Marion bakery selling record number of Trumpshaped cookies
Jan 22, 2025
MARION, Ohio (WCMH) -- President Donald Trump was officially sworn into office on Monday but for more than a month now, one central Ohio business has been rolling out a new product to mark his inauguration.
Andrew Swartz has owned Andrew's Pastries for 29 years. He said as soon as Trump won the election, he purchased a Trump-shaped cookie cutter and got to work.
"There were some people that were unhappy with me," Swartz said. "You know, ‘I'll never go in there again.’ Whatever. That's okay."
The city of Marion has strong political history. Former president Warren G. Harding once lived there.
Swartz said his current run of Trump cookies is about catering to his customer base.
"We already have the presidential theme going already, Marion being a presidential town,” he said. “I've already been selling cookies with that presidential theme, so this wasn't that hard to do the Trump cookie.”
Andrew's Pastries has been selling the Trump cookies as fast as they can make them. The bakery has already sold roughly 450 dozen of them.
"I'll keep making them, too," Swartz said. "If the phone's ringing, my job is to take care of my customers."
One of his customers is longtime Marion resident Carrie Hutchman.
“People seemed to be in a real jovial mood when they came in to pick up the cookies," Carrie Hutchman said. She found out about the cookies on Facebook.
"I got very angry because two or three people were being nasty, so I just posted, ‘Put me down for a dozen,’” Carrie Hutchman said.
She had one rule, though: no cookie if you didn't vote for Trump.
"I was afraid they'd throw them away and Andrew's cookies are way too good to throw in the trash," Carrie Hutchman said.
In her book, there are no exceptions, even for her grandson Mitchell who did not vote for Trump.
"I just was like kind of shocked because as I run my small business, I kind of stay out of it completely because I just think everybody wants to buy flowers from me, not just a Democrat, not just a Republican," he said.
Swartz said it ultimately comes down to knowing your customers.
"Any good businessman needs to know his base and if I was in a super heavily Democratic area, I'd be making cookies for the other side,” Swartz said.
According to Swartz, it's not about picking sides; it's about selling cookies.
"Everybody should just take a step back, take a deep breath and be kind," Carrie Hutchman said.
Swartz said this is a record number of cookies sold in this amount of time since he's been in business.
"It's not about an agenda," Swarzt said. "It's about a bakery selling Trump cookies. He was just inaugurated. There's a tie in there, it's the season of something. Valentine's Day, we sell hearts. Easter, we're selling bunnies. So this month is Trump month."
The bakery plans to continue selling seasonal Trump-shaped cookies throughout the year.