mrs . fields
mrs. fields signature: cookie tins, boxes, & more | mrs. fields
debbi fields: mrs. fields' secret ingredient (1987 interview) | urltoken
, mrs. fields famous brands, llc dba famous brands international is the parent company to mrs. fields .
united states of america v. mrs. fields famous brands, inc. , mrs. fields' holding company, inc. , and mrs. fields' original cookies, inc .
mrs. fields famous brands, inc. , mrs. fields' holding company, inc. , and mrs. fields' original cookies, inc. , u. s. (for the ftc )
mrs. fields famous brands, inc. , mrs. fields' holding company, inc. , and mrs. fields' original cookies, inc. , u. s. (for the ftc) | federal trade commission
forever chipper: despite financial woes, mrs. fields denies her empire is crumbling
acquisition of premier brands maxfield candy and nutty guys to accelerate growth at mrs. fields
how to build a multimillion - dollar company: the story of mrs. fields cookies
or by calling 1. 800. cookies. for more information on mrs. fields visit
mrs. fields' staff are gracious and kind. they always smile at their customers ,
forever chipper: despite financial woes, mrs. fields denies her empire is crumbling - latimes
mrs. fields: her life as the top cookie: the chips never ...
mrs. fields original cookie company was formed in 1996 when greenwich, conn. - based capricorn holdings acquired mrs. fields and the original cookie company. in 2003, mrs. fields famous brands was formed to oversee the combined businesses and focus on franchising. in 2004, mrs. fields famous brands completed a refinancing and began selling its company - owned stores .
ftc receives largest coppa civil penalties to date in settlements with mrs. fields cookies and hershey foods
in 1977 and the mrs. fields name quickly became associated with warm, freshly baked cookies right out of the oven. today, mrs. fields products are available at over 300 retail locations in
mrs. fields' original cookies, inc. is a privately - held company that operates in the following industries: bakery products and casual dining restaurants. mrs. fields' original cookies, inc. was founded in 1977 by debra fields. mrs. fields' original cookies, inc. headquarters are located in salt lake city, utah. mrs. fields' original cookies, inc. operates as a subsidiary of famous brands franchising llc .
the real recipe behind the phenomenal growth of mrs. fields cookies cannot be found in the dough .
the one - time nationally prominent mrs. fields cookie stores will soon no longer be a utah company .
since the late' 80s, mrs. fields inc. has been in and out of red ink .
after randy fields computerized mrs. fields' cookies, he began selling his artificial intelligence / store management software through a subsidiary, fields software group. burger king corporation in 1990 became one of the software customers .
' mrs. fields' cookies goes east,' fortune, february 7, 1983, p. 9 .
in january, nexcen brands said it acquired the great american cookie from mrs. fields for $ 93. 7 million. it also acquired two units of mrs. fields for $ 29. 4 million in august 2007 .
richman, tom,' mrs. fields' secret ingredient: the real recipe behind the phenomenal growth of mrs. fields' cookies cannot be found in the dough,' inc. , october 1987, p. 65 .
© 2016 interbake foods, llc. the mrs. fields® and nibblers® name, mark and all associated trademarks and logotypes, are owned by the mrs. fields’ brand, inc. and used under license by interbake foods, llc .
we are extremely excited that the maxfield candy brand, whose previously owner was a long - standing mrs. fields licensee, will officially join our family as we continue to expand the iconic mrs. fields and tcby brands throughout the world ,
said
as a long - standing partner to mrs. fields, maxfield candy is a natural addition to our portfolio ,
said
the original mrs. fields cookie! our fresh baked personalized gifts & gift baskets are guaranteed to impress. see our cookie gifts
here' s your chance to win a trip to london from sherlock gnomes and mrs. fields! visit urltoken and enter now
you can still visit your favorite mrs. fields store to enjoy half dozen cookie nibblers for only p40 😊 # mrsfieldsph # loveitshareit
pogrebin, robin,' what went wrong with mrs. fields?' working woman, july 1993, p. 9 .
mouth watering yet? win one of mrs. fields' best - selling recipe books by entering over at our facebook page !
michael ward, interim co - chief executive of mrs. fields famous brands, was not available to comment, reuters said .
the cookie we now know was first attributed to greedy bakers at mrs. fields, circa 1987, and the rumor proved pervasive enough that mrs. fields stores started displaying the following sign :
mrs. fields recipe has never been sold. there is a rumor circulating that the mrs. fields cookie recipe was sold to a woman at a cost of $ 250. a chocolate - chip cookie recipe was attached to the story. i would like to tell all my customers that this story is not true, this is not my recipe and i have not sold the recipe to anyone. mrs. fields recipe is a delicious trade secret .
from all of us at mrs. fields, happy valentine' s day! we hope your day is as sweet as you are
people from mrs. fields are kind and they are sweet also like their cookies. they know how to connect with their customers .
