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The Food That Built America Season 7 Episode 6
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00:05Crunchy, chewy, crumbly. Americans consume over five million cookies every single day.
00:15When we look at cookies, we're spoiled for choice with all these different versions in the supermarket.
00:21But just over a century ago, the industry as we know it didn't exist.
00:26It doesn't seem possible that they have not always been with us.
00:33Thanks to a series of visionaries, in just a few decades, cookies go from a treat for the wealthy...
00:40Nothing special.
00:41Planned.
00:41...to a $15 billion a year American industry.
00:46The cookie took over the world.
00:48From the groundbreaking sandwich cookie...
00:51First one off the line.
00:52...to the iconic chocolate chip...
00:54You have to give me the recipe.
00:56...whether they're sold in shopping malls...
00:58Can I offer you a chocolate chip cookie?
01:00...or in grocery stores around the world.
01:03Amos was shooting to make his cookie the biggest star that he had ever had.
01:08Each new innovation...
01:10Tastes pretty darn good.
01:11...led to the next great American icon.
01:14Cookies went from zero to a thousand.
01:17Cookies here!
01:17You can't talk about the foods that built America without talking about the iconic cookie.
01:22This is the history of the American cookie.
01:48The world's first cookies are thought to have originated in 7th century Persia as tiny cakes.
01:55They would bake these kind of smaller cakes to test the oven to see if it was hot enough.
02:01They would put them in the oven to see if the temperature worked, but also if the recipe worked.
02:07And at some point, they realized that they came out crispy, and they were quite delicious, and they became kind
02:13of a food in their own rank.
02:14And they endured all the way up until they became what was known as the cookie.
02:19By the turn of the 20th century, cookies are predominantly homemade and reserved for the wealthy.
02:27In America, the history of cookies really stems from this wider category of items called biscuits.
02:35Savory biscuits are called crackers, and sweet biscuits are cookies.
02:39There are no national cookie brands yet, so the story of the cookies that built America begins in the world
02:46of crackers,
02:46which is dominated by the nation's first food conglomerate, the National Biscuit Company, better known as Nabisco.
02:56But in 1907, just 20 miles from Nabisco headquarters, brothers Jacob and Joseph Luce are taking aim at Nabisco's crown
03:07with their recently formed company called Sunshine Biscuits.
03:12And for them, it isn't just business, it's personal.
03:19Are you sure you want to do this?
03:21Since a few years earlier, Nabisco's chairman, Adolphus Green, absorbed the Loose Brothers' first biscuit company,
03:28in an aggressive bid to become the only name in American crackers.
03:33You can't sit down.
03:38Let's vote by a show of hands. All those in favor?
03:44Adolphus Green stabbed him in the back, and Joseph Luce was dumbstruck.
03:52Now, the Loose Brothers are on a mission to exact revenge on Adolphus Green.
03:57They think they know how to run a company better than Nabisco does.
04:00They're going to make it different. They're very, very progressive.
04:05So, the first thing they do is build a new recipe.
04:08Instead of launching Sunshine with just another cracker, the Loose Brothers plan to enter the fight with something Nabisco doesn't
04:15have.
04:17A cookie.
04:20They try several recipes to find one they can mass-produce into a product that is both affordable and delicious.
04:32Nothing special.
04:34Planned.
04:36Entrepreneurs have an idea.
04:38They have a passion for something, and they want to take the risk, financial and personal risk, to be able
04:43to develop that idea into a product.
04:45I think it's the human instinct that really drives everyone to be independent, to be able to leverage their skills
04:51and aspirations.
04:54It's too plain.
04:57What else we got?
05:00After multiple failed attempts, the brothers devise a new approach, taking advantage of a hot new trend sweeping the country.
05:10Chocolate.
05:12Chocolate originates in America.
05:14It's from Central America.
05:16It is delicious, but it is so expensive that it was really only available to the elite.
