Making dough 🍪
Hey all,
Crazy times, huh?
I hope you're all OK.
A couple of weeks ago, my girlfriend and I visited Amsterdam for the first time as tourists. Since we never did any of the touristy things, I asked people for recommendations for things to do and places to visit. All of the usual suspects were mentioned: Rijksmuseum, Red Light district, a boat trip through the canals, 9 straten, Foodhallen. And surprisingly, a lot of recommendations for coffeeshops.
All great recommendations. But there was one that stood out above the rest — "Try the best cookie ever at Van Stapele Koekmakerij".
I'm a cookie-fanatic. I love cookies. So obviously, trying the best cookie ever directly became one of the top priorities on our trip itinerary. I would consider the trip a failure if I didn't get me that cookie. 🏎💨 Fast forward to the trip 💨💨 When we got to Van Stapele Koekmakerij we found a cosy, but very tiny, bakery. It could only fit around 6 customers at a time. And they only sold one product – A dark chocolate cookie with a white chocolate filling.
Apparently we weren't the only ones that heard of that cookie. There was a 20 minute waiting line! It ran all the way from the shop, out of the alley, crossing a street onto the middle of a canal bridge.
Never before did I had to stand in a line just to get a cookie. But when a line for a cookie is that long, then it must be really good. So, to the back of the line we went. 🧐 This is where it gets interesting. While we were waiting we started talking to an employee of the bakery. She told us that they only bake 3000 cookies a day. And that they sell all of them every day. They sell the cookies for €2,- per cookie. Now let's say the bakery is open 340 days a year, then this means that they make over €2.000.000,- per year. Just by selling one flavor of cookie. I don't know their business well enough to really say anything about their operating costs, but on the surface it looks like they are relatively low — The shop is very small, so the rent can’t be that high. They only need a small team to bake and sell the cookies. Ingredients for cookies don’t cost a lot. And I'm not sure how much effort they put in marketing, but it looks like word-of-mouth alone gets them enough exposure — Based on this I’m guessing that they make a pretty decent profit. There are likely a lot of other shops in Amsterdam that make that amount of money. So why do I find this interesting? Well, it’s not about how much they make, but about how they make it.
Van Stapele focusses on doing one thing, and doing that thing well. They deliberately choose to only sell one product. Because of this they are able to focus all of their time, resources and energy into making that product perfect. And by the looks of it they are doing a great job.
I for one was really impressed seeing this approach work so well. Especially because it's just one flavor of cookie.
So what about that cookie? Was it really that good?
Yes. It was delicious! One of the best I have ever had.
Anyway, all this writing about cookies has made me hungry. And I know there are cookies in our quarantine survival stash. So it's time to end this thing. I want to give a huge shout out to Shen for bringing this cookie to my attention.
P.S. Making dough is slang for making money. Be safe and have a great weekend. Dennis Kramer