funk, marianne,' mrs. fields' is transforming some stores into boutiques,' deseret news, july 16, 1990 .
when people ask how she turned her cookie recipe into a $ 450 million company, debbi fields, founder of mrs. fields, likes to say she grew up in an extremely wealthy family .
mrs. fields is based in broomfield, colorado with a production and distribution facility in salt lake city, utah. debbi fields opened her first store in palo alto, california in 1977 and the mrs. fields name quickly became associated with warm, freshly baked cookies right out of the oven. today, mrs. fields enjoys the highest aided brand awareness in the industry and sells products at over 300 retail locations globally and online. visit urltoken for more information .
you rarely hear this tale told of mrs. fields these days — the 1990s saw it shift yet again, this time to point a finger at neiman - marcus. one possible reason for this shift could have been a double misremembering of names as the legend was briefly told of the department store marshall fields: mrs. fields to marshall fields (similar name) and marshall fields to neiman marcus (similar - sounding name plus both are department stores) .
tribune file photo the ceo of mrs. fields famous brand told employees this week that the company is moving its salt lake city - area
make my son remember his childhood with all the treats i get to buy for him everytime i pass by a mrs. fields store .
knudson, max b. ,' fields cookie without the mrs. or mr. ?' deseret news, may 20, 1998 .
go to article from reuters via the new york times » go to mrs. fields filing with the s. e. c. »
passing by a mrs. fields store because its really really tempting! even the smell of their freshly baked cookies would make me give in .
- - - -,' mrs. fields' cookies says it has accord to fuel growth,' deseret news, february 17, 1993 .
capricorn investors may want to review its investment strategy. after paying $ 140 million for tcby they turned around and bought mrs. fields. hmmm .
mrs. fields recipe has never been sold. there is a rumor circulating that the mrs. fields cookie recipe was sold to a woman at a cost of $ 250. a chocolate - chip cookie recipe was attached to the story. i would like to tell all my customers that this story is not true, this is not my recipe and i have not sold the recipe to anyone. mrs. fields recipe is a delicious trade secret .
by the late 1970s, this legend had shifted to mrs. fields and chocolate chip cookies. indeed, this version proved so fiendishly popular that in 1987 the following notice signed by debbi fields was displayed in her stores :
mrs. fields is a premier cookie and baked goods store and offers a wide range of exclusively designed gifts and gift baskets, perfect for any occasion .
' mrs. fields inc. back on track with' 89 income of $ 1. 5 million,' deseret news, april 11, 1990 .
tribune file photo the ceo of mrs. fields famous brand told employees this week that the company is moving its salt lake city - area headquarters to denver. mrs. fields, which emerged from bankruptcy in 2008, has franchises in more than 950 stores under its brand and the tcby frozen - yogurt banner .
on paper, mrs. fields cookies looks almost conventional. in action, however, because of the way information flows between levels, it feels almost flat .
fields, debbi, and alan furst, one smart cookie: how a housewife' s chocolate chip recipe turned into a multimillion dollar business: the story of mrs. fields' cookies, new york: simon and schuster, 1987 .
debbi fields is the founder of mrs. fields cookies. the business was started in 1977 in palo alto, california as mrs. field' s chocolate chippery. the name was changed as the company began to diversify beyond the venerable chocolate chip. the company grosses over $ 300 million from over 1000 outlets in 9 countries .
if administrative bureaucracies can grow out of control, so can technology bureaucracies. a couple of principles, ruthlessly adhered to, keep both simple at mrs. fields .
such a welcoming cafe! mrs. fields had a huge relevance to my high school life thanks to their w - fi (which helped a lot in my projects) ,
a leaflet of unknown origin has been distributed in chain - letter fashion throughout the country during the past several months claiming to reveal the mrs. fields chocolate chip cookie recipe. the formula provided on the single sheet of paper purports to duplicate the one used for the premium treats sold by the more than 375 mrs. fields outlets around the nation .
in the meantime, signs have been posted in all mrs. fields stores and a disclaimer added to all the firm' s packaging denying any link to the bogus recipe .
realizing that mrs fields cookies are a high price product and people loosing their jobs. there is a good chance for cosumers will not spend $ 4. . a cookie .
the popularity of mrs. fields' cookies, the basis for the urban legend, was also seen in congress in the late 1980s and early 1990s. utah' s congressmen about twice a year distributed free cookies, baked at local mrs. fields' stores in the washington, d. c. , area, to the hundreds of other representatives .
in 1990 mrs. fields' cookies announced an agreement with the marriott corporation which allowed marriott to own at least 60 stores to bake and sell the popular bakery products. marriott gained the exclusive right to build mrs. fields' cookies stores in airports, hotels, and highway travel plazas and pay the cookie company approximately five percent of its gross sales .