05:20And it was Hershey who creates the everyday chocolate bar that was affordable.
05:27So this is going to make chocolate an American product and help really develop that taste in this country.
05:36The Loose Brothers believe if they can incorporate milk chocolate into their recipe, they could revolutionize the cookie in America.
05:50They use cocoa to create a sweet version of a cracker.
05:56They really increase the amount of cocoa powder that's in the dough, and that changes everything in terms of the
06:01flavor and the texture.
06:07Not too exciting, for sure.
06:12Unsatisfied with just a sweet chocolate version of a biscuit, the brothers draw inspiration from a centuries-old food
06:21that has never been thought of for cookies, the sandwich.
06:30To create their sweet take on a meal as old as the Middle Ages, they add a decadent layer of
06:36vanilla cream
06:36and top it off with a second chocolate cookie.
06:47There it is.
06:49And in 1908, the sandwich cookie is born.
06:55It's a huge moment.
06:56The creation is representative of the sort of tinkering that was happening across America,
07:02especially where you wanted to create something that was for signature, that looked different and seemed different.
07:07That's sort of what we strive for as an American idea.
07:11With their sights set on overtaking Nabisco as America's most successful bakery,
07:16the Loose Brothers prepare to launch their sandwich cookie onto the national stage.
07:24They named their revolutionary new product, Hydrox.
07:30They thought, what's pure?
07:33Water, hydrogen, and oxygen, Hydrox.
07:38But the word Hydrox, it's not a name that necessarily evokes, mmm, delicious cookie.
07:46Hydrox sounds like a cleaning product or a planet in the Star Wars star system.
07:56You did it?
07:57Yeah.
07:59Running their factory at full capacity.
08:02We got to get these out.
08:04First shipment's out to Cincinnati in the morning.
08:06Come on.
08:08The Loose Brothers launch the Hydrox, blanketing the country with the first ever pre-packaged cookie.
08:16It's an instant hit.
08:18There you go.
08:20Bay four.
08:22Sunshine really is able to enter the market effectively.
08:26They did something like $12 million in profit, so they were doing so great for the time.
08:32Can I get another sack over here?
08:34You can take that little sandwich cookie and twist it, and you can eat the cream out, if that's your
08:40fancy, and have a glass of milk.
08:45As Sunshine's sales continue to grow, it eats into Nabisco's profit share.
08:58For the first time since its formation, Nabisco's growth stalls.
09:06People are saying, like, hey, like, Nabisco's kind of stagnant these days.
09:09Should we be selling off and buying Sunshine?
09:18And if his number one competitor has a chocolate and vanilla sandwich cookie on the market, Nabisco would need to
09:24have a chocolate and vanilla sandwich cookie on the market.
09:37In a ruthless move, Green begins working on a recipe for a Nabisco version of a sandwich cookie that can
09:44compete with the Hydrox.
09:47Adolphus Green, he was known for speaking ill of competition, and it wasn't about peaceful coexistence.
09:55It was about market domination through and through.
09:58And Green has an ace up his sleeve.
10:02A bold plan to join forces with one of the most dominant names in American food.
10:20In 1912, Adolphus Green is determined to perfect a product that will compete with the groundbreaking Hydrox cookie.
10:34He reached out to Milton Hershey, who had obviously found ways of making Dutch cocoa much more accessible and usable
10:43in other food products, chocolate milk, hot chocolate, and so on.
10:46So you could get that greater fudginess that originally started from Hershey's cocoa.
10:54Sir, first one off the line.
11:08Four years after the Hydrox is released, America's next great cookie is born.
11:35Nabisco launches the Oreo, accompanied by an aggressive ad campaign.
11:39Within a year, the Oreo is outselling the Hydrox, quickly becoming the number one cookie in America.
11:47If you're a millionaire or just scraping by, everyone's fond of Oreos.
11:51So it's really managed to appeal across generations and class boundaries and the miles and really established itself as an
11:59American cultural icon.
