After 10 years in the cookie-making business, Chip City Cookies announced the closure of the last of its locations.
The New York bakery chain abruptly announced the closure of the rest of the 24 locations on Friday afternoon.
"Despite extensive efforts to stabilize our business in the face of significant macro-economic headwinds, we have made the very difficult decision to close all of our Chip City locations," Chip City said on its website. "We are grateful to our dedicated employees and loyal customers who have supported us for the past 10 years."
The bakery first opened in 2017 and quickly expanded across New York, with locations along the East Coast from Boston to Florida. It had received a $4 million investment from Shake Shake founder Danny
Meyer's Enlightened Hospitality Investments fund, according to Nation's Restaurant News.
Chip City was known for its nearly 200 rotating flavors; six new ones were released each week. The latest cookies on the end-of-September lineup were a Caramel Apple Cider Donut cookie and a Galaxy Brownie — and these will be the last.
This isn't completely out of the blue.
This announcement comes after Chip City closed its Connecticut and Virginia locations, The New York Post reported, leaving just 24 locations in New York, New Jersey and Texas. This closure also comes days after Peter Phillips, co-founder and former CEO of City Chip Cookies, filed a lawsuit against Chip City Cookies, Enlightened Hospitality Investments and company executives on Monday.
The lawsuit claimed that after Phillips stepped down as CEO in March, he was promised his base salary during a nine-month transition period. However, by mid-September, the lawsuit said his payroll was cut off. The lawsuit cited a breach of contract, wage theft and unlawful retaliation, among other claims.
"Although our client has not been part of ownership for some time, he is shocked at what happened to a company that he and his friend had put together," Phillips' lawyer, Israel Klein with Pardalis & Nohavicka, LLP, told USA TODAY.
Chip City's comments are turned off on its social media post announcing the closure. USA TODAY Food reached out for comment about the closure and lawsuit and has not received a response.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: This famous cookie chain is shuttering all locations
