A TikTok user with a big following posted last year about the cookies at Tsp. Baking, which led to what owner Kari Garcia called an “explosion” of popularity on the platform.
As of earlier this month, the North Las Vegas bakery had accumulated about 4.4 million likes on TikTok, directly helping increase the number of visitors to the business on North Decatur Boulevard and the 215 Beltway.
Customers often tell Tsp. Baking workers they wanted to stop in because they learned of the shop through social media.
“What you can do with social media is amazing,” Garcia said. “I encourage any small-business owners to utilize it. You never know when a post might blow up and who’s telling other people. If I’m not busy, I’ll do a TikTok video with a customer.”
Last month, Tsp. Baking received the inaugural Nevada Department of Agriculture’s Small Business of the Year award, beating out more than two dozen other candidates.
“I never went to culinary school; I’m a home-taught baker,” Garcia said recently from her shop, which features a disco ball in the front customer-facing area. “In high school and up, I baked for fun, and I just got to the point where I knew I could do it professionally. I dove headfirst into it.”
Garcia always wanted to run a “neighborhood” bakery. That’s exactly what she feels Tsp. Baking—which she opened five years ago with her husband, Air Force Master Sgt. Richard Garcia—has grown into. Repeat business has been a staple of the shop.
In just a few years, Garcia and her staff have seen “quite a few” young couples get engaged, married and welcome children, all while celebrating with Tsp. Baking’s creations. Garcia also said the shop gets a lot of “military support.”
“There aren’t a lot of mom-and-pop places around any longer,” Garcia said. “In Las Vegas, a lot of people come and go, so it’s not easy to have a neighborhood bakery. People tell me I should expand, but being here is my favorite part. If we had seven locations, I couldn’t do that.”
Dillon Davidson, a senior trade officer with the Nevada Department of Agriculture, said Tsp. Baking stood out among other applications for the statewide award for several reasons.
“They’ve been able to grow their business with the help of social media, and they source local ingredients and contribute to charitable organizations in the Las Vegas area,” Davidson said. “We wanted to find a Nevada business that exemplified why Nevada’s agriculture, food and beverage businesses are integral to the state. Tsp. Baking has stepped up and out to make a positive impact.”
While in the depths of the pandemic last year, Tsp. Baking stayed afloat by offering pickup and delivery orders. Garcia also made use of the pandemic-induced government small-business loan programs, which helped provide a financial cushion.
Sometimes, Garcia said, regular customers would stop by at the height of the pandemic to shove envelopes with money under the door, showing their support during what was a difficult time for many small businesses.
The biggest boost, though, has come from the success on social media, especially TikTok, an idea that came from Lucy Haskell, Kari’s 16-year-old daughter, a junior at Arbor View High School.
Lucy and her sister, Abbi Haskell, 23, a recent graduate of UNLV’s hospitality college, work at the bakery.
“Lucy has been on [social media] since she was 9,” Kari said. “I loved social media anyway, but when Lucy told me about TikTok, I was like ‘Oh, I can do this.’ ”
And once they get in the door, Garcia—with her glittery eye makeup and an infectious positive outlook—does the rest. After helping a mother find the right cake—a “dirty cookie drip” cake stuffed with Oreos—for her 5-year-old son’s birthday party, Garcia pondered what she believes it means to be a small-business owner.
“I love doing this,” she said. “The dream is to be connected to the community, not to be capitalizing on the community. I mean, we sell sugar, so how bad could any of this be?”