12:01For well over two decades, the Oreo remains the undisputed number one cookie in America.
12:07And by the 1930s, thanks in large part to the Oreo's dominance, a vast majority of American cookies are now
12:15made in factories and are rarely being baked at home anymore.
12:22But the husband and wife founders of a new restaurant called The Toll House believe that everything's better homemade.
12:30We got another order of filet mignon, medium rare, and a lobster thermidor.
12:35Ruth Wakefield managed the kitchen.
12:38Well, Ken would run the front of the house.
12:43One of the things The Toll House becomes known for are Ruth's unique desserts.
12:50These to table six.
12:53Including the simplest one on the menu, a butter pecan cookie.
12:59People liked them, but it was a giveaway.
13:01It was free.
13:04It was a sort of unremarkable, uninspiring accompaniment to ice cream.
13:10Much like today, when you order soup, you get a little packet of crackers.
13:14They're there, but they're not necessarily the thing you wanted.
13:18You wanted soup.
13:19But soon, customers are requesting the cookies themselves.
13:24Ruth had tons of success with this butter pecan cookie.
13:29It was beloved by everybody.
13:32And she thought, how can I riff on the success of a cookie?
13:36How could she up it?
13:38Could she offer a different texture to elevate them?
13:43She came up with the idea to create a chocolate cookie, almost like a little chocolate cake.
13:50So, she decides to take a baker's chocolate bar, which is unsweetened.
13:54It's got no added milk or sugar.
13:56And she's going to melt it and put it in a blonde cookie batter.
14:06What's this?
14:07They were out of baker's chocolate.
14:09There were two types of chocolate in the American grocery store.
14:14Eating bars, like a Hershey's bar, which had milk and sugar in it.
14:19And there was also a baking bar, baker's chocolate, which was unsweetened and commonly used for cooking.
14:27On a whim, Ruth decides to use the semi-sweet chocolate bar anyway.
14:33Ruth realizes that the original plan would have been too sweet if she used the Nestle chocolate bar.
14:39So, she's going to experiment with a new way of preparing the chocolate.
14:47She takes an ice pick and starts chipping away at this massive Nestle's bar of semi-sweet chocolate.
14:55This allows Ruth to add chocolate in smaller doses without over-sweetening the dough.
15:01She invented the chocolate chip.
15:06Although it seems completely obvious today, this was probably the first time that a piece of candy had been inserted
15:12into a cookie.
15:25So, the first cookie comes out of the oven and it's polka-dotted with gooey, melted, but still distinct pieces
15:32of chocolate.
15:35Some people have said that she was surprised the chocolate didn't melt, but I think that she was smarter than
15:42that.
15:42She knew her stuff.
15:45The chocolate is not pervasive throughout the cookie, so you get a contrast of sweet and savory.
15:53She was the first person ever to have a chocolate chip cookie.
15:57What's crazy to think about is if the store had baker's chocolate that day, these cookies might have never been
16:03invented.
16:05Ruth Wakefield doesn't know it, but one day, over 7 billion cookies inspired by her recipe will be eaten in
16:14the United States every single year.
16:17And it will go on to be the most beloved cookie on planet Earth.
16:20But for now, the chocolate chip cookie is still an unknown commodity.
16:29No restaurant served cookies at that time.
16:32It had never been done before.
16:35Dessert at a restaurant was supposed to be really elaborate and decadent.
16:39Cookies were just little inexpensive treats that you could get at any grocery store.
16:44These cookies are nothing like what you would find in a grocery store.
16:48Excuse me, ma'am.
16:50You have to give me the recipe.
16:53Of course.
16:54I'll be right back.
16:56She goes on to, almost in a philanthropic way, share this recipe with anybody that wants it.
17:03She was handing out typed recipes, and the Boston Globe newspaper published the recipe.
17:10It was kind of a grassroots popularity for that cookie.
