Crumbl Cookies Gainesville (UF) Gaming the System?

UPDATE: The address of the Crumbl Gainesville, Florida location will be 3230 SW 35th Blvd, Gainesville, FL 32608 in Butler Plaza. The grand opening weekend was December 1st-2nd, 2023.

Upon research, we have learned that Crumbl Gainesville is gaming the system and making sales look better than they are by purchasing Google Reviews. In the first two (2) weeks of being open, Crumbl Gainesville, Florida has 129 reviews. As of mid December, 62 of the 129 reviews are from accounts with only a single review (spam accounts). A significant more are from accounts with less than five (5) reviews.

When comparing the total number of Google reviews to other Crumbl locations opening in December 2023, it is quite clear what Crumbl Gainesville, Florida is doing:

  • Crumbl Gainesville, Florida – 129 Google Reviews
  • Crumbl Parkside, Cary, NC – 2 Google Reviews
  • Crumbl Avon, Connecticut – 10 Google Reviews
  • Crumbl South Salem, Oregon – 6 Google Reviews
  • Crumbl Boca Raton, Florida – 7 Google Reviews
  • Crumbl Hudson, MA – 4 Google Reviews
  • Crumbl Merrillville, Indiana – 5 Google Reviews
  • Crumbl Dickson City, PA – 51 Google Reviews
  • Crumbl Grand Forks, ND – 20 Google Reviews
  • Crumbl Gulf Shores, Alabama – 20 Google Reviews
  • Crumbl Greystone, Alabama – 6 Google Reviews

Updated reviews as of January 9th, 2024

  • Crumbl Gainesville, Florida – 229 Google Reviews
  • Crumbl Parkside, Cary, NC – 10 Google Reviews
  • Crumbl Avon, Connecticut – 52 Google Reviews
  • Crumbl South Salem, Oregon – 49 Google Reviews
  • Crumbl Boca Raton, Florida – 34 Google Reviews
  • Crumbl Hudson, MA – 55 Google Reviews
  • Crumbl Merrillville, Indiana – 100 Google Reviews
  • Crumbl Dickson City, PA – 302 Google Reviews
  • Crumbl Grand Forks, ND – 82 Google Reviews
  • Crumbl Gulf Shores, Alabama – 70 Google Reviews
  • Crumbl Greystone, Alabama – 34 Google Reviews

So, every single store not named Crumbl Gainesville has an average of 13.1 reviews yet Crumbl Gainesville, Florida has 10 times that? Fishy. Also, notice this nice fancy “Crumbl” signage that was used at the Crumbl Experience Conference in Provo, Utah in January 2023:

Does it look eerily familiar to the same signage that was outside the Crumbl Gainesville, Florida store in early December 2023?

 

The Lakeland, Florida location at 919 Lakeland Park Center Dr., Ste. 370 is set to open in the summer of 2023. It is very likely the case that the same franchise partner has the Gainesville, Florida territory. This further makes us think it will be early 2024 before Gainesville, Florida and the University of Florida get a Crumbl Cookies location.

While Ocala is the largest city in Florida without a Crumbl, Gainesville is the only major college town in Florida without a Crumbl. The closest Crumbl is Oakleaf which is in Jacksonville and over an hour drive away. An Ocala Crumbl would likely get all the business from the University of Florida college students, but there is not a Crumbl in Ocala either. What is interesting about Crumbl locations near college campuses is the Crumbl’s on the main drag of campus do not do very well. The fact that there is little parking and the only customers are college students make Crumbl FSU and Crumbl Chapel Hill (UNC) some of the slower stores in the country. That said, Crumbl College Station (Texas A&M) is about 3 miles from campus and is one of the more popular stores in Texas.

As of mid 2023 there are no major plans for a new Crumbl stores to open in Gainesville. The earliest we will likely see a Crumbl in Gainesville would be October or November of 2023. Most Crumbl franchise partners do not want to have their grand opening in October or November because that is the slowest sales time of the year for Crumbl. This means the earliest you are going to see a Crumbl Gainesville location will likely be January or February 2024 unless the buildout phase has already started. The buildout phase can be anywhere from six months to two (2) years at this point.