizza box, so I could be doing the other boxes and order them at a higher price, but then my customers are going to take a hit and I would rather invest in them in the boxes,” Coon added.
Coon said keeping her cookies affordable is top priority, but even with over 1,000 different cookie varieties, sometimes adjustments aren’t enough to deliver customers the same delicious cookies they expect.
“Some of the specialty ingredients that we have to have shipped to us and so if it doesn’t get here on time, you know, what happens I have to close because this thing is too is consistency for us, brand consistency,” Coon said.
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