By Gus Saltonstall
The Upper West Side Chip City cookie shop permanently closed on Friday morning, an employee who picked up the phone around 9 a.m. confirmed to West Side Rag.
Two hours later, the store was surrounded by officers of the NYPD Evidence Collection Team.
The closure of the cookie outpost at 370 Columbus Avenue, between West 77th and 78th streets, appears to be part of the chain’s decision to potentially shutter all of its stores nationwide.
While Chip City has made no official announcement about store closures, and locations still appear as “open” online, multiple publications have reported on sudden closures of the business’s stores in different parts of the country in the past couple of weeks.
The New York Post reported this morning that Chip City looks to have closed all of its locations on Friday in New York City and other major markets.
“Our industry and business have faced a challenging environment. Consumers are spending less and their preferences are evolving and that has negatively impacted our sales,” read an email to Chip City employees on Thursday, as reported by The Hoboken Girl. “We made extensive efforts to address these challenges over the course of this year in partnership with our Board and investors. Unfortunately, we no longer have the funding required to operate this business.”
When the Rag visited the Upper West Side Chip City around 9:30 a.m. on Friday, there was nobody at the store. When we returned around 11:30 a.m., the police officers had arrived.
Specifically, there were multiple officers from the NYPD Evidence Collection Team. An officer was in the midst of photographing the front of the store, and inside the business. There was no sign of any break-in.
A man with a bike was talking to the officers and filling out a document or form.
When the Rag approached one of the officers to ask for more information about what was happening, the man with the bike said, “Please, please don’t talk to the media.”
In customary fashion, the officers then told the Rag they couldn’t talk and to please reach out to the NYPD’s press department.
The man with the bike then went into the backseat of one of the police cars, before exiting the vehicle around 10 minutes later.
WSR reached out to the NYPD’s press team, but a spokesperson said they had no information as of Friday midday about any police-related matter connected to 370 Columbus Avenue.
On September 28, days before the New York City Chip City closures, Chip City’s co-founder and former CEO Peter Phillips filed a lawsuit against the business alleging a dispute over the handling of his compensation and matters related to small business loans after he says he stepped down from the CEO role in March 2026.
There is nothing in the lawsuit that connects to Chip City’s decision to close stores, but the timing is notable.
This is a developing story.
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They confirmed on Instagram that they’ve closed ALL locations, blaming “significant macro-economic headwinds.”