This Fresno cookie company’s moving after 24 years. Here’s why — and where it’s going
After 24 years in one spot, Doug-Out Cookies is moving.
The Fresno-based cookie company has moved into to Fashion Fair mall’s food court, and out of its spot at Fresno Street and Alluvial Avenue.
It took over the space that Chipotle left behind when it closed early in the pandemic.
Doug-Out’s grand opening at its new location is Friday.
The company, along with Hungry Bear Cookies, are longtime brands that come to many people’s minds when talking about cookies in Fresno
They’ve been joined in recent months by locally owned Crave Cookie’s delivery service and warm cookie drive-thru at the Marketplace at El Paseo in northwest Fresno. Crumbl Cookies has also opened a location in town, at Herndon and Fowler avenues in Clovis.
Doug-Out Cookie’s new location
Doug-Out was looking at moving before the COVID-19 pandemic started, said Marsha Eichholtz, who founded the business with her husband, Doug Low.
One reason why: “Being in one location for all those years, there’s a lot of people who have never heard of us.”
In the mall, they’ll be exposed to customers who might not seek them out at the old location.
Doug-Out’s new spot will bake all its cookies, including the most popular ones, chocolate chip, snickerdoodle and tea cake cookies with white frosting and sprinkles, noted manager Icker Torres.
It also sells muffins and “cookie cakes,” the giant cookies decorated with frosting. Coffee, lattes, soft drinks and other beverages are on the menu too.
It will also use the kitchen to bake cookies for big catering orders for businesses and events.
Another cookie maker that used to be located in Fashion Fair’s food court, Mrs. Fields, has closed, so there won’t be any direct cookie competition there.
Longtime Fresno business
Eichholtz and Low, a paralegal and a lawyer respectively, started the business in half of the law office they were running. They retired six years ago.
Another reason for the move was that they wanted to stop paying rent on the space they weren’t using for the law office, she said.
The couple still owns Doug-Out Cookies, but its day-to-day operations are handled by longtime employees Icker Torres and Sky Valenzuela.
A lot has changed with the business over the years but the logo remains the same.
The couple originally went with a little girl in a baseball uniform because they hoped to sell cookies at baseball stadiums.
That didn’t pan out, but the logo stuck. It was modeled after an old picture of their daughter (who was already in her 20s when the company was founded).
That daughter just turned 50.
Details: Doug-Out Cookies is at the food court at Fashion Fair, 521 E. Shaw Ave. Hours: The bakery is open the same as mall hours, from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sundays.
This story was originally published June 3, 2021 at 2:55 PM.
