This cake and candy supply store is anything but cookie-cutter. And Amazon has taken a big bite of business.

In an era of stylized product staging with just-right lighting, Lorraine’s is all about baking and candy-making supplies — not pretension — for the professional and novice alike. Rota says, affectionately, the store reads “floral grandma curtain” decor. It features five aisles jam-packed with 10,000 items, including 1,000 cookie molds, 2,000 candy molds, 200 cookie stencils, and the aforementioned frosting tips. The store is also an authorized seller of Merckens, a high-quality brand of chocolate wafers and melts for candy-making.

Lorraine and Jim Frisbee, Bourke’s parents, opened the white faux barn shop in 1977 in a tucked-away spot of Hanover known as Four Corners. (The Frisbees co-own the shop with their daughter.) Adjacent storefronts, all owned by the Frisbees, once housed a cooking classroom and a bakery with elaborate cakes made by Lorraine, herself.

More walk-in stores like Lorraine’s used to exist, scattered around New England. For every shop like Eileen Cak’s Supplies & More in Springfield that still operates, the Frisbees rattle off a longer list of places that have closed, saying the names like good friends no longer with us. Places like Maxine’s Party Shoppe in Saugus, and Eaton’s Cake and Candy Supplies and Chandler’s Cake & Candy Supplies, both in New Hampshire. Eaton’s shut last January after 46 years, with the owner writing on Facebook that “online shopping is taking over so many aspects, making it impossible to continue my business any longer.”

Bourke says Amazon is their biggest competitor, and her dad says Bourke does an exemplary job shipping items to customers across the country as a counter-attempt to online shopping. But some bakers say shopping in a brick-and-mortar store is critical to their success because online product descriptions often fail to reflect the item’s quality, exact sizing, or other details needed for their work.

“Having a place you can go to with a person who will help you with supplies that work and are guaranteed is absolutely unique,” says James E. Kukstis, 36, a Scituate small business cookie-maker when not working full-time as a WHDH-TV journalist. (Like Rota, Kukstis has appeared on a Food Network holiday challenge.) “For example, icing colors never, ever, show correctly online,” says the baker, also known as Mr. Butterscotch. “When you’re doing something like I do, which is cookies that have very bright colors, then I want the right person to help me.”

Though Kukstis began his cookie business 11 years ago, he took his first cookie class when he was about 7 years old at Lorraine’s. (Classes are now adult-only.) He has remained a loyal customer since, recently sharing a photo of his cookie cutter collection, which was actually a photo of numerous clear container bins with hundreds of cookie cutters (18 different Christmas trees included), most purchased at Lorraine’s.

A wealth of products aside, the true allure of Lorraine’s is Laurie Bourke and her customer service skills. She “is a resource for learning beyond classes,” Kukstis says. “I ask so many questions about techniques like airbrushing.” Adds Rota, “I can text if I’m in a pickle, last minute, and order it and Laurie will leave it at the door.”

Bourke took over the bulk of operating Lorraine’s when her parents semi-retired 10 years ago. She is particularly talented at cake decorating and teaches in the store’s small rear room. She brings in teachers for cookie decorating classes, such as a recent one for Thanksgiving cookies taught by Melissa Mason. The Frisbees also teach occasional classes on chocolate candy-making.

The family is considered so adept with their skills that baking students from around the world have come to train with them. They say food service workers from area hotels attend classes on making decorative cakes for major events while area chain stores refer customers seeking more niche supplies. Mason took a class at Lorraine’s in the ‘90s, driving in from Everett at the time, to improve her cake skills while working at a Stop & Shop bakery. “This was the only place I could find with a class I needed,” she recalls.

The store’s biggest season is now upon them. While Valentine’s Day is not a holiday that generates extra business (Bourke says most people buy ready-made treats), Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Easter are popular. But it is Christmastime that yields the most customers, the family says. “Once-a-year family traditions, like jelly rolls, are often made at Christmas,” Lorraine Frisbee says.

Perhaps the peak Christmas event at Lorraine’s will be its 22nd Annual Gingerbread House Contest held the weekend of Dec. 7-8. The no-fee competition is divided into four divisions — children’s, youth, adult, and professional — each judged by viewers. Entrants deposit their own homemade gingerbread house on the prior Friday. While last year had about 22 competitors, one year saw 40. Registration is required and among the rules is the caveat that “all decorations must be edible.”

Lorraine’s challenges are plenty beyond Amazon. Where once a supply catalog’s prices were firm for a year, Bourke says prices now seem to increase between monthly purchases. She has a tough time finding skilled staff who can confidently help customers. “I feel like this store is a dying breed,” she admits.

Bourke is optimistic, though. Cookie making is big right now because of cooking shows and social media. The family members aren’t TikTok aficionados but attract customers who tell them about a viral trend they want to replicate, e.g. the Dubai chocolate bar.

Surprisingly, the bulk of Lorraine’s customers are not local. They come from the North Shore, Plymouth, Cape Cod, even Martha’s Vineyard. It’s the loyalists who make Bourke glad to be running the store. “I like to make people happy,” she says. ” I like when I get nice comments back for our service.”

Unpretentious service for an unpretentious shop.

Peggy Hernandez can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @Peggy_Hernandez.