in the meantime, debbi and randy fields received numerous honors. in 1988 the utah chapter of the national conference of christians and jews honored the couple with its brotherhood / sisterhood award for their many community contributions in business and philanthropy. debbi fields served on the boards of the cystic fibrosis research foundation, the park city educational foundation, and salt lake city' s lds hospital. she and her husband founded mrs. fields' children' s health foundation and donated millions to study children' s diseases. randy fields was president of riverview financial corporation, the fields investment group, and the fields consulting group. as the president of a firm with over 700 outlets worldwide, mrs. fields told the national conference attendees that ,
we are very proud to receive this award, but you must remember that each time you' ve enjoyed mrs. fields' cookies, you' re the one who' s allowing us to give .
the company, which licenses and franchises about 1, 200 mrs. fields cookies and tcby frozen yogurt locations worldwide, has begun soliciting votes from creditors for a “prepackaged” reorganization plan .
mrs. fields said in the regulatory filing that it would have been unable to make an interest payment on its debt in september. it said it planned to continue doing business .
burdened by heavy debt and hobbled by recession - related sales declines... mrs. fields cookies agreed to give its lenders nearly 80% of the company... .
famous brands international, parent to the mrs. fields cookies and tcby brands, has promoted former chief financial officer dustin lyman to the role of ceo, the company said this week .
mrs. fields gifts operations, which employ about 60 people full time and 300 during the holidays, will remain in utah, and perhaps expand as the company grows, casey said .
ies, the staff at these two stores are awesome! makes me feel so much at home. it' s always a
happy sweet day !
at mrs. fields .
t to your loved ones! staff is polite and attentive - mrs. field' s atc branch
/ prnewswire / - - famous brands international (
famous brands
), the parent company of tcby yogurt and mrs. fields cookies, today announced that its subsidiary mrs. fields confections acquired virtually all of the assets of international confections company, llc dba maxfield candy company, including premium brands maxfield candy and nutty guys following entry of an order of the third judicial district court of
it turns out that the recipe is only an imitation of the real mrs. fields cookie and did not originate with the company. in fact, the process responsible for the firm' s popular sweets is a proprietary secret and, as such, is protected by u. s. trade laws. furthermore, mrs. fields does not accept any credit cards, nor does it sell recipes .
mrs fields cookies may have started out as the best; it would not have expanded so rapidly if it were not at least a quality cookie. many people apparently think it still is, and i think this is more of a mind set, like thinkging there no better coffee than starbucks. obviously there is a lot of subjectivety to evaluating a cookie, and that being the case, i can assure you there are many cookies manufactures that are far superior to mrs. fields. for those that feel mrs. fields is the best, let them try davids cookies, gimmee jimmy’s cookies (which i thing are imcomparable). mrs fields is in trouble because they lost their focus, as starbucks did, and they are far from the best, something that is slowly being discovered .
mr. fields was entertained in some of the richest homes, by some of the best and the brightest. mrs. fields tagged along, with what seemed like very little to contribute to the erudite chatter. no college education, no special areas of expertise, no confidence in herself .
even today, mrs. fields' arch competitor, michael coles, founder and chairman of the board of the great american cookie co. , doesn' t put down his rival' s cookies .
but fields, forever chipper, says ,
we' ve learned from our mistakes .
with about $ 196 million in publicly traded debt, mrs. fields said it struck a deal on wednesday with capricorn investors to modify certain financial terms and revise timelines under the terms of their investment agreement .
but there' s nothing hokey about the 18. 5% that mrs. fields inc. earned on cookie sales of $ 87 million last year, up from $ 72. 6 million a year earlier .
mrs. fields inc... . has
finalize (d) recapitalization which will fuel the company' s growth in the 1990s. concomitantly, the company announced plans for 100 new stores this year .
fields speculates that a competitor in the gourmet cookie business is the most likely source of the problem .
which is why we picked the brain of the real - life mrs. fields about the dictionary that changed her life, how to get a business loan and why good chocolate (and vanilla) is always best .
the company was founded when debbi fields opened her first cookie store in palo alto, calif. , in 1977 and then moved operations to utah sometime after that. although she no longer holds an interest in mrs. fields famous brands, the relationship between the founder and the company remains cordial, casey said last year .
