DISTRIBUTED-WORKFORCE/OAKLAND, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 13, 2026--
Square today announced that The Baked Bear, the beloved handcrafted cookie ice cream sandwich concept founded in San Diego in 2013, is continuing to grow on Square as it expands its national footprint. Operating 36 locations across the United States, The Baked Bear has run on Square since the day it opened its first store in Pacific Beach, California – making Square the only point-of-sale platform the brand has ever used for its brick-and-mortar operations. With at least five additional locations planned over the coming year, The Baked Bear is entering one of its most active growth phases yet, and is doubling down on Square as its technology foundation.
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The Baked Bear was born when childhood friends Rob Robbins and Shane Stanger left their careers to pursue a shared passion: opening a restaurant concept together in San Diego. Rob’s favorite dessert growing up was the ice cream sandwich, and after much deliberation, the two decided to build a concept around making them – custom, handcrafted, and built to order. Guests choose from over a dozen scratch-made cookies or brownies for the top and bottom, select their ice cream flavor, pick their toppings, and can finish with the signature move: getting the whole thing warm-pressed into a gooey, indulgent finale. The first store opened in Pacific Beach to lines down the street, and the brand has been maintaining a community of devoted fans and critical praise ever since.
"As a filmmaker and entrepreneur, I have always been drawn to the art of creation, and I’m passionate about helping people bring something to life that’s entirely their own,” said Shane Stanger, Co-Founder of The Baked Bear. “That’s what The Baked Bear does every single day. Our guests walk in and get to create something they envision, from the cookie to the ice cream to the toppings. That experience is what makes us more than a dessert shop – it’s what makes us a beloved part of our communities, and the reason people keep coming back. We’re grateful to have Square supporting us as we bring our concept to even more neighborhoods this year.”
When simple, scalable concepts join forces
The Baked Bear’s concept is built around delightful simplicity: a visit in which a short, joyful decision tree – Choose your top and bottom cookies, ice cream, and your toppings – ends with a delicious creation. The brand’s approach to technology mirrors that philosophy. The Baked Bear runs Square Register and Square Point of Sale across its 36 locations, keeping the front-of-house experience fast, intuitive, and consistent whether a team member is working their first shift or their hundredth. For a franchised concept operating across dozens of locations with staff of varying experience levels, that ease of use is not a nice-to-have; it is essential.
The brand’s decade-long relationship with Square reflects a consistency that mirrors its own: the same commitment to getting the experience right, every time, at every location. They currently operate in states including Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. As The Baked Bear adds new stores across the country via a franchise model, that operational consistency becomes even more valuable.
“The Baked Bear has built a brand around one of the most joyful experiences in food, and they deliver it with the kind of simplicity and delight that keeps guests coming back,” said James Schonzeit, Head of Food & Beverage at Square. “That’s exactly where our philosophies align. As they head into their next wave of growth, we’re proud to be the technology partner bringing their creative desserts to new neighborhoods.”
To learn more about how Square powers food and beverage businesses, visit squareup.com/restaurants.
About The Baked Bear
Founded in 2013 by Rob Robbins and Shane Stanger in Pacific Beach, California, The Baked Bear is a handcrafted cookie ice cream sandwich concept operating 36 locations across the United States. Guests build their own custom ice cream sandwiches from scratch-made cookies, brownies, craft ice cream, and a range of toppings – finished with an optional warm press. For more information, visit thebakedbear.com.
About Square
Square helps businesses turn transactions into connections and businesses into neighborhood favorites.
In 2009, Square started with a simple invention – the first mobile card reader, which changed how the entire financial system thinks about small businesses. Square has since grown into a global business platform helping millions of sellers of all sizes participate and thrive in their communities. Whether independently run or a global chain, Square understands that sellers succeed when they have the freedom to focus on the experiences that keep customers coming back. From point of sale and payments to online commerce, staff management, cash flow tools, and more, Square brings together the tools sellers need to run and grow on one intelligent platform. For more information, visit squareup.com.
Photo courtesy of The Baked Bear
WASHINGTON (AP) — Public health experts have been quick to condemn an executive order from President Donald Trump aimed at upending childhood vaccinations in the U.S., but the biggest obstacles may be the unprecedented financial and logistical challenges it would impose on parents, health providers and drugmakers.
Monday’s announcement by the Republican president calls for separating combination shots — including the measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine — into separate injections. Appointments for that and other vaccinations should be spaced out whenever possible, the order states.
To accomplish that, drugmakers would need to revive a slate of individual vaccines that have not been marketed separately in the U.S. for decades. They would also have to build new manufacturing plants capable of producing millions more vaccine doses than the nation currently uses.
