"I love these cookies more than life itself," said a woman fumbling through her purse for the correct change.

This is not an uncommon statement to hear from someone buying a Granny B's Cookie. A couple vacationing in California from New York City immediately changed their flight reservations when they found out that the nearest convenience store to their hotel was out of Granny B's Cookies. They pushed back their flights one day later in order to purchase the whole shipment of cookies before returning to New York City.

For Wes and Diane Homolik, founders of Granny B's Cookies, this means success. "I don’t think you ever really think you are going to succeed," said Diane. "But these type of phone calls, letters and conversations are what keep us committed to making our most wanted’ pink sugar cookie."

It all started in 1984 in a pizza restaurant, Papa de Marcos, Named after Wes’s grandfather. It was originally located in on 400 North in Orem. Wes and Diane had great pizza but no dessert.

For Diane’s mother the solution was easy, "Why don’t you make those pink sugar cookies you always make for your friends when you were growing up?"

The first platter was one dozen sugar cookies frosted pink with sprinkles. They sold for 25 cents a piece. Wes and Diane felt they might have something good going with the cookie when two women came into their pizza shop one day and there was only one cookie lift. Neither of them would leave until they had a pink sugar cookie in hand. Diane cut the cookie in half and just gave it to them. Shortly after this incident Wes and Diane decided to move the business a little closer to Brigham Young University.

Wes knew the gentleman that owned what is now the El Azteca building just south of the campus. Real estate prices were bad and Wes had a boat that he had been trying to sell so, they made a deal. Wes gave him the boat in return for a two-year rent contract. "At that time the boat was probably worth $15,000, that’s what started and kept our business going," said Wes.

The pink sugar cookie was still only being sold in Papa de Marcos Pizza when Wes started up the south campus hill one day. He turned around to look back at the restaurant and there he saw Ray’s Conoco and Papa de Marcos side by side. That’s when Wes knew thy needed to name the cookie and sell it to nearby convenient stores. The Original name they had chosen, Sensuous Cookies, leaked out and was registered with the state of Utah just 10 minutes before Wes arrived to register it himself in Salt Lake City.

The name that was registered then was Granny B's after Diane’s mother, Blackett. Wes’s contacts for convenient stores had grown so much that it took four hours to make all of his deliveries. By the time he finished his last drop off the first drop off would be out of cookies. This activity coupled with a large out-of- state order from Las Vegas finally closed Papa de Marcos pizza for good so all their efforts could be centered on making Granny B's pink sugar cookies.

Why pink frosting? "It is what consistently makes it sell," Wes said. "We have tried white, blue, and yellow but it’s the pink that does it."

The pink color also hurts Granny B’s a little as their competitors try to copy what they have. When you see the competitors' cookies from a distance it looks like Granny B’s, but it isn’t. Packaging the cookie has helped to relieve this confusion.

"I don’t believe in putting any preservatives in my cookies, I have had them in plastic containers or baggies and they stay fresh for two weeks or more if they are not eaten before that," said Diane. The cookies can also be frozen to be kept fresh up to six months.

Granny B's Cookies come in 8 delicious flavors: oatmeal raisin, chocolate chip, peanut butter, snickerdoodle, macaroon, candy (m&m’s), chocolate sandwich, and of course, the pink sugar cookie, the most popular by a six-to-one ratio.

Wes and Diane are very clear, "All of our marketing is basically word-of-mouth, our children have worked with us for their summer jobs and our eldest son currently manages the bakery. We have 17 employees and we still hand-frost all of our cookies. We believe that our customers deserve that kind of attention."