Plans for a Cherry Creek cookie shop may be crumbling.
Please & Thank You, which is nationally known for its chocolate chip cookies, was slated to open at 2908 E. Sixth Ave. this summer. But the company, which also has locations in Indiana and Kentucky, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month.
“Capital improvements were made to the space, equipment was purchased, and the café was furnished,” P&TY owner Brooke Vaughn wrote in a June 2 filing, which generally allows businesses to restructure their debts. “It was slated to open in June 2026, but the project is stalled due to lack of working capital.”
Vaughn, who hails from Indiana but moved to Denver five years ago, told BusinessDen in March that she signed a 10-year lease for the space. The spot was home to Maggie & Molly’s Bakery from 2010 until that outfit got seized for back taxes in December.
Vaughn did not respond to requests for comment from BusinessDen.
In Please & Thank You’s Chapter 11 filing, she said the business hasn’t been profitable since 2019. Most years, those losses came despite growing revenue, she told bankruptcy court.
The business lost $430,000 on $4 million in revenue in 2025, filings show. Sales this past January were 19% below January 2025. Through May, P&TY posted $1.1 million in revenue.
“The cost of scaling P&TY’s brand post-pandemic has been exorbitant,” Vaughn wrote. “In addition to the pandemic itself, P&TY has struggled financially due to massive increases in the costs of supplies, unpredictable tariffs, and increases in the cost of labor.”
Vaughn wrote that those issues were amplified by late financial reports from her accountant and a “negative online smear campaign,” without providing specifics. But the latter appears to be connected to an incident in February, where an employee at one of her Louisville, Kentucky, stores allegedly treated a law enforcement officer disrespectfully.
Vaughn then sent out a memo to her staff, which told them to “leave your religion and politics at the door,” according to Louisville Public Media. That memo became public, prompting a flurry of negative online comments.
In the bankruptcy filing, Vaughn said the situation caused sales to tumble 31% in February and 33% in March.
She said the situation caused investor and franchisee relations to worsen, and she had to take out several bridge loans to keep the lights on at her four cafés. At the time of the bankruptcy filing in early June, P&TY reported $332,000 in assets and $4 million in liabilities. Her largest creditors are financial institutions, filings show.
A group of Louisville hospitality veterans are aiming to buy the cookie shops, including the yet-to-open Denver store, for $175,000, according to court filings. The sale would need to be approved by a bankruptcy court judge. That could come as soon as next month.
That group is already running P&TY day to day, according to filings. The Courier Journal reported that two of the group’s partners own Good Folks Coffee, a wholesale coffee roaster in Louisville that has been Vaughn’s supplier since she opened 15 years ago.
Good Folks did not respond to requests for comment on the future of the Denver store.
“The big thing that we’re focused on right now is we think that they’ve got an amazing product,” one of the owners, Matt Argo, recently told the Courier Journal. “We love the cookie. The community loves the cookies. My kids love their cookies. There’s a good product there. And if we don’t step in and help, this thing is not going to survive.”
