40 Years of Cookies and I am still baking!
Wally Amos is “The Caretaker of the Taste.” He’s the William Morris talent agent who took his Auntie’s recipe for chocolate chip cookies, opened the world’s first gourmet cookie store, and became a famous and beloved figure in American popular culture. He’s the author of ten books, one of the nation’s most inspirational speakers, and a tireless advocate for childhood literacy. And, he’s also the guy who basically lost the brand that made him famous, wrote of his experiences, good and bad, and managed to stir and encourage millions as he worked to fight his way back.
Wally’s saga began in 1975, with a store on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. It continues today in Hawai‘i, his home for almost 40 years. He has gone back to his original recipes and techniques, creating handmade cookies and selling them, not in stores with his famous name emblazoned in lights, but on the internet, where much of the commerce of the world now takes place.
In a sense, he is a renaissance man who, at 78 years of age, is pretty comfortable dealing with new-age media, has business interests at home and abroad, and can’t walk down the street in any American city without being stopped by legions of loyal fans, especially the Baby Boomers who visited his stores and remember the taste of his original cookies. He is also greeted everywhere in Hawai‘i by people who know him best as the warm, funny man who always came to their school or neighborhood library to read to them as kids.
Wally’s early success found him selling shares in his company to finance rapid expansion. One day he realized he no longer held controlling interest in the venture he started. And, before he knew it, he had been terminated. He even lost the use of his own name to legal restrictions. Famous Amos®, through a series of owners, became a grocery store brand with diminished ingredients resulting in a dramatically different taste.
But this is a guy whose personal motto is, “Be positive, anyway.” He eagerly shares his “Recipes For Life.” And he protects his most valuable asset by being The Cookie Kahuna, “Caretaker of the TASTE.”
