Pair prepare to deliver Crumbl cookies to Winnipeg market

There was a massive chocolate chip cookie … and a pink sugar one … and some with cheesecake components.

As friends Kristina Bighill and Paulina Coombs munched on the popular Crumbl desserts, they considered: why don’t we bring this to Winnipeg?

“The brand is just so fun,” Bighill said.

She and Coombs found the company on TikTok. People post videos online — some garnering hundreds of thousands of views — of their Crumbl cookie reviews. The shop has its staples, but rotates new flavours weekly.

It’s amassed a following throughout North America. In eight years, it’s launched more than 1,000 stores.

Bighill and Coombs plan to bring at least two to Winnipeg. They’ve signed a lease at 1570 Regent Ave. West; Bighill aims to open in the latter half of 2026.

The duo is eyeing another hub in south Winnipeg. Crumbl lists 550 Sterling Lyon Pkwy. as a location for job openings on its website, but no deal has been finalized for the location.

“We’re just at the beginning stages of everything,” Bighill said.

She and Coombs sent an initial franchisee application to Crumbl before it had unrolled in Canada, she said.

The women would buy boxes of Crumbl cookies during trips to Arizona. Their husbands are Canadian Football League athletes: Bighill is married to Adam Bighill, a former Winnipeg Blue Bombers linebacker who now plays for the Calgary Stampeders; Anthony Coombs last played in the league in 2022.

“We tried it out, and we absolutely fell in love with it,” Bighill said, recalling her first time at Crumbl.

She and Coombs followed up with a second franchisee application in 2024. At the time, Canadian Crumbl sites were sprouting — the brand opened its first one in 2023, in Edmonton.

Interviews with Crumbl, location scouting and finding contractors have peppered the past year, Bighill said. She’s got a wish list: high-traffic areas, both sides of Winnipeg covered.

More Crumbl locations could come in the future, though the focus is on two locations for now, said Jared Kushner, a leasing representative with ICI Properties.

“It’s really just an exciting testament to Winnipeg and our growth,” he said. “The fact that we’re seeing new brands coming to market is super important for our community.

“We’re hoping that this can be a further driver to bring more brands.”

Hawa Bangura, 21, snacked on chocolatey and Olympic-themed cookies while in Toronto. She might be an opening-day attendee in Winnipeg.

“I really enjoyed the experience,” she said. “They’re pretty big cookies, like … they’re definitely something you can share.”

Kristin Olensky-Taylor can attest: her teenage daughter searches for Crumbl locations whenever they visit a different city.

“I’m also very excited that one of them is going to be in Transcona,” Olensky-Taylor said. “Everything seems to go up in the Sterling Lyon area.”

Should a deal go through, Crumbl will join U.S.-based chains such as Krispy Kreme and Arby’s to recently open in Tuxedo.

All Winnipeg Crumbl equipment and food will come from Canadian suppliers because the chain has a large northern operation, Bighill said: “It is very much Canadian owned and operated.”

Crumbl has locations in Alberta, Ontario, Saskatchewan, British Columbia and Nova Scotia. It began in Utah.

Bighill couldn’t provide a number of staff to be hired; planning is still ongoing. Cookies will be made in-house without frozen or pre-prepared ingredients, she said.

Social media and a rotating menu have propelled Crumbl’s popularity, said Sijie Sun, a University of Manitoba marketing professor.

“Some consumers want to try new products like every single week,” he said. “Or they … have a variety-seeking tendency.”

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com