Sweet Memories
— from the Sisters
Some of our fondest memories rally around cookies. For most people, including our family, the cookie embodies all the warm feelings of home and family.
It all began one day in 2010 when we, Anna and Sarah, baked our Dad a batch of cookies to take to work with him at the Moscow Post Office. The cookies were so good that his co-workers insisted we sell them at the Moscow Farmers Market. So on a whim that spring, our Mom, Connie, helped us (we were 12 and 8 years old) rent a children’s booth at the Market. We baked 12 dozen chocolate chip cookies to sell. In less than two hours the cookies were sold.
The following weekend we baked twice as many cookies, and once again they sold out quickly. Throughout the summer, we worked really hard to keep up with the growing demand for the cookies. When the Farmers Market ended in October, we were tired, but we had learned so much! How to greet and serve customers, count change, and save some of our proceeds to buy ingredients for the following week.
Sisters Cookies became so popular in the first summer that our Mom needed to run the business the next year. She rented a full-size booth and added more delicious cookie varieties. Soon local coffee shops started asking for cookies. Repeat customers were the norm. Sales revenues increased. If ever a successful business happened unexpectedly, Sisters Cookies is a perfect example.
In 2012, our father retired from the Post Office because of health reasons. Our Mom realized she would need to go back to work as a nurse to support our family of seven – we have three brothers, too. But until her license was renewed, she continued to bake and sell cookies. Everyone wanted her delicious cookies! For weddings, for UI and WSU graduation parties, more coffee shops, and even hospitals. She had a difficult decision to make: start a nursing job or run a full-time cookie business?
What our Mom enjoys the most about Sisters Cookies isn’t tangible; it’s watching how people savor her cookies. One of her favorite stories happened at the Farmers Market in 2014. A woman bought a cookie and wandered off. A little later the woman returned and said, “I am 64 years old and I have never had a cookie as good as this!” Our Mom likes that she’s delivering joy to people — and she’s having the time of her life!