33-Year-Old Mike Evans Made $40K From A Cookie Vending Machine, Then Invested It To Open A Storefront

St. Louis Business Journal reports Evans was one of the countless individuals who found themselves out of a job during the pandemic. He used that period to brainstorm new ways to generate income. He then blew off the dust from an old idea and invested in a Japanese cookie vending machine.

“I was scrolling through Facebook and saw that in Japan there’s something like two machines for every human, and you can get anything out of a vending machine. So, I contacted a builder in Japan, and I said, ‘Hey, this is my idea, this is what I want it to do and this is how I want it to be designed,'” Evans explained to the St. Louis Business Journal.

The venture was successful as he earned $40,000 from his first vending machine, then scaled his business to a storefront.

Now, customers across St. Louis can stop by Alibi Cookies and enjoy delectable classics such as chocolate chunk, oatmeal raisin, sugar, and more unique flavors such as double chocolate mint, pumpkin spice, and deluxe apple pie, among others.

 

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“Cooking is something that I’ve always been good at,” Evans said, according to St. Louis Business Journal. “I remember just watching my mom at a young age while she’s over the stove cooking, and I’d just sit there watching her, seeing what she’s doing and asking questions. I wasn’t always the best baker, though, because baking is so precise. I consider myself a good baker now. We have a recipe that we can do across all the stores, and we do it extremely well.”

Alibi Cookies has now expanded to three storefronts, with plans of opening two additional stores in St. Louis and three more vending machine locations.

Evans, 33, has no plans of showing down. He plans to open nine stores in 2023 alone and expects to earn over $1 million in yearly revenue.

The little boy who was raised in the north of St. Louis would certainly be proud of the journey ahead.

“I was an inner-city kid, faced with the challenges of being Black and being in the city and, I’m not going to lie, it was hard,” Evans expressed to the outlet. “It’s crazy to me that some of the people I went to school with that got straight A’s and went to college – they’re not on the same level as me now. They don’t own their own business. That’s something I think about all the time. People say, “Oh, you gotta go to college,” and “You didn’t go to college, so you’re not gonna be anything.” And I’m just like, “I’m some inner-city Black kid, and I’m doing this.”