The smell of warm, fresh-baked cookies, with flavors like Smores and Double Chocolate Mint, split the freezing air of the Village Monday as Insomnia Cookies opened for business.
The franchise cookie store, located at several colleges across the Midwest, aims to satisfy students’ sweet cravings and help revitilize the Village as a new addition on University Ave.
“Insomnia Cookies will bring new life to Muncie,” said Renee Sarnecky, Insomnia Cookies marketing manager. “Muncie itself is trying to rebuild and we want to be an integral part of that. I’m sure when people are coming to our business instead of heading back to campus, we can help get those other retailers business too.”
After opening at 1 p.m. Monday, Insomnia Cookies sold over 200 cookies by 6 p.m., when deliveries began. Insomnia Cookies declined to release its opening day sales numbers to the Daily News.
Sarnecky said Muncie and Ball State fit directly into what the company looks for in a location: night owl students with few late-night options.
Senior history and women’s studies major Valerie Sizemore visited the business on opening day and said Insomnia Cookies will bring diversity she thinks the Village needs.
“[A late night cookie shop] is a very college-y thing to have,” Sizemore said. “With a delivery service, where else is that going to happen? You look around – bar, bar, bar – it really opens up the college scene.”
Junior marketing major Will Jervis believes Insomnia Cookies will supplement the other late night delivery businesses in the Village.
“I think it is a really good addition,” Jervis said. “It is a great complement to businesses like Jimmy John’s. I can get Jimmy John’s delivered for six bucks or whatever and get cookies as well.”
Sarnecky said the company expects to receive the same amount of business in the Village as their other locations. Much of that will come through deliveries, which she said are usually the backbone of the business.
Most Insomnia Cookies locations, including all three in Indiana, are located within close proximity to universities. Sarnecky said this is because the company believes in becoming a partner with the community, and working with a university helps to achieve that goal.
“We do a lot of cookie donation events. We like to be really tied to the campus,” Sarnecky said. “We also do donation days. [Insomnia Cookies and the organization] mutually pick a day, [send out emails] to promote it [and] then a portion of the proceeds go to the organization.”
Sarnecky is meeting with other university groups later this week with what she calls a “huge outreach campaign” to let them know of Insomnia Cookie’s charitable donations, including the Ball State athletic department.
Sarnecky also said they are always accepting applications to work inside the store, which will eventually have between 10 and 15 employees at maximum capacity.
But for college students like senior technology Andrea Huckleby, the best feature of Insomnia Cookies will come with its late-night delivery service, which runs until 3 a.m. all week.
“Just sometimes you got a craving,” Huckleby said.
