Viral cookie chain abruptly closes all stores across US, staff turned away

Apparently, that’s how the cookie crumbles.Chip City, the viral New York bakery chain that ballooned from a Queens storefront into a multi-state cookie empire, backed by millions from Danny Meyer’s investment firm, appears to have abruptly shuttered stores across New York City and other major markets — just days after its co-founder sued the company and its controlling investor.Videos posted to social media showed darkened storefronts and printed closure notices pasted on facades, while customers and purported employees reported shutdowns even as some stores remained listed as open on Google and Chip City’s own website.“All locations shut down with no notice,” one customer alerted neighbors on the Upper East Side, claiming staff received an email saying it would be their final day.“Confirmed the UWS one is closed and there are cops outside telling passers-by to get away and not touch anything when they try to approach,” another customer reported.Chip City had not publicly announced a systemwide shutdown as of Friday morning.The Post reached out to the company, its founders, executives and investors for comment.The apparent New York closures follow a rapid string of shutdowns elsewhere.Chip City recently closed all three of its Connecticut locations while stores in Virginia have also shuttered.

By late September, the company’s website listed just 24 locations in New York, New Jersey and Texas, a sharp contraction from its footprint at the height of its expansion.Chip City rode the same oversized-cookie wave that turned brands like Crumbl and Last Crumb into social-media sensations, helping push cookies into the kind of viral-dessert moment cupcakes once had with brands like Magnolia Bakery.The category exploded around rotating flavors, limited drops and massive, camera-ready cookies built for TikTok and InstagramFounded in Astoria in 2017, Chip City built a cult following around their nearly six-ounce cookies with crisp edges, molten centers and a...