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This is "Don't Waste A Good Recession" Case Study #3 - Ruth Wakefield and the Toll House Inn.
In 1938, restaurant owner Ruth Wakefield and her husband Kenneth faced a challenge. You might remember the 1930s as ‘The Great Depression’, and bad as the first Recession was after the 1929 stock market crash, in many ways the second Recession during 1937-38 was even worse.
Ruth was a college educated dietician, and in 1930 she bought and became the chef at the Toll House Inn and restaurant in Whitman, Massachusetts.
The Toll House was named after the town, where travellers between Boston and the whaling city of New Bedford were once required to stop and pay a toll. It was a white Cape Cod style building that resembled a home which had overgrown, jutting out wings that housed the guest lodgings, kitchen and the dining area.
The Great Depression was not a great time to be in the restaurant business, especially one famous for its lobster dinners and fine desserts. At heart though Ruth had the entrepreneurial spirit – creativity in the kitchen, and in her business. The restaurant business was what it was; but that didn’t mean there weren’t other opportunities.
If you’ve ever wondered who invented the meat pie, or the hot dog, or banana bread – you may be surprised to discover that we know exactly who invented another food we take for granted: the choc-chip cookie.
It was Ruth Wakefield. Some stories say it was an accident, because God-forbid a female entrepreneur be allowed any credit. Ruth herself said it was quite deliberate.
So what did the Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie give to Ruth and her business? A new product – one that could be sold individually, and at a low price. A product that could be transported – you didn’t have to eat it in her restaurant, and it would go on to become one of the favourite gifts sent to US Servicemen during World War Two.
And it wasn’t complicated. Ruth wrote a recipe book, which included the steps for how to make a Toll House Cookie at home. So delicious was the cookie, and so easily could it be made, Ruth was invited to be a guest on Betty Crocker’s nationally syndicated radio show.
In 1930, Ruth owned one business, an inn with an inhouse restaurant. By 1939, she had four: the inn, the restaurant which was open to the public, the cookbook, and the commercially produced take-away cookies. Cleverley – again, no accident – all four of them were unified under the Toll House Brand, and even today a “Toll House Cookie” in the US is a generic name for chocolate-chip.
Ruth sold the recipe, along with the Toll House Cookie brand, to Nestle in 1939. And her recipe still appears on their bags of chocolate chips.
In a time when restaurants were closing, a Recession when they had no other choice, Ruth created a new product, she opened a whole new market that was much, much larger, and she thrived.
Ruth Wakefield eventually printed 39 editions of her cookbook, and sold the Toll House Inn in 1966. She died, leaving an innovate cooking and business legacy, in January 1977.
What's the low cost or scalable product/service that your existing customers want to buy? How could you use the Coronavirus Recession to expand your product line and grow your Brand?