17:13Newspapers, recipe swap columns.
17:16As word spreads about her unique cookie recipe, it triggers sales of Nestle's semi-sweet chocolate bar to spike an
17:23amazing 500% only around Whitman, Massachusetts, which catches the attention of Nestle's CEO, Edouard Mueller.
17:33I would like to print your recipe on each and every package of our semi-sweet chocolate bars.
17:41In 1939, Nestle buys the rights to Ruth's recipe.
17:47And within months, they launch a first of its kind product that will make it possible for chocolate chip cookies
17:53to be made and consumed all over the world.
17:58Nestle's toll house morsels.
18:03This was incredibly novel.
18:06It's very common today, but imagine in 1940, seeing the first bag of these chocolate morsels.
18:14There was nothing else like these morsels on the shelf.
18:19And people are still used to hearing about how Ruth had been chipping off the chocolate from the bar.
18:26And the toll house cookie becomes a chocolate chip cookie.
18:29So, even though the package says semi-sweet chocolate morsels, people called them chocolate chip cookies, the name stuck.
18:38By 1945, Nestle's global annual revenue increases 125% since buying Ruth's recipe, soaring to $225 million, roughly $4 billion
18:51today.
18:52And a lot more people began really loving chocolate chip cookies all over the country.
18:58Then, in a 1950s survey, America reveals that its favorite cookie is no longer the Oreo, it's the chocolate chip
19:08cookie.
19:09And Nestle's meteoric rise in America will unwittingly provoke the company behind the Oreo to once again reinvent how people
19:19eat cookies.
19:19And that's where things get really exciting.
19:25In the late 1950s, Nabisco's annual sales near $500 million, thanks in great part to their top seller, the Oreo.
19:35In the world of cookies, Nabisco was a big player in the game.
19:39They had a lot of hits at the time.
19:41So, they felt pretty comfortable in their position as top cookie dog.
19:47But now, more than half of all Americans surveyed declare their favorite cookie is the chocolate chip cookie, knocking Nabisco's
19:55Oreo out of the number one spot.
19:58That is huge.
20:01That is huge.
20:01Oreo has been America's favorite cookie for years.
20:06And here comes this chocolate chip cookie that people are making at home that is America's favorite cookie.
20:16And Nabisco's new CEO, Lee Bickmore, isn't happy about it.
20:21He realizes if the chocolate chip cookie has enough appeal to dethrone the legendary, iconic Nabisco Oreo, that they have
20:32to get into the chocolate chip cookie game.
20:35So, Bickmore directs his team to make something unprecedented, a shelf-stable chocolate chip cookie, which means they can't use
20:44the typical ingredients from Ruth's recipe.
20:47So, they can't use eggs and butter and all those wonderful things that are going to make a cookie a
20:54little more bendy and chewy, because they are going to turn rancid and spoil on store shelves.
21:03What am I looking at here?
21:06This cookie was baked using our proprietary blend, concealed in a package for 24 hours.
21:16It's hard, brittle, and not the soft, chewy chocolate chip cookie that everyone knows, loves, and makes at home.
21:30You know, that tastes, um...
21:34That tastes pretty darn good.
21:39The thing about chocolate chip cookies is, like they say about pizza, even bad ones are still pretty good.
21:46Is this a good type?
21:48Come on in.
21:49But there's a final piece of the puzzle needed to make their product complete.
21:54Possible list of names?
21:56No.
22:00No.
22:08Definitely not.
22:19Chips Ahoy.
22:23It came from that naval boating expression, Chips Ahoy, when you see a lot of chips.
22:29And Nabisco is trying to emphasize the number and abundance of chocolate chips.
22:33So it's like, Chips Ahoy, we see a lot of chips in this cookie.
22:38Chips Ahoy.
22:48In 1963, their groundbreaking cookie hits grocery stores nationwide.
22:54It was the first time Americans could buy that on a shelf, ready to go.