, chairman of famous brands and chief executive officer of z capital .
the famous brands' team has worked tirelessly to capitalize on the significant potential of the company' s platform, and today, tcby and mrs. fields are distinctly positioned in their respective markets and expanding rapidly. with the recent success of tcby and mrs. fields, including our in - store gifting stations, the addition of the maxfield candy and nutty guys brands will only accelerate the global demand for famous brands' products. we look forward to capitalizing on the tremendous growth prospects of these two brands to further elevate tcby and mrs. fields and continue the momentum at famous brands .
which is why we picked the brain of the real - life mrs. fields about the dictionary that changed her life, how to get a business loan, and why good chocolate (and vanilla) is always best .
the ordering process doesn' t happen that way yet at mrs. fields, although it probably will soon as randy continues to press for more exception reporting. you can see where he' s going with this concept .
apparently it' s only been neiman' s for about 20 years. some speculate that this came about when, in some sort of chain - letter game of telephone ,
mrs. fields
morphed into
marshall fields
which in turn somehow became
neiman - marcus .
maybe texans just had better pr .
like many other firms, mrs. fields' cookies in the 1990s used the internet to stimulate sales. the company was one of over 100 businesses included on the utah - based virtual mall called ishopper started in july 1996 .
mrs. fields famous brands, the private - equity - backed cookie retailer, said on friday that it planned to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to help restructure its business, according to a securities and exchange commission filing .
i really loved mrs. fields cookies. one of the best cookies for me. i bought 3pcs of twice baked cookies for my daughter at sm san lazaro. before we left the store i asked the lady staff if the cookie
also in 1989, mrs. fields' cookies began making frozen cookie dough at its carson, california plant and then shipping it to selected stores in utah. previously it had been the only major cookie maker that did not use frozen dough. in december 1989 the company began the process of selling its carson plant to van den bergh foods, a unilever group subsidiary. however, mrs. fields' cookies kept the part of the plant that made its cookies .
some managers would have problems with a system that operates without their daily intervention. they wouldn' t be comfortable, and they wouldn' t stay at mrs. fields. those who do stay can manage people instead of paper .
mrs. fields, which has about $ 196 million in publicly traded debt, said it reached an agreement on wednesday with its equity sponsor capricorn investors to modify certain financial terms and revise timelines under the terms of their investment agreement .
mrs. fields now faces a $ 10. 2 million interest payment on its notes that are due in september. the company plans to continue doing business and has also hired blackstone advisory services to explore a possible sale of tcby .
in a letter to employees, ceo tim casey said the company made the decision after a search for a location that would support the franchising of its mrs. fields cookie and treats stores and the company' s tcby frozen yogurt outlets .
at mrs. fields, a tradition of excellence means, ‘it’s all about the treat. ’ our signature products include tempting cookies, brownies, and muffins, which are baked continuously throughout the day and served fresh at each of our locations .
spread holiday cheer to all your friends and family with one of mrs. fields’ gourmet holiday gift baskets and christmas cookie tins. shop our collection of holiday cookies and gift baskets and discover the perfect gift that will be sure to bring a smile to everyone’s face. choose from freshly baked brownies and nibblers™, or our soft and tasty classic chocolate chip cookies – you’ll find the sweetest gift baskets for everyone at mrs. fields™. order online or in - store to have your holiday gifts delivered !
it' s down - home debbi, 36, mother of five girls (ages 1 1 / 2 to 13), and chairman of the board of mrs. fields inc. , which operates 780 stores, 380 of which are franchised .
in december, the company completed a refinancing that saw the carlyle group and z capital partners, which combined held the majority of the treat vendor' s $ 65 million in senior secured notes, swap that debt for controlling interest in mrs. fields .
the company has about 1, 200 franchised mrs. fields and tcby stores worldwide. it was founded in 1977 by debra j. fields, a financial adviser who turned a homemade recipe into a cookie phenomenon. she lost control of her business in 1993, when lenders took a nearly 80. 0% in the company in exchange for forgiving $ 46 million in debt .
they also owned park city' s main street mall, home of their corporate headquarters, the egyptian theatre, and other properties. in 1988 they closed their ice cream parlor so they could use the former dudler building for mrs. fields' cookie college .
it was all about taking control of her life. so debbi fields, a young mother with no business experience, opened her first cookie store in palo alto, california in 1977. they told her she was crazy. no business could survive just selling cookies. humble beginnings launched mrs. fields® into a worldwide celebrity and made her company the premier chain of cookie and baked goods stores .
in 1982 mrs. fields' cookies recorded sales of about $ 30 million. by early 1983 the company had moved to park city, utah, and operated 70 stores from honolulu to chicago, and then it decided to open its first store in new york city .
our purpose here is to find out if mrs. fields' feel - good cookies were an' 80s flash in the pan, victims of the economic crunch that were too rich (at three buttery inches in diameter and about 95 cents each) for the average consumers' blood. or if mrs. fields herself - - a kind of entrepreneurial icon of the' 80s, who started baking at 13 and hasn' t stopped - - has second thoughts about life in the fast - cookie lane. a life, thus far, devoted to dough .
in the structure that fields is building, computers don' t just speed up old administrative management processes. they alter the process. management, in the fields organizational paradigm, becomes less administration and more inspiration. the management hierarchy of the company feels almost flat .
