As many of you may know by know, the popular cupcake chain Crumbs has closed its doors and ceased operations at all 48 of their stores. While reading through several news articles during the day regarding these recent events, I began to wonder if a turnaround for this company was possible.
It would appear that the bland interiors, over sized product, and focus on expanding locations, is what did the company in. Perhaps they will be able to rescue a few stores and focus on revamping those to increase customer appeal, and fixing the apparent "flaws" cited by many news reports, Crumbs can start anew.
I am curious to hear other peoples thoughts on this matter.
go home marcus
i am simultaneously surprised, yet not surprised at this news everything about crumbs was incredibly generic, and the cupcakes were very expensive- perhaps even more expensive than georgetown cupcakes (which is absurd because gtown cupcakes blow crumbs out of the water)
i would like to point out that while crumbs could have done better from an internal standpoint, perhaps this was a case of bad external factors. i'm sure you guys have realized that there is a 'in' kind of snack dessert at certain points in time
way back when, it was the crepe, followed by a slew of various other things. frozen yogurt appeared on the market shortly after, and shortly after, the cupcakes. here in new york, we now even have these ridiculous 'mini cupcakes', which is absurd because cupcakes are already a mini version of a cake.
i'm not sure what the newest big fad is going to be (shake shack?), but perhaps crumbs is just a victim of it's time
EDIT: it seems at one point, ms. field's cookies were a thing as well
i don't know why but i found this hilarious. SB'ed
He's not THAT clever
http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/ba/03/d3/ba03d3f73b5128a4eedfe16…
Cronuts...so ridiculous how long that fucking line is...
How soon until renegade crumbs employees post up shop in the closed stores and just run them until they are either out of supplies or forcefully removed by law enforcement?
The employees so seriously consider that seeing as how they have no job prospect in the short term, still have a fully functioning store, and the means by which to access and make more cupcakes. At least for the next month until utilities get shut off.
I don't really see them salvaging this. The upscale cupcake industry seems to be pretty saturated. Plus I don't know really see there being any real room for growth unless someone invents something crazy like a low cal cupcake that's delicious and also cures AIDS.
Maybe they should have diversified into Muffins.
I wasn't surprised by this move. I overheard my GF and her friends talking about the cupcake game in NY and how they thought Crumbs was the worst but also how they noticed some of the stores were closing and the rest were always empty vs previous years. Lesson here is to always channel check bake goods ideas with women.
This make me lol, SB for you.It's actually somewhat disappointing if only because they made a decent chocolate chip scone and their coffee wasn't half bad.
Mrs Fields Cookies are big in Hong Kong. There's an outlet in most MTR stations.
Cupcakes dying? Who would have guessed. An entire store dedicated to donuts I can understand, but not cupcakes.
On the other hand, there is a clear market opening for cakes with cream in them in NY. I can't find a cream bun or apple turnover with cream to save my life.
Mrs. Fields Cookies are the best. I always loved them as a kid. There's one in NYC as well around Herald Square, I think.
They are still a publically trading company on the OTC markets.
I was just thinking about this, does anyone know if there's anything proprietary about the Sprinkles cupcake ATMs? If there is, I feel like they could make so much money licensing it to other food companies. There are vending machines in pretty much every commercial building; however, there are very few vending machines that are outdoors and on the side of the road. Think about this: Fuck drive through mcdonalds, especially if Obama passes this new ridiculous minimum wage. You could pay one person whose job it is to restock the mcdonalds ATM.
I don't think a McDonald's vending machine is possible only due to food safety regulations, assuming you wish to serve heated food. I know many cafeterias have the revolving case of microwavable food but they only get away with it because of refrigeration methods.
I think what we may end up seeing is further automation of the processes or perhaps even a self serve style of rapid service casual dining stores emerge. Hell that's a million dollar Idea right there McDonald's, you're welcome.
Looks like they just got a round of financing from several investors. The stock shot up over 1000%. Pretty crazy gains to be made but I doubt anyone bought in when it was at its lowest, and those that held probably lost everything when the price tanked.
http://dealbreaker.com/2011/06/colossal-cupcake-gets-the-better-of-citi…
delete
Don't mind me, I'm just a sad man on the west coast salivating in sadness as I read you people describe desserts out of a fucking fairy tale.
Baked by Melissa is "in"...Crumbs is out
I think maybe the closing of their stores was maybe because of the amount of locations they had. Many locations could become quite hard to manage and sometimes only a few locations is a lot better to profit from and stay positive business speaking
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