AMY LORENTZEN
DES MOINES, Iowa – Want an example of the change Barack Obama is bringing to the country? Check out cookie sales at Baby Boomers Cafe in Des Moines.
Ever since word spread about the president-elect and his family's fondness for Baby Boomers' chocolate chunk cookies, the small downtown restaurant can't bake them fast enough.
"Two months ago I was giving these cookies away," said co-owner Rodney Maxfield. "Now, it's like, 'I need two dozen cookies. I need four-dozen cookies.'"
The Obamas were frequent visitors to the cafe in the summer of 2007 when the Illinois senator devoted much of his time to Iowa, where the state's precinct caucuses kick off the presidential nominating process. Obama's main office was next door to Boomers, and his staff made the cafe a second home.
His daughters, 10-year-old Malia and 7-year-old Sasha, would stop by with their mother, Michelle, and Maxfield said they loved the cookies. During a stop in Iowa last month, Obama's staff ordered about a dozen cookies for the family. That's when word got out about their affection for the confection.
Suddenly, sales of 400 cookies in a good week soared to more than 1,000 a week, with requests coming from as far away as Mexico. Alas, the price is going up, from 50 cents to 75 cents a cookie to make up for the time it takes to make more each day.
"I think everybody just ... thought, 'Oh, great cookie, great president — the world is a happy place. Barack's going to fix all the problems and if I have a bite of this cookie it's going to make me feel good,'" Maxfield said.
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