more than 25 years of entrepreneurial, operational and managerial experience, all of it earned in a company she built (literally) from scratch. founder, baker, chief cookie lover and former chairman, of mrs. fields cookies, a $ 450 million company she founded in 1977 .
mrs. fields has almost 390 locations in the u. s. and more than 80 internationally, the company says on its website. in 2010, the company generated more than $ 60 million in revenue but up - to - date figures for the privately held company were not available .
i was looking to acquire a mrs. field cookie franchise and now after hearing they are going into a reoganization bankrupsy i am seriously concern. the current economic conditions and financial institutions not providing monies to companies. i feel that there is a good possibility for mrs. field’s frenchisees could be in great danger .
mrs. fields' inc. in 1989 reorganized by delegating certain management roles. a new executive committee included chairman randy fields, president debbi fields, larry holman, paul baird, and tim pierce. holman, an attorney, had joined the company as a senior vice - president in october 1989 to manage corporate development and real estate. director of operations baird took over much of the responsibility of managing the firm' s cookie stores, thus allowing debbi fields to emphasize development and marketing. pierce was a cpa and company vice - president of finance. even more significant changes would occur in the years to come, but in the meantime the company had to deal with damaging rumors or stories going around the nation .
not all mrs. fields' stores however succeeded so easily. in 1980 the company opened its new store in the ala moana shopping center in honolulu, but initially it failed miserably. debbi fields then had a kahuna or priest of the native hawaiian culture bless her store .
the day after the ceremony, crowds of cookie buyers appeared; since that day, the ala moana location has been one of our most successful and profitable stores .
for sure, it is not our recipe ,
said randy fields, the firm' s executive vice president and spouse of the founder, debbi fields .
that recipe isn' t even close. we have made it and it' s not a good cookie .
mrs. fields' original cookies, inc. bakes and sells specialty cookies, brownies, pretzels, and other baked goods. from one store started by debbi and randy fields in 1977, the firm has expanded to over 1, 500 stores named mrs. fields' original cookies, the great american cookie company, the original cookie company, pretzel time, hot sam, and pretzelmaker. this is a true success story of an american homemaker and her husband who overcame numerous obstacles to create an international business. however, like many companies that began as family businesses, it reorganized under outside leadership and ownership. the firm' s chocolate chip cookies were so popular that they became the subject of a modern urban legend in the late 1980s and early 1990s .
how sweet it is... our signature - red cookie collections are justifiable indulgences and are the perfect gift for any occasion. from nibblers® to brownies to cookie assortments, shop our classic tins & boxes for the mrs. fields®' lover in your life. all our gourmet treats are baked fresh in our kitchens, decorated by hand, and delivered right to your doorstep. treat someone special with one of our hand selected varieties of mrs. fields® signature products today! shop our other offerings, including cookie cakes, gourmet gift baskets, and birthday cookies & gifts. order online or call 1 - 888 - cookies .
because i grew up on imitations, margarine, and fake, to me the most important thing is to buy the best. that doesn’t always mean designer, or most expensive—it means pure and good and what makes you happy. what i’ve learned is that “good enough” never is… that’s the philosophy of mrs. fields .
you may have heard the story before: woman goes to neiman - marcus / mrs. fields, orders cookie, loves cookie, requests recipe, is told it' s
two - fifty
and is shocked to get a credit - card statement for $ 250. for revenge, she shares with the world :
chairwoman debbi fields in early 1995 announced that the company planned to add 100 new stores overseas. at that time, five percent of the firm' s 617 stores were located outside the united states. fields said the company had franchise agreements in indonesia, australia, the philippines, canada, and the middle east and also was targeting european and south american markets. fields said the firm' s long - term goal was to franchise all overseas operations .
the company has received a number of complaints about various aspects of the recipe and fields is concerned that the incident has hurt the firm' s image .
mrs. fields cookies, despite its size, has not franchised - - persuasive evidence in itself that the fieldses have built something unusual. randy fields believes that no other u. s. food retailer with so many outlets has dared to retain this degree of direct, day - to - day control of its stores. and mrs. fields cookies does it with a headquarters staff of just 115 people. that' s approximately one staffer to every five stores - - piddling compared with other companies with far fewer stores to manage. when the company bought la petite boulangerie from pepsico earlier this year, for instance, the soft - drink giant had 53 headquarters staff people to administer the french bakery / sandwich shop chain' s 119 stores. randy needed just four weeks to cut the number to 3 people .
in 1987 mrs. fields' cookies did well financially. it earned a profit of 18. 5 percent on sales of $ 87 million, up from $ 72. 6 million in 1986. the company in 1987 purchased la petite boulangerie, a chain of 119 french bakery / sandwich stores, from pepsico for $ 15 million. in just four weeks randy fields used specially developed software to help him and his wife reduce la petite boulangerie' s administrative staff from 53 to just three individuals .