For parents, unbundling the MMR vaccine and spacing out the shots would mean returning to the doctor’s office many more times than is currently needed. Those appointments could also strain pediatricians who typically administer the shots, while driving up costs tied to syringes and other medical supplies.
Studies in the U.S. and other countries have shown that combination vaccines increase the likelihood that children will be fully protected from infectious diseases before starting school.
Health experts say there is no scientific basis for changing course.
“We do things that are less convenient and more expensive if there’s a good reason to do it,” said Dr. Anna Durbin, of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “There is no good justification for this. I think it’s very bad public health policy.”
Under Trump's executive order, federal officials are instructed to develop within 90 days plans for breaking up the MMR shot and spacing out other vaccines.
But pharmaceutical scientists and former regulators say those changes would likely take years and require drugmakers to spend tens of millions of dollars on new studies and manufacturing facilities.
Currently, there are no individual vaccines in the U.S. for measles, mumps or rubella. All the vaccines approved for those viruses by the Food and Drug Administration are combination shots. That three-in-one approach has been the standard in the U.S. since the early 1970s.
Dr. Jesse Goodman, a former FDA vaccine chief, said companies would have to conduct large studies showing new individual shots produced immune system-boosting reactions in children similar to the current versions.
Companies might also have to demonstrate the safety of new manufacturing facilities and procedures, given that individual measles shots haven't been widely produced in the U.S. for roughly a half-century.
“The question is how much has changed since then and how comfortable will the FDA and the companies be relying on those comparisons?” said Goodman, who is now a professor at Georgetown University.
Designing, constructing and getting federal sign-off for new vaccine plants typically takes about five years, according to industry experts.
Additionally, Goodman said the FDA would have to review and license each unbundled vaccine separately, a process with no precedent.
“I don’t think there’s any comparable example of removing hugely effective public health measures that protect babies for no documented scientific reason,” he said.
Individual shots for measles and related diseases tend to be used by lower-income countries that can’t afford the MMR shot. Merck, GSK and the handful of other companies that supply U.S. childhood vaccines make only the combination shot.
In separate statements, Merck and GSK said they stand by the safety and effectiveness of their products. Neither discussed plans to unbundle their shots.
“To date, there has been no published scientific evidence that shows any benefit in separating the combination MMR vaccine into three individual shots,” Merck said in an emailed statement.
The MMR shot is currently delivered in two doses — the first at the age of 1 and the second dose after age 4. Splitting up the shot into its three separate components would mean six office visits. Spacing out other shots for pertussis and other infectious diseases could multiply the number of visits many more times.
As the number of visits goes up, parents are more likely to miss appointments or stop making them, according to Durbin.
“It’s going to be less convenient, more expensive and you’re going to have fewer people getting vaccinated,” she said.
Since last year, Trump has repeatedly expressed concern about the number of vaccinations U.S. children are receiving and called on Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to reduce the number. Kennedy and other officials have pointed to smaller countries, such as Denmark, that recommended slightly fewer vaccines than the U.S.
But breaking up combination shots will result in kids receiving many more individual shots than other comparable nations, Durbin notes.
White House spokesman Kush Desai said the Trump administration’s efforts on the MMR vaccine “will give parents more options on timing and frequency for their children, which ultimately will increase vaccination rates for all three diseases.”
Despite the precedent-breaking nature of Trump’s order, some experts are skeptical it will result in meaningful changes.
Neither the White House nor the FDA can compel drugmakers to develop and seek approval for new vaccines. And from a business perspective, companies have little incentive to develop individual versions of vaccines they already sell in combination shots.
“They’d be competing against themselves, and there’s no reason to do that,” said Dr. Paul Offit, a Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia vaccine researcher and former government adviser.
While Trump’s order calls for more federal research and recommendations, only state governments have the legal authority to require vaccinations for schoolchildren. The order simply advises states to consider updating their laws to reflect the Trump administration’s approach.
“I think states will ignore this,” Offit said. “I think that bottom line is that we don’t need to look to Donald Trump for our medical advice.”
AP videojournalist Mary Conlon in New York contributed to this report.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Follow the AP's coverage of immunizations at https://apnews.com/hub/immunizations.
A sign about childhood vaccines is pictured as President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting to sign an executive order, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
President Donald Trump speaks as Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff, from left, National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Jayme Franklin, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Heidi Overton, deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, listen during a meeting to sign an executive order about vaccines, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
President Donald Trump speaks as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., right, and Jayme Franklin listen during a meeting to sign an executive order about vaccines, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
