If it’s 10:45 p.m. and you need a warm cookie, and you need someone to bring it to you right now, chances are you are a college student.
And now there is a business in town that can fulfill those late-night baked goods cravings. Lovin Cookies, located at the Scotch Road Plaza shopping center, will dispatch a driver with a cargo of freshly-baked cookies directly to any doorstep.
It’s a novel delivery method for an age old product, said business owner and Ewing resident Robin Vitullo, who runs Lovin Cookies with his wife Laurie.
“I didn’t pick cookies because they’re avant-garde,” Vitullo said. “They sell billions of the things around the world.”
But the cookies-to-the-door business takes advantage of the mindset that develops in many college students who are used to any kind of food being just a phone call away.
“College kids take advantage of the delivery services that have been built up around them,” Vitullo said.
Customers pick out dough and fixings to make custom cookies. A dozen costs $13.50.
Lovin Cookies is not the first business to take the college pizza delivery model and apply it to dessert. Many college towns already have cookie delivery services. Lovin Cookies, however, is the first to bring the concept to Ewing. Vitullo said it also sets itself apart by using fresh ingredients rather than frozen dough used by some franchises.
Vitullo, who owned his own ad agency for 10 years, isn’t just settling for the college market though. Lovin Cookies opened in June and built up a separate clientele while the university students were off campus. By day, Lovin Cookies caters to corporate events and the kids who attend next-door dance and karate studios.
The Vitullos are both parents of college students, so they know their core market well. Robin pipes music by bands like Incubus into the store through Internet radio, to keep the atmosphere youthful.
“They’re out of their parents’ house for the first time, and they’re in discovery mode,” Robin said. “They like trying new things, and they especially like things that are fun.”
To ensure that Lovin Cookies is associated with fun, he’s planning a series of promotions, such as sponsoring “giant cookie rolls” with fraternities an sororities, where huge shellacked cookies will be rolled down a hill. He wants to hold a “tarp surfing” contest in the parking lot outside the business, with skateboards standing in for surfboards, and “waves” made by pulling the tarp from a corner.
With its slick graphics, designed by Robin, Lovin Cookies looks like it’s part of a larger franchise. That’s no accident. Robin said business has been booming, especially since school has been in session, and that the future might bring franchises at Rutgers, Monmouth University and beyond.
Lovin Cookies is open from 2 to 11 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and is located at 185 Scotch Road. For more information, go online to www.lovincookies.com.
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