fields claims that only three people actually know the recipe for the chocolate chip cookie. all are still with the company and were not involved with this episode .
are you ready for debbi ?
chirps an aide by phone from park city, utah, headquarters of fields' $ 100 million - plus firm .
the ceo of mrs. fields famous brands told employees this week that the company is moving its salt lake city - area headquarters to denver. the company employs about 40 people in its cottonwood heights headquarters but it says many of them won' t be offered jobs in denver, although a spokesman said it did not have an exact number .
understand that it' s not equipment advances - - state - of - the - art hardware - - that' s pushing mrs. fields cookies toward management frontiers. the machines the company uses are strictly off the shelf: an ibm minicomputer connected to inexpensive personal computers. it is, instead, randy' s ability to create an elegant, functional software architecture. he has, of course, had an advantage that the leader of an older, more established company would not have. because mrs. fields is still a young enough company, he doesn' t have to shape his automated management system to a preexisting structure. every new idea doesn' t confront the opposition of some bureaucratic fiefdom' s survival instinct. rather, the people part and the technology part of the fields organization are developing simultaneously, each shaped by the same philosophy .
for example, beginning in the 1950s, a story called' red velvet cake' was told about a customer who paid new york city' s waldorf - astoria hotel a large sum of money for a red cake recipe. starting in 1983, the story had mutated so that mrs. fields' cookies was the culprit. in this version,' someone had called the mrs. fields' company and asked for their recipe. when told that it was available for' two - fifty,' the caller supposedly told the phone representative to send the recipe and charge it to her credit card, learning later that the price was $ 250 rather than the expected $ 2. 50.'
fresh fields can be considered part of the
second generation
of natural food supermarket companies. whereas all of the other companies that have become part of the whole foods market family were started in the 1970' s and early 1980' s, fresh fields opened its first store in may of 1991 in rockville, md .
what makes it neat, right out of the oven, is where he' s doing it. randy fields, age 40, is married to debbi fields, who turns 31 this month, and together they run mrs. fields cookies, of park city, utah (see
a tale of two companies ,
inc. , july 1984). they project that by year end, their business will comprise nearly 500 company - owned stores in 37 states selling what debbi calls a
feel - good feeling .
that sounds a little hokey. a lot of her cookie talk does .
good enough never is ,
she likes to remind the people around her .
because i grew up on imitations, margarine and fake, to me the most important thing is to buy the best. that doesn’t always mean designer, or most expensive - - it means pure and good and what makes you happy. what i' ve learned is that
good enough
never is... that’s the philosophy of mrs. fields .
there are numerous variations. in some, it' s mrs. fields. there are foreign variations that name other high - end department stores as the villain. (in england, it' s
woollie' s cookies .
) cookbook writer ann hodgman relates a version in which the wronged diner is
a member of the american bar association .
don’t know much about history; don’t know much about bankruptcy; but i do know what i love best: mrs field’s cookies are better than all the rest. please don’t take my cookies away .
so at age 20 debbi fields started her first cookie store at liddicoat' s market in palo alto. she signed the lease under the name mrs. fields' chocolate chippery. on august 18, 1977, she opened her store at 9 a. m. , but by noon nobody had bought even one cookie. frustrated and afraid to fail, she took samples to people on the streets. they liked the samples so returned to actually buy cookies. providing free samples to potential customers remained a cornerstone of her business in the years to come .
debbi fields initially was content with her one store. then warren simmons, the builder of the pier 39 shopping area in san francisco, told her he loved the cookies and invited her to open a store in pier 39. she at first turned him down, then a year later changed her mind. pier 39 had reserved a prime space for mrs. fields' cookies. employees at her first store kept asking for opportunities to grow. since her employees were like family, debbi fields felt a responsibility to them. with additional loans, the second store was opened in 1979. the pier 39 store was so successful with its long customer lines that it caused problems for nearby businesses. the pressure was on to open more outlets .
in 1989 the company rebounded from a poor performance the year before. revenues for the parent company, mrs. fields' inc. , increased eight percent from $ 120. 4 million in 1988 to $ 129. 7 million in 1989, while the firm recorded a 1989 net income of $ 1. 5 million, a major improvement from 1988' s loss of $ 19 million .
mrs. fields' in 1990 operated 45 international stores in canada, australia, japan, hong kong, and the united kingdom, and it planned to expand worldwide using various joint ventures or licensing contracts which promised profits without significant investment. by 1992 the firm had added stores in thailand, and its seventh overseas market started in mexico city with a licensing agreement with pasteleria el molino s. a .
being a household name was not enough for the young entrepreneur. fields wanted it all. so she turned her attention to her own household. she and first husband randy fields, together, have five daughters. she later remarried michael rose and became step - mother to an additional five children. moreover, she welcomed her first grandchild at the beginning of the new year .
