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Crumbl Cookies draw fire for hosting employee party amid pandemic

Calls for a boycott of Logan company spread on social media after videos and photos are posted of holiday party.

Screenshot from Sawyer Hemsley's Instagram.

Twitter users are calling for a boycott of Crumbl Cookies, which was started in Logan in 2017 by a Utah State University student and his cousin, because of videos and photos of Crumbl employees without masks at a company holiday party.

Claire Wever, a USU student, posted about the maskless gathering last Friday after seeing photos and video footage of it on Crumbl Cookies COO Sawyer Hemsley’s Instagram.

“If you need a reason to scream into your pillow tonight, I direct you to consider checking out the Christmas party that Crumbl threw this evening,” she said.

More than 40 employees can be seen crowding around long tables in the photos and video. Hemsley’s Instagram is currently set to private.

Crumbl CEO Jason McGowan told The Salt Lake Tribune in an email that the employees at the luncheon work together on a daily basis and don’t interact directly with customers. He said the employees had just finished eating lunch and hadn’t put their masks back on before the photos and video were taken. McGowan said the company should have canceled the luncheon.

“As CEO, this is on me and I need to do better,” he wrote. “I — like everyone else — am doing my best to navigate 2020. Our brief actions during this gathering do not reflect what’s actually happening daily in our stores or at corporate. I promise to be more reflective regarding how my actions impact our Crew members, customers and communities moving forward. I am sincerely sorry to those I have disappointed and hope to regain trust through future actions.”

Twitter users said they are upset about the party.

@Lindseywilllk said she really likes Crumbl Cookies — but is struggling to justify giving money to a company that doesn’t think the pandemic is worth its attention.

Another said he is curious about what other health orders the cookie company is ignoring.

Some people, like @JustJoshinYa16, called for a boycott of the company.

@UtahJazzyman edited Crumbl’s logo to say “covid cookies.”


Utah reported 20 new coronavirus deaths on Wednesday, for a total of 995 deaths since the pandemic began. The deaths included a Utah County man. age 15 to 24 and a Salt Lake County man, age 25 to 44.