DAN CEARNS, The Standard
SCUGOG: Mrs. Fields is returning to their roots with a new storefront, at 255 Queen Street, Port Perry.
While traditionally operating out of mall and cinema locations, the COVID-19 pandemic offered the gourmet snack business an opportunity to open a street-front location, in early June.
“The malls have been closed, off and on for over a year now, so it has made us rethink the overall footprint of our stores going forward. We thought for years we should do a street-front location. The original Mrs. Fields in California, back in the 1970s, was a street front. Sort of, going back to the roots of the initial brand. We thought, ‘why don’t we try it here?’ We live here, and we know the town. It’s a great town; it’s a good mix of locals and tourists,” owner Jennifer Noble told The Standard.
Some of the items people can buy at Mrs. Fields include, baked goods like: cookies; hand-rolled pretzels; cakes; macaroons; and beverages, like, hand-crafted espresso drinks and cold brew iced tea. Mrs. Fields also offers consumers a giftware line at the Port Perry store, including customized cookie grams.
“The Mrs. Fields brand has always been known for quality. Cookies, made with real butter [and] brown sugar; ingredients you can pronounce and find in your own pantry. The whole basis of Mrs. Fields is quality first. A fresh-baked in-store cookie made with real ingredients. You can’t beat that quality,” Ms. Noble explained.
Ms. Noble feels the Mrs. Fields brand is well recognized in North America. She hopes the store will bring people from across Durham Region and the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) into Port Perry.
“While they visit our great Township, they will spend time downtown and will shop and dine here,” Ms. Noble explained. The success of this location could serve as the catalyst to bring more Mrs. Fields storefronts to Canada.
“Port Perry will be put on the map as our first street front location in Canada. We already have some interested people looking at other towns as a possibility for [other street front locations], so it’s interesting, we could be the litmus test for the brand in Canada going forward,” Ms. Noble said.