in 1993 mrs. fields' cookies' stock was removed from the london stock exchange, and new owners reorganized the company. four lenders, mainly the prudential group, acquired almost 80 percent of the firm in exchange for writing off $ 94 million in company debt, while debbi fields retained a minority interest, remained board chairman, and accepted a salary cut of $ 150, 000 to $ 450, 000. thomas fey, formerly with godiva and pepperidge farm, replaced debbi fields as president and ceo. the refinancing allowed the company to plan a major expansion of 100 new company - owned and franchised stores within the next year. started in august 1991, the company' s franchise option was praised by at least three publications: success, entrepreneur, and self magazine .
although mrs. fields' cookies management structure on paper included levels of middle management, tom richman in an october 1987 inc. article wrote :
randy fields has created something entirely new - - a shape if not the shape, of business organizations to come. it gives top management a dimension of personal control over dispersed operations that small companies otherwise find impossible to achieve. it projects a founder' s vision into parts of a company that have long ago outgrown his or her ability to reach in person .
richman continued :
in the structure that fields is building, computers don' t just speed up old administrative management processes. they alter the process. management... becomes less administration and more inspiration. the management hierarchy of the company feels almost flat .
the company continued to expand in 1998 under the ownership of capricorn investors and the leadership of chairman herbert s. winokur, jr. , and president / ceo larry a. hodges. effective november 23, 1998, mrs. fields' original cookies purchased denver - based pretzelmaker for an undisclosed amount. this acquisition added 229 pretzel stores to the firm' s already existing 1, 324 cookie and pretzel stores .
the company also closed its park city candy factory in order to concentrate on building its la petite boulangerie bakery business in carson, california. to integrate the new subsidiary, mrs. fields' cookies changed from having just cookie stores to full - service bakeries. randy fields admitted this was a difficult transition. in the february 13, 1989 issue of fortune, he said ,
we' ve been very ineffective at telling the british what we' re trying to do .
some british food industry analysts said investors felt deceived after they were told it was a cookie company and then it changed directions .
on dec. 31, 1985, i left the limited to throw my all into the stores. caryl died a few months later, and i married john green, a friend she had introduced me to. by then we were going head - to - head with mrs. fields. every time we bid for a location, they’d up the bid and we’d lose the space. we couldn’t grow if we couldn’t expand .
fields' tale is legend in certain segments of the business world, where it' s told as proof that almost anyone with a good idea in america can start from scratch and build a fortune .
armed with real butter, an american dream and an inability to accept ‘no’ as an answer, she opened mrs. fields chocolate chippery in palo alto, california on august 16, 1977. on her first day, she set a goal to sell fifty dollars’ worth of cookies – and she was determined to do just that. by midday, she hadn’t made a dollar. so fields’ took to the streets offering delicious morsels for free. some would say it was her charm, others would say it was solely the magic of her baked goods, others will argue that it was her determination, whatever the reason she enticed her samplers back to her store and the rest, they say, is history. fields suggests that she knew she made it when her customers began calling in sick. what began as one store front grew into 700 stores in ten countries .
meanwhile, the family that started the business ended in divorce. debbi fields married michael rose, the retired chairman of harrah' s entertainment, on november 29, 1997, and moved from park city to live with her husband in memphis, tennessee. debbi fields rose served as a consultant to the firm she founded and also participated in a public television show called great american desserts. randy fields continued to live in park city and work in the software industry. thus the firm persisted even as what deseret news business writer max b. knudson called the' media darlings' broke up, after years of conflict and tension .
debra (debbi) j. fields epitomizes the american dream. from america' s cherished tradition of humble beginnings, she launched what has become one of the nation' s most visible, successful dessert empires .
what' s the successful computer - age business going to look like in the not - very - distant future? something like randy fields' s concept - - which is, in a word, neat .
she went ahead anyway but needed financial backing from a bank. she and randy approached the bank of america, their home mortgage lender. their banker ed sullivan trusted the young couple to pay back a business loan, even though he expected the cookie business would fail. debbi said in her book that the bank
trusted us, not cookies... . as things turned out, ed sullivan and his bank built mrs. fields' cookies .
i worked three jobs to afford it, and one was at a clothing store called caryl crane. i was going to be a home - economics teacher, but miss crane said i’d be a great merchant and buyer. so i changed my major, and after graduating i worked for the limited in the late ’70s. i wanted more control over my schedule and started looking around. i watched what mrs. fields and david’s cookies were doing and thought ,
the company based in utah (the fields residence with their 2 daughters), has enjoyed a tremendous level of success and now employs over 5, 000 people. debbi fields speaks to many groups and published a cook book entitled ,
i love chocolate
. she is involved in many philanthropic causes. her present responsibility in the company is operations management, new product development, public relations and of course, brand name management .