22:59And the Chips Ahoy cookie is an instant hit.
23:02Within a year of their release, Nabisco's sales increased by $156 million, hitting $719 million.
23:12Ruth Wakefield had invented the chocolate chip cookie, but Nabisco really made it their own.
23:18But Nabisco's new cookie is also part of a growing movement in America over the next decade,
23:23where mass-produced, inexpensive food dominates supermarket aisles.
23:29We walk into a supermarket and there's all types of food on the shelves from big conglomerates.
23:36We would see the 1970s as the peak of when preservatives and chemical dyes were in almost everything that people
23:44were eating.
23:45And we find out pretty soon that they aren't good for you.
23:48So, there was this whole sort of movement of people rebelling against the chemistry industry behind the food industry and
23:56California was leading the way.
23:59In Hollywood, food is the last thing on one man's mind.
24:07Hi, Mr. Masekela. Let me see if he's available.
24:10He's left the world's largest talent agency to start a company, managing his own clients.
24:17He just got off a call.
24:19Huey, my man.
24:21He was able to get a job in the mailroom at William Morris Agency, which is one of the top
24:27talent agencies.
24:29And he became the first black talent manager.
24:33He famously is credited for discovering Simon and Garfunkel.
24:39He represented Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, and my favorite singer of all time, Sam Cooke.
24:45But he also really understands the publicity machine, celebrity, and how to make friends and influence people.
24:54Oh, and you already signed with him.
24:57I see.
24:58But his new venture is struggling.
25:01The problem is if you're an independent agent and you get a guy and he gets big enough, these big
25:06agencies are going to come in.
25:07They're going to try to buy him out and they're going to get him over to them.
25:09And he couldn't really overcome that.
25:15So after losing his last client, he needed a bit of a distraction.
25:20So he remembers his Aunt Della used to make chocolate chip pecan cookies.
25:24And he started doing that himself.
25:26Baking was his happy space.
25:29So he started to bake cookies kind of to self-soothe.
25:33Cookies here.
25:46A light kind of goes off and he realizes, what's the one thing that's making me happy?
25:52It's making cookies.
25:53He doesn't know it, but this simple idea will lead to the creation of a billion-dollar company, deals with
26:00America's largest retailers, and will turn him into a national TV star as he kickstarts a cookie revolution.
26:08We'll open the first shop dedicated to chocolate chip cookies in the world.
26:13His name is Wally Amos, better known as Famous Amos.
26:22In the mid-1970s, Wally Amos is transforming himself from a talent manager into a cookie entrepreneur.
26:30I don't think he even thought twice about it.
26:32He knew it would be that next step.
26:34He could turn his love of baking cookies into a business.
26:39Wally Amos here, calling for Marvin Gaye.
27:03Wally Amos is confident his cookies are exactly what America needs right now.
27:12By the 1970s, America's cookie industry bakes up billions of dollars for large corporations, like Keebler, which has $300 million
27:20in sales in 1974, and Nabisco, who reaches almost $2 billion selling factory-made cookies for $0.75 a box.
27:29But Amos wants to make something the packaged juggernauts can't offer.
27:34You plan to put what here?
27:37And so he decided to open the first shop dedicated to chocolate chip cookies in the world.
27:45Amos was trying to break new ground by selling this homemade chocolate chip cookie that had that mom-just-made
27:53-it flavor,
27:53instead of kind of the traditional thin wafers that had been sold up to that time.
27:59With no experience in the food industry, Wally Amos goes all in, gambling his reputation and future on his homemade
28:08cookies.
28:13Just five hours north, in Palo Alto, California, a young housewife is trying to make a good impression on her
28:21husband's colleagues.
28:25Hello, Louis, right?
28:27You're Randy's wife.
28:29Debbie, it's nice to meet you.
28:31These are yours?
28:34Debbie had a great cookie recipe by the time she was, you know, 13 or 14 in her teenage years.
