April 13, 2012

By Cassie Kibens

The beloved Hot Box Cookies, cookie capital of Columbia, will be moving to a new location this summer. Hot Box Cookies owner Corey Rimmel is moving to a larger location in order to expand his kitchen and sales. The new location will bring a few changes.

“A lot of people don’t know that we do gift delivery, and that’s really one thing I plan on promoting a lot when I do open,” Rimmel says.

Hot Box Cookies opened in October 2008 and will close its current location sometime this summer. The new location will open before school is back in session this fall. Rimmel said he would reveal the new location in late May.

“I saw Columbia as a growing town and I have free time on my hands — the opportunity presented itself and I went with it,” Rimmel says.

Rimmel had the original idea for the concept of Hot Box Cookies, and then included a couple of partners as more preparation went into the process of opening Hot Box Cookies. For the past year and a half, Rimmel has operated Hot Box Cookies solely with the help of 12 to 13 employees.

“I’ve always wanted to have my own business,” Rimmel says. “I’ve always had an entrepreneurial attitude about myself.”

Currently Hot Box Cookies produces about 500 cookies on slow days and 2,000 on busy ones.

In its new location, Hot Box Cookies will still deliver cookies to MU and the Columbia area, and it might add a few items to its menu.

Rimmel thinks the move will boost sales quite a bit because he will be able to do more wholesale and catering orders. He says the delivery service will be faster because of the addition of a couple of parking spots outside the new location for delivery vehicles.

Rimmel wants Hot Box Cookies to one day be one of the top three places to go in Columbia, but thinks the business is still a long way from it.

“My ultimate goal is to make Hot Box into a staple of Columbia, one of those places you bring your parents back when you’re visiting Columbia again,” Rimmel says.

Rally House sporting goods store will be taking the space currently occupied by Hot Box and Cool Stuff, and Hot Box will vacate its current location by mid-May, according to the Columbia Missourian.