Wally Amos, Creator of Famous Amos Cookies, Dies at 88

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Wally Amos, an indefatigable entrepreneur who in 1975 took a $25,000 loan from a few friends in Hollywood to start Famous Amos, one of the first brands to push high-quality cookies in its own stores and one of the world’s best-known names in baked goods, died on Tuesday at his home in Honolulu. He was 88. His children Shawn and Sarah Amos said the cause was complications of dementia. At a time when flavorless, preservative-packed cookies were about the only thing available to consumers not blessed with a baker in the family, Mr. Amos’s confections stood out. Derived from a recipe he had learned from his aunt, they used real ingredients, no coloring or chemicals added, and he kept them as close to handmade as possible, even as his company exploded into national distribution through the early 1980s. What began with a single store in Los Angeles that made $300,000 in revenue its first year became by 1981 a $12 million company (about $42 million in today’s currency), with dozens of Famous Amos stores across the country and packaged products sold in grocery and specialty stores as well.