Crumbl Cookies has closed at least 60 locations this year after a steep sales drop, leaving only a few Charlotte shops open as franchises flood the resale market.
The once-viral cookie chain is pulling back hard across the country. Local coverage tied the retreat to falling customer traffic, founder exits, and a wave of franchise listings that signal deeper strain than a single bad quarter.
Finance reporting described dozens of shutdowns nationwide, with Charlotte’s Steele Creek shop among the latest to go dark for good.
That Steele Creek store first shut its doors on a temporary basis in July after a health and sanitation review. It never reopened. The permanent close became Charlotte’s most recent Crumbl loss.
Three other Charlotte addresses were still listed as open: 337 S Kings Drive, 9821 Northlake Centre Parkway J, and 7918A Rea Road. For cookie fans in the city, the map just got smaller.
Restaurant Business Online figures cited in the same coverage showed August customer sales running 70 percent below August 2024. A drop that sharp is not a blip. It is a business in reverse.
Co-founders Sawyer Hemsley and Jason McGowan stepped down earlier this year. The reports did not spell out a public reason or exact exit dates. What they did show is a brand losing its original leadership while stores blinked off the map.
At least 55 Crumbl franchises also appeared for sale on broker websites, again per Restaurant Business Online. When that many units hit the market at once, franchisees are voting with their feet.
The pressure matches a wider pattern already hitting dessert retail, including a Crumbl franchisee seeking Chapter 7 as locations went dark.
Crumbl started in Utah in 2017. During and after the COVID-19 pandemic, the pink boxes and rotating weekly flavors exploded on social media. Lines formed. Copycats followed. Franchise growth raced ahead of steady demand.
That kind of viral boom often fades when the novelty wears off and household budgets tighten. Shoppers who once treated oversized cookies as a cheap thrill now face higher prices on groceries, rent, and fuel. Discretionary sugar runs out of room first.
Other cookie brands have already hit the same wall. Chip City’s full U.S. shutdown showed how fast a dessert fad can collapse when costs stay high and traffic does not.
Crumbl’s retreat sits inside a broader retail squeeze. Chains that expanded fast are now cutting stores as customers conserve cash. Apparel is feeling it too, with Cato pushing toward 120 closures while shoppers lose spending power.
Marine retail has followed a similar path, and West Marine’s climb to 91 closures underscores how wide the store-closure wave has become.
Even big quick-service names are not immune. A major Wendy’s franchisee heading into Chapter 11 points to the same franchise-level stress: rising costs, softer traffic, and thin margins.
Crumbl’s model leaned on hype, limited-time flavors, and heavy franchise growth. When August sales sit 70 percent under the prior year, that model stops paying the rent.
For Charlotte, the story is now triage. Steele Creek is gone after the July health-related pause turned permanent. The three remaining shops still give the brand a foothold in the market. They do not erase a national count of at least 60 closures in a single year.
Open questions remain. The full list of shuttered stores was not published. Corporate confirmation of every “reportedly” closed unit was not laid out in the local account. The health review’s specific findings were not detailed. Exact dates for the founders’ exits were not given.
What is clear is the direction. A pandemic darling built on viral marketing is shrinking in public view. Franchises are on the block. Sales have fallen off a cliff year over year. Leadership at the top has already changed hands.
Booms built on lockdowns and social media trends eventually meet prices, wages, and ordinary family budgets. Crumbl’s pink boxes did not rewrite that rule.