28:41Then by the time she's 19, she's married, and she started putting these cookies out, you know,
28:47on trays for parties for her husband's friends, and people loved them.
28:55So, what do you do?
28:57Oh, um, I'm, I'm just trying to get orientated.
29:04The word is oriented.
29:10If you can't learn proper English, then you should probably just stick to baking.
29:17One belittling comment at a party
29:21Will turn her hobby into a cookie empire worth over 450 million dollars.
29:29But for now, Debbie is a housewife, known simply...
29:34Good night, Mrs. Fields.
29:36...as Mrs. Fields.
29:39Meanwhile, in 1975, Wally Amos is opening what is believed to be the world's first cookie store,
29:46Famous Amos, right in the heart of L.A.'s iconic Sunset Boulevard.
29:52Famous Amos was the first of the luxury chocolate chip cookies that cropped up in the late 70s and early
29:5780s.
29:58And they came in a package that was very distinct and different than your average Chips Ahoy package.
30:03They were smaller, they had a much richer flavor, and for a brief period, they were considered, like, the gold
30:10standard in chocolate chip cookies.
30:13He treats this thing like a Hollywood premiere, and it's a huge success.
30:18It's gangbusters, and he sells out of everything, but he actually spends a lot of money.
30:22So though Wally Amos has an incredible ability to market himself and to reach the masses, he's got no real
30:31financial background, so the cookies were fine, the business not so much.
30:36And his desire to rapidly expand will soon force him to reinvent his entire enterprise.
30:43Despite being only about 300 miles away, the location Debbie Fields is eyeing for her new cookie shop couldn't be
30:51more different.
30:52It doesn't seem like the best place.
30:55It's small, intimate.
30:58There's foot traffic right outside.
31:00Seizing an unusual opportunity, Debbie Fields is ahead of the coming food court boom, as she tries to open her
31:07first cookie store inside a shopping mall.
31:11But to do so, she's forced to take a big financial risk.
31:15She leverages her home and her husband's money to get the one loan she could get with an astronomical 21
31:23% interest rate to build her first store in Palo Alto, California.
31:29Even though people told her it was the stupidest idea ever.
31:33But Debbie believes her store will succeed, since she's offering something completely new.
31:38It was unlike any other cookie on the market.
31:42It was a warm, chewy, soft, homemade cookie.
31:46But at first, people were definitely skeptical.
31:50By noon on her first day, she hasn't had a single customer.
31:55And if she can't sell her cookies, it could mean there's no market for fresh-baked goods sold in shopping
32:02malls.
32:13Unlike Famous Amos, opening day at Debbie Fields' shop in 1977 is anything but grand.
32:20She starts out having absolutely no sales, but she is driven and starts pounding the pavement.
32:27Can I offer you a chocolate chip cookie?
32:30Come back and see us.
32:33Good afternoon. Can I offer you a chocolate chip cookie fresh from the oven?
32:36She starts giving out samples to people, getting them to try her iconic warm cookie, saying,
32:44Hey, would you buy this cookie? Do you like this cookie?
32:46Well, I've got a store around the corner.
32:48They're even better with coffee. Come by and see us on your break.
32:52Debbie was really one of the first to go out there with a tray and sample them for people to
32:57taste,
32:58so that people could experience them warm and fresh, but also just a sample in general.
33:03And that was genius, because once people tasted those cookies, they were sold.
33:12Hi, Jeff. Hi, Russell.
33:13Hi, Mrs. Fields.
33:14Mrs. Fields was definitely a pioneer with starting the snacks in a shopping center, and we see them still.
33:21We see Cinnabon. We see Auntie Em's. We see Orange Julius,
33:25because you're going to have people who are walking by who don't have access to, you know,
33:30go home and grab a snack out of their pantry.
33:33So Mrs. Fields opening her stores in shopping malls was pretty genius.
33:39See you tomorrow.