mrs. fields' cookie empire is crumbling. on friday, mrs. fields famous brands announced it planned to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. the privately owned cookie and frozen yogurt company is reorganizing and working out a prepackaged plan with its creditors, according to a filing friday with the securities and exchange commission. in june, the salt lake city - based company, which owns the tcby frozen yogurt chain as well as its eponymous fresh - baked cookie stores, said it was trying to restructure its debt to avoid bankruptcy. it was hoping that investors who hold about $ 195 million of its notes would be willing to swap that debt for a combination of $ 90 million in cash, $ 50 million in new notes and company stock. but the company never got the 98. 0% of the noteholders it needed to go along with the debt restructuring, forcing it to file for a prepackaged chapter 11 bankruptcy friday .
three reasons accounted for the huge debt and loss of control to outsiders. first, the company expanded too fast, and many stores could not afford their expensive rents. in many cases, the company had purchased property for its mall stores. second, the nation' s economic downturn in the early 1990s hurt mrs. fields' cookies. many customers no longer could afford her expensive cookies (about $ 1 per cookie) and the value of her real estate declined .
on paper, between richard lui running the pier 39 mrs. fields in san francisco and debbi herself in park city, there are several apparently traditional layers of hierarchy: an area sales manager, a district sales manager, a regional director of operations, a vice - president of operations. in practice, though, debbi is as handy to lui - - and to every other store manager - - as the telephone and personal computer in the back room of his store .
an early crisis illustrated how the young company operated. mrs. fields refused to replace higher cost raisins with less costly but also less tasty dates. debbi fields explained that ,
the point wasn' t to make money, the point was to bake great cookies, and we sacrificed for that principle. from the very first, i set up a policy that we still follow today. our cookies had to be warm and fresh and when they were two hours out of the oven, what hadn' t been sold was donated to the red cross to be given to blood donors, or to other deserving charities, and we baked a new batch. we guaranteed everything we sold .
what guarantees can mrs. field’s make to existing frenchisees and potential new ones? for them to feel that they will not loose their investments. specially those operating inside malls which could not care less and still require high dollars for the sq. feet and maintenance .
at age 20 debbi fields decided being a housewife wasn' t enough and despite family, husband, friends and bankers who said no
with cookie breath and their lips smeared with chocolate
, she managed to get a loan .
virtually every one of our ingredients is specially formulated to our specifications ,
fields said .
even if you tried to buy them from our suppliers you couldn' t and we won' t even reveal their names .
i direct the whole show. i' m here to stay. i love what i do. cookies are my life. i would not give this up for any amount of money; in fact, huge companies have offered to buy mrs. fields, but there' s no way. it' s just that we started so young and made a few real estate mistakes along the way. but we' ve learned from them. we will get bigger and better from here .
one recipient of the photocopied urban legend tried the supposed secret recipe only to realize the resulting cookies tasted nothing like the real thing. but then todd wilbur spent five years trying to replicate mrs. fields' chocolate chip cookies and other fast - food products. he even published two cookbooks in the late 1980s and early 1990s with recipes that the deseret news food editor called' clones,' an unusual consequence of a modern whopper. why would anyone believe such stories of a corporation selling its vital secret recipes?
mrs. fields famous brands is a franchisor in the snack food industry , with mrs. fields and tcby as its core brands . through its franchisees ' retail stores , it is one of the largest retailers of freshly baked , on-premises specialty cookies and brownies in the united states and the largest retailer of soft-serve frozen yogurt in the country . in addition , it operates a gifts and branded retail business , entering into many licensing arrangements . its franchise systems includes over 300 franchised and licensed locations throughout the united states and in 22 other countries . it also offers retail grocery products and a gifting catalog under the name of mrs. fields gifts . it is headquartered in broomfield , colorado . 
mrs. fields famous brands is a franchisor in the snack food industry, with mrs. fields and tcby as its core brands. through its franchisees' retail stores, it is one of the largest retailers of freshly baked, on-premises specialty cookies and brownies in the united states and the largest retailer of soft-serve frozen yogurt in the country. in addition, it operates a gifts and branded retail business, entering into many licensing arrangements. its franchise systems includes over 300 franchised and licensed locations throughout the united states and in 22 other countries. it also offers retail grocery products and a gifting catalog under the name of mrs. fields gifts. it is headquartered in broomfield, colorado.
mrs. fields famous brands is a franchisor in the snack food industry, with mrs. fields and tcby as its core brands. through its franchisees' retail stores, it is one of the largest retailers of freshly baked, on-premises specialty cookies and brownies in the united states and the largest retailer of soft-serve frozen yogurt in the country. in addition, it operates a gifts and branded retail business, entering into many licensing arrangements. its franchise systems includes over 300 franchised and licensed locations throughout the united states and in 22 other countries. it also offers retail grocery products and a gifting catalog under the name of mrs. fields gifts. it is headquartered in broomfield, colorado.