Did anyone catch Martha yesterday? There were two ladies that made sugar cookies and decorated with Royal icing. The cookies looked great but I've seen several people on this site that are just as good and better. I went to their website and the cookies were $7 on average.WOW! Is that a New York thing or are most people selling their cookies for that price? It just floored me because sugar cookies aren't hard to make. I admit that perfecting Royal icing isn't easy and I haven't done it yet, but it doesn't even cost $7 for the ingredients for 4 dozen cookies let alone 1. LOL!

http://www.somethingsweetcookies.com/

I saw it and wasn't all that impressed. I just think that it's about marketing and being in the right place at the right time. I mean if almost anybody from CC made it on Martha, I can see them becoming an instant success!!

Although the idea of the mini-marshmallows on the sheep cookies was pretty cute.

Let's face it--if I could sell cookies for $7 a piece, I would. Cookies By Design is that expensive and I don't even thin they taste very good. I much prefer mine! lol!

Lisa

I checked out their site-after being on Martha, they are so busy, they are not taking any new orders.
Sandra
ps, after spending ALL day yesterday decorating cookies, I don't think 7 dollars each is nearly enough LOL

I think that a beautifully decorated cookie is worth $5.00-7.00. I know the ingredients don't add up to a lot on cookies and icing (per cookie) but I think of the time and talent that goes into it! I can see cutting back on charging that much if your selling a cookie bouquet or a large order but if you selling them a small number of items I think you deserve more for all the hard work.

OMGosh! I wish I was brave enough to charge that for my cookies! I feel bad when people say "How Much!"? I have made a New Year's resolution (already) to stop discounting my products. My DH says i need more confidence in myself. MAybe we should all take a lesson from these ladies and have more confidence in ourselves!.

Julia

I agree, the price of most items have little to do with the actual cost of making it but the time it takes to create it, in our line of work anyway. I made cookie for the second time this week and I say charge as much as you can, those little buggers are very time consuming. Of course your market has the greatesst influence on prices. As someone else said there are Cookies By Design all over and I don't think the price varies that much. Here the cookies are $5 each and they don't taste that great. If someone can get $7 per cookie, more power to them!!! I'm not sure I would ever make them to sell, it about drove me crazy to make them for my son's class!

acookieobsession, that is so true! I think we all need to harden up a bit! People think if you don't have a "store" than your cookies should be cheaper. If you think about it, they should be more. It's more work, IMHO,doing them from home, buying ingredients on a need be basis and having to store everything. Anyways, just my 2cents.

One of those women actually works for Martha, so that's how they got on the show. I have done some research on the the price of decorated cookies and that is pretty average. However, if you are not in a big city, how the hell can you charge that? I get crap for asking for $2.00!!!

You can't compare New York to the real world. I have relatives there that pay more money for apartment rentals than people here do for their mortages. If New Yorkers will pay $1500mo for a dinky apartment, then I'm sure they'll pay $7 for a decorated cookie. Heck, if it's the latest trend NewYorkers would spend $10 for the cookie. It's a different world.

Has anyone seen the website for Eleni's in NYC? She charges $12 a cookie! Not for every design, but dang! $12 for one cookie?????? That is crazy stuff IMO. In my area, even $2 would seem steep to people.

The area the girls work from is Hoboken NJ, my husband works there. you can only imagine what houses go for. I agree that's too much money for the cookies they make.

http://www.justfab.com/listings/products.asp?cat=14&page=1
This is a link to a bakery in CA, look at the work they can do it's out of this world.

You can move to good ole Indiana and build yourself a nice 4bdrm home for $1500mo. You can build a new cookiecutter home for $1000mo.

That said, cookies are pretty darn cheap here.

Time and artistry are one thing..but these are cookies. I'm sorry...I guess I think that $7 and $12 for ONE cookie...is a lot. Even if it had gold on it and the Queen of England decorated it, I think that's a lot of money to pay for a sugar cookie with icing on it. One person can spend a day doing the same design that takes another person 1 minute. It's all subjective.

We have to remember that in New York, you can pay upwards of $20 for a frozen hot chocolate. The minute its "special" by someone standards, the price dramatically increases. I've seen plenty of cookie bouquets that are definitely worth their cost for artistry but they tasted horrible. It's dissappointing to spend a lot of money for something and be dissappointed in the end because someone thought more of their "art" than of the purpose of their art.

Something to consider too...I have seen a lot of posts that talk about how much time and love and talent we put into cakes and other projects but it's really hard to put a price on that. There aren't many jobs where you can tell your boss, I worked overtime for 3 weeks to get this project done...and then ask for a raise because of how much of yourself you devoted to a task. I do think these cakes and cookies are art..but in the hands of a 3 year old, it's a piece of cake and a cookie. It's not Van Gogh, though it may be in your heart or mind. I guess I think that these ladies on Martha, as former art students, are charging for "their art" but to me, a cookie is a cookie is a cookie is a cookie. Dress it up all you want but it's a cookie and a 10 spot for a cookie is outrageous!

My only point was that I have seen plenty of cookies on this site that would garner top dollar and I didn't see anything special about these ladies cookies.

I didn't even see the show so I have no idea what their cookies looked like. I just hate to see any of the talented artist on this forum not get a fair price for all their hard work. In my humble opinion 2.00 dollars is way too low.