33:42By the end of her first year, sales of Mrs. Fields' cookies reached $200,000,
33:48the equivalent of over a million dollars today.
33:52This was beyond her expectation, and it really set the tone for, like,
33:56this can be a profitable business.
33:58By the early 1980s, she has over a dozen locations in shopping malls all across the West.
34:05And cookie giants, Keebler, Nabisco, and Procter & Gamble, take notice.
34:09It's kind of a profound compliment for Debbie Fields that Nabisco,
34:14who's selling 400 million pounds of cookies every year, sees Mrs. Fields as a threat.
34:20They were making these crispy, crunchy, store-bought cookies,
34:25but she was doing something different, something warm, soft, and chewy,
34:30something that people clearly loved.
34:32So they begin to pivot.
34:35Procter & Gamble spends $30 million developing their Duncan Hines chocolate chip cookies,
34:40followed by Nabisco's chewy Chips Ahoy and Keebler's Soft Batch.
34:45Suddenly, cookies with names like Almost Home end up finding their way onto the shelves,
34:53recreating the soft texture.
34:55And though they say imitation is the most sincere form of flattery,
34:59it's not too flattering when it eats into your bottom line.
35:02While Mrs. Fields struggles to fend off the new competition,
35:07Wally Amos has been expanding too quickly.
35:11To stay afloat, he sells his majority steak for $1.1 million.
35:16And now the company's new CEO, Keith Lively,
35:20wants to transition away from storefront cookie shops.
35:24Keith Lively is a businessman, not a baker.
35:28So to help extend the shelf life, Keith Lively changes the recipe
35:33and makes the quality on par with Chips Ahoy and Keebler.
35:37But now this product that was meant to create a homemade deal
35:42is just another store-bought cookie.
35:44What is this?
35:46To increase profit margins,
35:48Lively wants Amos' cookies on grocery store shelves across America.
35:52Changing the recipe to make it less gourmet
35:54was the final straw for Wally Amos.
35:57And that's when he walked away.
36:04Wally Amos leaves his $225,000 salary and quits.
36:09With Amos out of the picture,
36:11the company that bears his name is sold to Keebler for $61 million.
36:16And the cookie revolution Amos had kicked off
36:19is about to give way to a new revolution in store-bought cookies.
36:25In 1987, now with 70 Mrs. Fields locations nationwide,
36:31Debbie's husband, Randy Fields,
36:33has developed an innovative computer software
36:35that uses an early form of the internet called an intranet
36:39to connect each of their stores to a central headquarters.
36:43It was such a genius system that Randy set up.
36:47Debbie and Randy didn't have to be running around
36:49to all these different stores.
36:51They were able to check on the stores through this system
36:54that not only controlled inventory,
36:56they knew exactly what was selling every second of the day.
37:00And that was unheard of.
37:02After its first year,
37:04the new system helps rake in $87 million.
37:08It was so groundbreaking that Mrs. Fields sold that computer system
37:13to none other than Burger King.
37:15With Debbie Fields at the helm and Randy as her right hand,
37:19Mrs. Fields becomes the largest cookie store in America.
37:23By 1989, Mrs. Fields, this little brand in Palo Alto,
37:29is recording a profit of $129.7 million.
37:35And on top of that,
37:38she expands into the UK, Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Hong Kong, the Middle East.
37:44Growing to 900 stores worldwide,
37:47Fields decides that to compete with juggernauts like Keebler and Nabisco,
37:51she must implement a new strategy.
37:54Debbie finally has to franchise,
37:57aligning herself with the best bakers
38:00in whatever country she's franchising in
38:03in order to make high-quality Mrs. Fields cookies.
38:06Looks good.
38:08Now an international phenomenon,
38:11in 1992, Debbie Fields sells the company she built
38:15to an investment firm,
38:17Famous Brands International,
38:19for $100 million.
38:25That same year,
38:26the brand Wally Amos built in defiance of cookie conglomerates
38:30is now owned by one.
