Archway Cookies

The seasons of autumn and winter always leave me hungering for any foods with the smell of ginger, cinnamon, cloves and other “autumn” spices.

Walking through the grocery store I spotted a box of cookies that I hadn’t had in quite a while. Archway Windmill cookies. Yum yum yum! They were separated from the rest of the cookies in a main aisle and as I looked at the sign I noticed that they were on sale too. What a blessed day I am having, I thought.

When I got home, I promptly put them away in the cupboard for “future” tasting — the “right time for the right cookie.” Unfortunately, my husband found them one day and opened them up. I hadn’t realized that he had spotted them (not that it mattered) until he said “there’s not much in here.” I wondered what he was talking about. Could we possibly have a mouse in the house?

Well, not exactly. I went to the counter to see what he was talking about and noticed that the bag was “one cookie over” half full.  I looked at him and mockingly said “How many did you eat?” as normally he doesn’t gorge himself on cookies. His response was “Two.”  What happened to the rest of them?, I wondered.

The Nancy Drew sleuthing mentality from my youth suddenly sprang into action.

Looking at the box the cookies came in, I carefully examined the “serving size” of the contents. Hmm, let’s see, 6 servings and each serving is 2 cookies so I should have … twelve cookies in the bag.

I went back to the bag and counted them. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten and oh yes, two cookies that my husband ate. That makes twelve.

So what’s going on here? Gimmicky marketing? Half the package is mostly air. As a consumer can I reasonably expect that the package contents should be at least 3/4 full? Or, should I have to read the number of servings, determine how large the cookies are and whether or not there are enough of them in the package? Is almost half of the package supposed to be air?

It’s just so weird.  Anyone else have this happen to them with other products?

In fairness to the company, I sent them a Facebook message with the above picture of the contents and they replied within 30 minutes. Here’s their response:

“We’re so sorry to hear that you’re unhappy with the Windmill cookies you purchased. We’re always working to find better ways to package our cookies to keep them protected, and at their freshest, until their delivery to store shelves near you. We sincerely appreciate your feedback, and we hope you continue to enjoy the taste and quality of our Windmill cookies in the future, despite dissatisfaction with the packaging. We’re passing your comment along to the bakery and our customer service team. Thank you for finding us on Facebook, and please keep us updated on any other concerns you might have about packaging or quality assurance.”

I was quite shocked but appreciative that they responded so quickly. But you know what? The cookies are very good. They are not paper thin but nice and thick and actually taste like ginger although the label doesn’t say it has ginger in it (it says “spice”).

Archway does not need this kind of marketing to sell these cookies. I could probably do it for them all on my own.  (smile)

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