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Date: 11/16/2023
WEST SPRINGFIELD — The first Western Massachusetts Crumbl location opened Nov. 10 in West Springfield. It is located at 935 Riverdale St., Suite A106, West Springfield, next to Stop & Shop. The store offers Crumbl’s rotating selection of cookies, with only six flavors available per week.
Until January of this year, franchise owner Aaron Lawrie had been working as an engineering supervisor at Electric Boat in Groton, Connecticut — one of two companies in the country that builds submarines for the U.S. Navy. Lawrie belonged to a team responsible for networks systems on Virginia-class submarines and a team responsible for Ford-class aircraft carriers.
In 2021, a friend of his from church, Troy van Belle, introduced him to Crumbl. His friend would open three locations in Connecticut.
“I was personally always very excited,” Lawrie said. “The concept intrigued me.”
Wanting to open three more locations, van Belle approached Lawrie in February 2022, asking him if he’d like to quit his day job. Lawrie took a day to think about it and ultimately decided he’d love to. For the remainder of 2022, he planned out how to make that transition.
In January 2023, he left his position at Electric Boat and opened his first Crumbl franchise in Norwalk, Connectiucut. The West Springfield location is his second.
He said he chose West Springfield after working with a real estate agent to find busy locations in Connecticut in Western Massachusetts. These locations would need high populations, high traffic. Being in a busy shopping center next to a grocery store was a plus, Lawrie said.
“It just seemed to fit everything we were looking for as far as location, the look of the place, even down to the parking, the type of general environment we’re looking for,” he said.
Lawrie believes that engineering skills are transferable to anything. In school, he said, he was taught how to solve problems and think outside the box when coming to a solution. Being a supervisor at Electric Boat also gave him skills working with teams. He also said he can use “root cause analysis” at Crumbl. If a batch of cookies don’t bake how they’re supposed to, he can use critical thinking to come to a solution — though he admitted not all his submarine building skills apply.
“I definitely haven’t tried to bake a cookie that can go underwater,” he joked.
As a franchise owner, Lawrie has worked with landlords on leases, contractors and architects on building — a prime use for his engineering skills — ordering equipment and hiring staff. In the week before opening, he helped train staff, especially the general manager, who needed to be self-sufficient enough to run the store without him. He plans to be in the West Springfield store physically for 60 days.
“That way I can ensure that the location is stable enough to run without me being there,” he said. “Then I’ll move onto the next location and repeat the process.”
Lawrie hopes to open his third location in Newington, Connecticut. By the time the third is open, he said, he expects to be in a better position financially than working at Electric Boat.
Lawrie said there has been much anticipation for the new store. He owns a pink truck with the Crumbl logo on it, which people regularly stop to ask questions. The truck has its own Instagram page, instagram.com/pinktruckguy, with info on his franchises.
Crumbl announces its new weekly flavors Sundays at 8 p.m. at crumbl.com. Previous flavors include semi-sweet chocolate chunk, “dirt cake,” vanilla sugar, pumpkin roll and chocolate peanut-butter pie. Customers will be able to order cookies in store, online or through the Crumbl app. Crumbl also delivers and caters.
One of Lawrie’s favorite things to do is personally hand a box of cookies over to the customer. He enjoys making people smile.
“Building submarines, I never had that level of satisfaction,” he said.
Lawrie hopes to create a positive work environment for employees and great experiences for the customers.
“If I can positively impact somebody else’s life and just share with them even a portion of what’s been shared with me in my life, that’s huge for me,” he said.
Crumbl West Springfield is open 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays to Thursdays, and 8 a.m. to midnight Fridays and Saturdays. More information about the store can be found at crumblcookies.com/mawestspringfield.