38:32And even though the famous Amos cookie
38:34is more profitable than ever,
38:36the top brass at Keebler
38:37are having second thoughts
38:39about losing the man who created the brand.
38:42So in 1999,
38:44they meet with him
38:45to discuss a bold proposition.
38:53The Keebler Corporation
38:55decides they want to shake things up
38:56and bring Wally Amos back on
38:58as a spokesperson
38:59because of his magnetic personality
39:01and incredible recognizability.
39:04We'd love to have you return
39:06as the face of Famous Amos.
39:12No.
39:14Why not?
39:15Because those are not my cookies.
39:18He said he wasn't interested
39:20on coming back
39:21if they wouldn't go back
39:22a little closer to his original recipe.
39:25And Keebler agreed to do just exactly that.
39:30All right.
39:31You got a deal?
39:33Good.
39:36For an undisclosed sum,
39:39Wally Amos restores
39:40Famous Amos' image,
39:42quality,
39:43and heritage.
39:44As a credit to Wally Amos' integrity,
39:46the company becomes insanely profitable,
39:48raking in sales of $100 million.
39:52Though Wally Amos goes on
39:53to start a number of new cookie ventures,
39:55he never duplicates the success
39:57of Famous Amos.
39:59In 2019,
40:01Famous Amos was acquired
40:02by the Ferrero Group
40:03for $1.3 billion
40:05and remains a staple
40:07in over 170 countries to this day.
40:10Wally Amos is someone
40:12who broke barriers,
40:14who realized his passion,
40:16and he never let that fire
40:18and entrepreneurial spirit
40:19within him be snuffed out.
40:21He opened the door
40:22for so many other
40:23very niche bakeries today
40:27that just sell one specific thing,
40:29like Mrs. Fields.
40:31Debbie Fields gave America
40:33food stores and models.
40:35She should really be up there
40:37with the Ray Krox of the world
40:39who are hailed for being these pioneers.
40:42Debbie Fields is a pioneer.
40:44Today, Debbie Fields remains involved
40:47in Mrs. Fields
40:47as a consultant
40:49and board member
40:50with an estimated net worth
40:52of $200 million.
40:54But her success,
40:56along with Wally Amos's,
40:58wouldn't be possible
40:58without the visionaries
41:00who paved the way,
41:01like the Loose Brothers,
41:03whose revolutionary chocolate sandwich cookie
41:05kicked off a fierce rivalry
41:07that led to the Oreo,
41:09which now accounts for 10%
41:11of all cookie sales
41:13in grocery stores.
41:14Oreo continues to come out
41:17with new flavors.
41:18And every time
41:19a new flavor of Oreo
41:20hits the universe,
41:22they sell out in two seconds.
41:24People go bananas.
41:25And the Oreo's dominance
41:27of prepackaged cookies
41:28led Ruth Wakefield
41:30to create her groundbreaking
41:31home-baked chocolate chip cookie.
41:34This is one of those things
41:35that just went beyond
41:37any possible conception
41:39of growth
41:40and of exposure
41:42and success.
41:44The Toll House cookie
41:45took over the world.
41:47which triggered Nabisco
41:48to fight back
41:49with what became
41:50America's best-selling brand
41:52of chocolate chip cookie,
41:54Chips Ahoy.
41:55At this point,
41:56nothing was going to slow down
41:57Chips Ahoy's growth.
41:58In just over 100 years,
42:00these pioneers
42:01helped prepackaged cookies
42:03evolve from non-existent
42:05into a roughly $40 billion
42:07a year global industry.
42:09One way or another,
42:10there is a cookie for you
42:12that appeals to your personal taste.
42:14Home-baked, chewy,
42:15or hard, brittle,
42:17and jam-packed with chocolate.
42:20And that is why,
42:21undeniably,
42:22you can't talk about
42:23the foods that built America
42:24without talking about
42:25the iconic cookies.
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