Business t entrepreneurships

Josh Charlip, Jill Sherman Marx, and Stacey and Michael Fox

Young entrepreneurs
take over famous
Marty's Cookies.

Bill Carroll
Special to the Jewish News

I

n case cookie connoisseurs are won-
dering what ever happened to the
famous Marty's Cookies, they are
"alive and well" and hiding inside a bagel
shop in Southfield.
The tasty big cookies that had tantalized
those who walked by the Marty's store
on Maple Road in Birmingham since the
early 1980s went through some perilous
times for a while, but two busy young
Jewish families took over the former
operation and are persevering to build the
business back up to its cookie heyday.

The cookies-and-bagels combination is
part of the new co-branding concept that
has proven successful in many business
establishments in recent years, such as
coffee shops with either hamburger or ice
cream stores.
The well-known 3.5-ounce cookies,
costing $1.50 each, are sold from a six-
foot-wide by four-foot-high counter inside
the 1,100-square-foot Bagel Factory, on 12
Mile just west of Telegraph, in Southfield.
A bright Marty's Cookies sign is in the
front window, but the main name spot
atop the building only says Bagel Factory.
Besides a variety of chocolate chip, oat-
meal raisin and peanut butter cookies,
there also are muffins, cinnamon rolls, fra-
gels (fried donuts) and the usual mixture
of popular coffees.
"We get the most out of our space; we
try to squeeze every bit of profit from
each square foot;' said Josh Charlip, 42,
of Farmington Hills, who has owned the

Staff photo by Angie Bean

Bagel Factory for 14 years.
Last year, he joined forces with Stacy
Fox, 39, of Bloomfield Hills, to own
Marty's; but he retains sole ownership
of the Bagel Factory. Charlip's wife, Jill
Sherman Marx, 40, and Fox's husband,
Michael, 47, complete the entrepreneurial,
two-family team, with all of them often
waiting on both cookie and bagel custom-
ers. "I'm the Girl Friday who pitches in to
do everything necessary:' said Marx.

Expansive Team

But the team isn't exactly putting all of

its cookies in one basket. Charlip also is a
psychotherapist in Birmingham, working
on his doctorate; Marx is a locally based
personal trainer. Michael Fox owns Fox
Printing Co. in Farmington Hills. His wife's
spare time is spent raising their three
children.
While at Berkley High School, Stacy Fox
worked at Zeman's Bakery in Oak Park

and Southfield, then got a part-time job
selling cookies at Marty's, graduating from
Michigan State University along the way
with an English degree. She bought the
company from founder Marty Herman
and operated it for 10 years, boosting
gross sales from $500,000 to $750,000
yearly. Herman later was killed in a motor-
cycle accident.
Retiring to become a mother, Stacy sold
the cookie business in a deal that "just
didn't work out well:' she said. "The new
owner switched the store to a Ferndale
location, then we had some disagreements
and a legal battle; but the court finally
awarded me the business back, with reten-
tion of Marty's name — and I'm proud
to keep that name in Marty Herman's
memory. I had known Josh from our con-
tacts in the food business and I was happy
to team up with him and bring Marty's to

Cookies on page A36

May 8 • 2008

A35