The Cupcake bubble has crumbled

[liberal N proud]

Cupcake shop Crumbs shuttering all its stores

NEW YORK- Crumbs says it is shuttering all its stores, a week after the struggling cupcake shop operator was delisted from the Nasdaq.

The New York City-based company said all employees were notified of the closures Monday. A representative for Crumbs could not immediately say how many workers were affected or how many stores it had remaining on its last day.

"Regrettably Crumbs has been forced to cease operations and is immediately attending to the dislocation of its employees while it evaluates its limited remaining options," the company said in an emailed statement. That will include filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation.


http://money.msn.com/investment-advice/now.aspx?post=cc680a4e-b169-41e1-bd9d-364bb620a9bd&gt1=33002

[vi5]

1. This is what happens now....

It's not enough for someone to have and start a business that is profitable and makes money and provides a reasonable living to it's employees and owners. Everything has to "go public" and be thrown into the Wall Street meatgrinder. Everything has to be franchised out the wazoo. All for that shot at the bigger riches.

I guess that helps the big companies chew up and spit out upstart competitors easier, I just wish these smaller companies wouldn't be so eager to help them out.

[TwilightGardener]

2. This whole fad has come and gone and I haven't had a cupcake since

I made some Duncan Hines with chocolate frosting for my birthday boy's fourth grade class ten years ago. What a dumb business idea. Who gets that fucking excited over cupcakes?

[LondonReign2]

4. The same people who sat in 45 minute lines to get Krispy Kremes

for no apparent reason.

[closeupready]

6. H.L. Mencken: "Nobody ever lost money underestimating the intelligence of the American people."

H.L. Mencken: "Nobody ever lost money underestimating the intelligence of the American people."

That is, the founders of Crumbs made a fortune, the American public got their expensive cupcakes, and pension fund investors took a bath on it all.

[rickford66]

15. 45 minutes?

I saw people camping overnight in OK when a new store opened.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

3. Mixing metaphors like a Catholic bear in the woods.

[CrispyQ]

7. DUzy!

[Rod Beauvex]

5. Seriously?

This is hilarious. I didn't even know there was a cupcake fad thing.

[hlthe2b]

8. Fads come & go and sometimes come back again-- like frozen yogurt?

Big decades ago, faded out and now back again (strong a few years ago, but seemingly fading once again).

Cupcakes, though, seemed destined to have a very short half life

[Phentex]

10. smoothies, juice bars, cereal buffets...I think ice cream remains a constant...

I've had some good cupcakes but I never understood why anyone thought selling them at 3.50 a piece could be a long term business. Off a food truck maybe, but not a store where people have to make a special trip.

Ice cream shops in a good location seem to survive the fads, although some of those went overboard and have now shuttered.

[TwilightGardener]

16. Ice cream shops endure because they have a solid place in American culture

as a family or celebratory destination. How many adults today have fond memories of piling into station wagons on summer evenings to go to Dairy Queen or Tasty-Freez or Baskin Robbins--maybe after a ballgame, or dad just didn't know what to do with you when he babysat? I still go to DQ sometimes for the Peanut Buster Parfait after dinner--kind of recreates that happy school's-out-for-summer feeling.

[enlightenment]

17. I miss the ice cream shops

that had plenty of seats and served special sundaes and such. Nothing else - just ice cream. Those were fun.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

14. Yeah. I remember the frozen yogurt boom.

Stores on every corner, everybody was going to own a TCBY. Then, poof, like Keizer Sosa, gone.

Now they are back. I guess the current generation of suckers didn't see the last boom go bust.

Seems like the only ice cream/yogurt stores that survive around here are the old time mom and pop operations in run down old stand alone buildings that the most likely own outright. It's a tuff nut to crack 10k a month in rent around here.

There was a cold stone creamery here that went belly up. There were lines out the door ..... In the summer.

[DinahMoeHum]

9. Now if we could only get rid of those damn "cake pops"

A bakery travesty, if ever I saw one.

[LisaLynne]

11. They look like a lollipop that got dropped under a couch cushion. nt

[winter is coming]

12. Those things are vile!

I'd heard all the buzz about cake pops, and then I tried one at a baby shower. Pleah!

[Kingofalldems]

13. I just looked it up and found

5 cupcake shops on and around M St. in Georgetown. I wonder how they are doing?

[lame54]

18. it was their refusal to sell scones that did them in...

you've gotta be willing to diversify