Grandma’s Cookies is a small bakery on Main Street in St. Charles, which originally started as a dress shop by “Grandma” Charlotte Thompson. For fun, she baked cookies for her customer’s children, but quickly realized that more people were coming for baked goods rather than dresses.

“She realized she was making more money making cookies than she was selling her dresses,” Grandma’s Cookies’ current owner and relative of Thompson, Theresa Rubio said.

This realization led Thompson to open her bakery, Grandma’s Cookies, in 1976 which put an end to making dresses for good. The bakery was run for many years by Thompson until it was passed down to her daughter, Nancy Ginnever. But after Ginnever got sick, she put it into Rubio’s hands. Rubio has owned it ever since, even through the pandemic. They partnered up with other stores on Main Street such as Laulie Cakes and Sweet Poppins to stay in business through the chaos. 

“A lot of people were extremely hurt by the pandemic,” Manager of Grandma’s Cookies, Arielle Fox said. “But we survived.”

Even though Grandma’s Cookies is a small business, it has kept growing since the day it started due to its amazing handmade cookie recipes from Thompson herself and the outstanding service and care they have for customers. It has even become so popular that it was listed as a place to visit in Missouri on an episode of Good Morning America, but doesn’t consider expanding anytime soon despite the growing popularity.

“It’s kind of an adventure to see where it’s all heading,” Rubio said.