A small Texas bakery that lost a large order and social media followers because of its Pride Month cookies says it’s now working hard to keep up with an influx of customers.
Confections, which has operated in Lufkin for about 11 years, posted a photo of its rainbow heart cookies on its Facebook page last Wednesday.
Due to that post, the bakery said Thursday it lost a “significant amount of followers” and a customer canceled a five-dozen order of cookies that they had just finished decorating.
“My heart is heavy. Honestly, I never thought a post that literally said ‘more love less hate’ would result in this kind of backlash to a very small business that is struggling to stay afloat and spread a little cheer through baked goods,” wrote the bakery.
Soon, the bakery says there was an outpouring of support, with people offering to donate money to the shop “in the name of kindness.” However, the owners said they could take the money and instead asked people to donate to animal shelters or rescues in the area.
On Friday, customers began coming out in full force and the bakery said a line was wrapped around their street from the moment they opened. The owners asked customers to be patient because the small bakery didn’t expect such an “outpouring of love.”
Later that day, the bakery announced that they sold out of everything in the shop. And they did it again on Saturday as well.
"I was shocked at the outpouring of support and families waiting like two hours in line to get a cookie with their kids and bringing them. It was an amazing teaching moment," bakery co-owner Miranda Dolder told KLTV.
And even when the shop had nothing else to sell, the owners say several people put money on their credit card for the bakery to donate to animal rescues.
The bakery has since made national headlines and its posts have been shared thousands of times and they’ve gained many new followers. However, along with messages of support, the shop says it has still received many negative comments and it’s encouraging those on its page to be positive.
“We want this to be a positive place. We will not accept hate or be bullied with lies,” wrote the bakery.
The owners said they just want to bake their cookies and for people to be happy in their shop, surrounded by their baked goods.
