February 13, 2004
DOUGH BOY (via mc):
How did theKerry cookies crumble? (Sam Dealey, 1/28/04, The Hill)
To hear Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) tell it, his brief foray into the cookie business in the late 1970s gives him a leg up on the concerns of small-business owners. Earlier this month, the Democratic presidential candidate introduced his small-business program with vignettes from his own cookie-making experience.Posted by Orrin Judd at February 13, 2004 2:38 PMYet all that experience kind of, well, crumbles, in the mind of David Liederman, another cookie entrepreneur. Liederman, the founder of the David's Cookies chain, claims Kerry ripped off the idea from him.
"The bottom line is he just stole it from me," said Liederman, now a restaurateur and real estate developer in the New York City suburbs.
The best parts are later: Kerry followed Liederman's plans down to equipment and name (David's Cookies became John's Cookies); when Liederman found out what Kerry had done and confronted him, Kerry offered to sell him the store! Liederman actually looked into it and found that Kerry was in violation of his lease.
Too bad John didn't stick with his entrepreneural efforts in the snack food world. With his business accumen, marriage to Teresa and the synergy that would have created, Americans and others across the globe could today be enjoying pickle-chip cookies or have ketchup-and-mustard filled Newtons waiting for them in their kitchen cupboards...
Posted by: John at February 13, 2004 7:31 PM