#061: Mrs. Fields – Why does the mall smell so delicious?

How giving away free samples created an empire of 250 stores worldwide in just 15 years, Debbie Fields' success as an empire builder is inspiring. Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not-so-secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a Marketing Consultant, story collector, and storyteller. I'm Stephen's sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today's episode, a word from our sponsor, which is... Well it's us, but we're highlighting ads we've written and produced for our clients, so here's one of those. [Jim's Razorback Pizza Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to another Empire Builder's Podcast. Dave Young here with Steve Semple. Something about cookies? It's not cookie monster, that's not a product. Stephen Semple: Not cookie monster, not cookie monster. Dave Young: I'm trying to think of famous cookies. There's lots of them. Who are we talking about today, Stephen? Stephen Semple: We are going to be talking about Mrs. Fields cookies. Now, have you ever had the opportunity to have a Mrs. Fields cookie? Dave Young: I'm not really sure. Are they mass produced, and can you buy them in stores? Stephen Semple: Well, you mainly get them in these little cookie shops that are in malls, and they come out warm and soft and chewy. Yeah. Dave Young: Oh, okay. So it's like going to Cinnabon or something like that. Stephen Semple: Yes, exactly right. Dave Young: I probably have, I tend to try to stay away from those places. I'll give a wide birth to a Cinnabon. Stephen Semple: It's a really interesting story, because it was started in August 16th, 1977 in Palo Alto, California by Debbi Fields. And today, they've got 250 stores worldwide. And in 1992, 15 years after opening, it was sold to the investment firm, Famous Brands International, for $100 million. Dave Young: Wow. Stephen Semple: In the 1992 dollar, so she did really, really well when you think about, basically in a 15-year period of time, she grew this business from start to being a business that she sold for $100 million. Dave Young: Nice little payday for Mrs. Fields. Stephen Semple: Nice little payday for Mrs. Fields. So Mrs. Debbi Fields, she grew up in Oakland. She had this very humble beginning. Her dad was this blue collar worker and her mom was a homemaker. And at the age of 19, she we would say today, she married up. She married Randy, and Randy was a financial analyst who worked in Palo Alto and was rubbing shoulders with the elite of Palo Alto. And what she would do, is she would put out these soft chocolate chip cookies for people when they had them over for entertaining. And they all liked them. They all really liked them. But many looked down on her because she was this hick from Oakland, right? Stephen Semple: And after one party, she gets really snubbed by one of the Palo Alto snobs, and she decides, "You know what? I'm going to open a store. I'm going to do this. I'm going to open a store." And she opened a store in a mall. Now, I want you to think about this. A cookie store, first of all, is a crazy idea. She wasn't the first to do a cookie store, but close to the first to do a cookie store. And food locations were not in malls at the time. The world's first cookie store had only opened two years earlier and food courts were not in malls. The first successful food court happened in 1976 way over in New Jersey. And this was after a number of failed attempts of food courts. So food courts had been opened and had failed. So this was a really innovative idea of opening a food shop in a mall. Stephen Semple: But what she saw was lots of foot traffic. So she was way ahead of this whole food court boom. So she opens this crazy idea of a cookie store, and as far as a crazy idea of in a mall. But this is also what makes her so special,