On September 29, notable Australian influencers lined up for hours for an exclusive, invite-only Crumbl pop-up shop. Crumbl isn’t currently available in Australia, which is why so many people were willing to wait so long for one cookie, which ended up being extremely overpriced, and stale. The cookies were priced at $17.50 AUD (12.06 USD) each, while the cookies are typically $5.49 USD in the United States.
The people who organized this pop-up created social media accounts under the name Crumbl Sydney, and messaged
notable influencers, inviting them to the event. Many influencers took to their socials to review their experiences, almost all being negative. After the situation was noticed by the actual Crumbl company, the accounts were banned and all their videos were deleted. In order to pull off this stunt, the organizers had to import insane amounts of cookies, paying almost $6,000 for them, including the packaging.
Sofia, an influencer on TikTok, went to the pop-up and waited in line for 45 minutes. The video posted on her account (@sofiaqistinee) on 9/29, describes her experience. She mentions how she was “sketched out because I found this through TikTok and Instagram, and it wasn’t endorsed by Crumbl.” Nevertheless, she went and got her cookies, noting how pricey it was for just one cookie. When trying the cookies, Sofia rates the freshness a “0 out of 5” and then rates the overall cookie a “3 out of 10”.
On October 6, Crumbl made an Instagram account for Crumbl Australia, posting a reel with article headings about the fake pop-up, captioning it that the “REAL Crumbl is coming soon.” The comments of that post are filled with both skepticism and people begging for Crumbl to be brought to their city, specifically Melbourne and Brisbane. Crumbl has yet to announce where their new locations will be.
Crumbl Cookie is a franchise founded by two cousins, Jason McGowan and Sawyer Hemsley. Their goal was to bring people together over “a box of the best cookies in the world.” The first location was opened in the founders’ hometown, Logan, Utah. Crumbl structures their stores as an open-kitchen concept, so the customers can watch the cookies be made. Crumbl’s has 6 new flavors every week and the menu is always changing.
The closest Crumbl Cookie to Morgan is the North Haven location, which is 18 miles away, and it takes about 40 minutes to get there. Yet, many students make the journey out there to try the new cookies every week. Crumbl’s cookie lineup rotates every week, with the only consistent cookies being semi-sweet chocolate chunk or milk chocolate chip. Sophomore, Megan Campion, loves Crumbl Cookie, but because of the distance she doesn’t get to go too often. “It’s just worth it because you get a good-sized cookie out of it,” said Megan, “and you get to choose up to six(cookies).” She says when the flavors look really good it intrigues her to go, especially when the flavors are something that isn’t typically a cookie flavor. Senior, Jason Mansfield, makes the trip out to Crumbl every so often, he says he likes that the flavors are always changing. “I feel like I wouldn’t go if it was the same every week.” Which is
something many can relate too, the thrill of getting to see what the week’s cookies will be when they’re announced every sunday. “I don’t really care about the distance because I’ve never been the one driving.” states junior Camryn Mazzarella, a lot of the people who typically drive out with their friends and also go to Target or Chick-Fil-A, which are nearby in North Haven. When the flavors are good, Camryn likes to go because you can’t get cookies like that anywhere else. “Crumbl is like special cookies.”
