Cookies by Design

Instead of flowers, Nancy Cunningham wants gift givers to think cookies.

“They’re better than flowers because you can eat them,” said Cunningham, co-owner of Cookies by Design. “And they don’t wilt, but they usually don’t last that long anyway.”

Cunningham’s shop in Center Point Place offers cookie arrangements that aren’t the typical cookies piled in a basket. Instead, the unique arrangements are “made-from-scratch gourmet cookies” baked on sticks and arranged like flowers, she said.

Cunningham believes she’ll recover the $125,000 in startup costs within the first two years of operation.

Sticks, packaging, cookie cutters, containers and other supplies are purchased through a Cookies by Design vendor. Ingredients for the cookies are purchased separately, and nothing at the shop comes from a mix, Cunningham said.

Cunningham pays a percentage of the store’s income for the franchise opportunity but declined to say how much.

The store’s growth over the next year likely will require her to add to her staff of five part-time workers.

Cunningham has 2,000 SF in her Springdale store. She take orders over phone, from the Web site and from walk-in customers.