Crumbl’s cookie empire is collapsing across California.
The viral dessert chain has already locked the doors on seven Golden State locations in 2026, part of a staggering 57 store closures nationwide this year, according to a RestaurantBusiness report. The shuttered California shops sit in Paso Robles, Pismo Beach, Hanford, Ladera Ranch, Mira Mesa, Cupertino, and Westlake Village, SFGATE noted.
Traffic at Crumbl stores cratered 32% year-over-year in August, the same report found. Overall sales that month sat 70% below where they stood just two years prior. At least 55 franchises are now listed for sale.
The Utah-based brand, famous for frosting-drenched cookies in signature pink boxes, rode a pandemic-era delivery boom to explosive growth among younger consumers. A 2022 Dataessential report crowned Crumbl the fastest-growing dessert brand in America and the fourth-fastest-growing food chain overall. Back then, the company moved nearly a million cookies daily.
That momentum carried into 2023, when Crumbl opened 295 stores and pushed its national footprint past 1,000 locations. By 2024, Bloomberg reported, the company had secured a $500 million credit loan from two private equity firms.
The expansion masked deepening trouble. Earlier this year, Crumbl rolled out “dirty sodas” — a caffeine-free, non-alcoholic Utah staple — in a bid to reverse the sales slide. The drinks drew immediate backlash over their extreme calorie counts.
In May, co-founders Sawyer Hemsley and Jason McGowan revealed they would relinquish their roles as chief executive officer and chief brand officer once successors were found. The cousins, who launched the chain from a single Utah shop in 2017, plan to remain board members.
“As we enter this next chapter, we’re excited to step deeper into our founder roles and help shape the long-term vision of the company we love so much,” the pair wrote in an Instagram announcement. “I believe now is the right time to bring in new leadership through an open search process.”
Crumbl now counts just 20 stores across all of California, according to its website. The chain has also pulled out of Alabama, Florida, and Kentucky.
The brand’s Instagram-friendly aesthetic — oversized cookies with swirled frosting, photographed against the company’s distinctive pink packaging — once made it a social media phenomenon. That visual identity helped fuel the pandemic delivery craze that built the chain’s national presence.
The California Post reached out to Crumbl for comment on the closures and sales figures.
Crumbl’s next leadership team will inherit a shrinking footprint and a brand searching for its footing in a post-pandemic dessert market.