Carol's Cookies Expands to Northbrook

Jeff Goldman makes his job sound easy. He’s a salesman with a product that requires little in the way of explanation: handmade chocolate chip cookies.

Jeff has been helping his mom manage Carol’s Cookies, a 35-year-old company that makes millions of cookies a year and delivers them to grocery stores across the country.

“It’s a taste test,” Goldman said about how he introduces his product. “We’ll go up against any cookie.”

Carol’s Cookies has been operating out of Highland Park since its inception. Now, the company is expanding to a second bakery in Northbrook, which opens in September.

“When I started with my mom, we had five employees. Now, we have 25,” Goldman said. “It’s changed for the better and now Northbrook is the new frontier for us.”

The new space is necessary to help the company expand its inventory. As of now, Carol’s Cookies can be found in supermarkets like Whole Foods and Sunset Foods in the Midwest and the West Coast, but they have “not really touched on the East Coast at all,” according to Goldman.

Until now, Carol’s Cookies has not been in the habit of approaching any retailer to hawk its product. It’s staff has been busy just keeping up with the demand they already have.

“We’ve been able to grow double digits every month this year and the kicker is we haven’t tried to sell anybody,” Goldman said. “We’ve been holding off till we get to the new space.”

The reason why Carol’s Cookies stand apart, in Goldman’s view, is simple: the cookies are handmade with natural ingredients, using a family recipe that hasn’t changed.

“We use only the finest ingredients, which makes a difference,” Goldman said, “and we still crack our own eggs.”