Montgomery's original Crumbl Cookies store on Zelda Road has permanently closed, leaving a taped-up sign in the window as the only explanation for shoppers who show up expecting warm chocolate chip or weekly rotating flavors. The midtown bakery opened in 2023 as the city's very first Crumbl location, and now it's gone for good.
A sign taped to the window at the Zelda Road location confirms the store's closure, according to wsfa.com. The station reports that no specific reason for the abrupt end to the business was given. montgomeryup.com notes that Crumbl originally opened this spot back in 2023 as its very first location in Montgomery, making the closure the end of an era for the chain's local footprint.
Customers aren't totally out of luck, though. The remaining Crumbl Cookies store at 7736 Vaughn Rd. in the Cornerstone shopping center remains open, per the same Montgomery Up report. That leaves Montgomery with one working Crumbl instead of two, a smaller-scale version of a contraction playing out across the company's national footprint.
A Chain Known for 18 Alabama Stores Now Facing Cuts
Alabama is home to 18 Crumbl stores altogether, including the Vaughn Road location in Montgomery, according to patch.com. The outlet also reports that the company has not published a complete state-by-state list of closures, so it's unclear how many of those 18 stores have been affected beyond what's already been confirmed locally. Montgomery isn't the only Alabama market feeling it, either — Crumbl Cookie's location in Mountain Brook's Lane Parke had already closed by July, as reported by al.com.
Zoom out, and the Zelda Road closure fits a pattern rippling through Crumbl's business nationwide. The chain has closed at least 57 locations in 2026, and at least 55 franchises are listed for sale on broker websites, according to a report from kutv.com. That same report found traffic at the chain's more than 1,000 locations was down 32% year over year.
Sales Per Store Have Swung Wildly Since the 2022 Peak
The numbers behind the slowdown tell a boom-and-bust story. Average annual sales per Crumbl location peaked at $1.84 million in 2022, then declined to $1.16 million in 2023, rose back to $1.36 million in 2024, and fell again to $1.14 million in 2025, according to figures reported by cleveland.com. Patch.com separately reported that sales in August 2026 were 70% lower than they were two years earlier.
Unit volumes at Crumbl declined 16% in 2025, a reversal after they had increased 17% in 2024, per a report from restaurantbusinessonline.com. Still, the company ended 2025 with 1,101 stores after adding a net 42 locations during the year, according to qsrmagazine.com — meaning the chain kept expanding even as sales per store softened. Restaurantbusinessonline.com also noted that Crumbl's system sales have grown more than 1,000% since 2020, even though that growth has slowed markedly in recent years.
Economist Points to Consumers Pulling Back on Treats
Part of the pullback traces to broader consumer behavior, not just Crumbl-specific troubles. An economist cited by ksl.com attributed the chain's downturn partly to shoppers cutting back on spending and buying fewer items they see as a luxury — a category gourmet cookies arguably fit into more than household staples. Cleveland.com has reported that additional closures are likely as the company continues laying off workers.
Crumbl still dwarfs its closest rivals by total sales. The chain's 2025 system sales exceeded $1.3 billion, compared with less than $300 million for Insomnia Cookies, according to restaurantbusinessonline.com. But per-location performance tells a different story: Insomnia Cookies generated $865,000 per location last year, while Fat Brands-owned Great American Cookies generated $400,000 per location, figures that put Crumbl's per-store average closer to the middle of the pack despite its dominant overall scale.
For now, Montgomery shoppers craving a Crumbl cookie box will need to head to Cornerstone instead of Zelda Road. Whether more Alabama locations follow the Zelda Road and Mountain Brook stores into closure remains an open question, since the company has not released a full accounting of where its cuts are landing.
