Ĭrumbs was the largest cupcake chain in the United States. Founded in 2003 as a small mom-and-pop style bakery on the Upper West Side of Manhattan by Mia & Jason Bauer, the company expanded to 79 locations in ten states ( New York, Illinois, Virginia, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Maryland, and California) and Washington, D.C. © 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc.$57 million (2013 revised projection) Ĭrumbs Bake Shop was a bakery chain headquartered in New York City. Crumbs helped to ignite the so-called “cupcake wars” in the early 2000s. “Fast forward to 2023, and we now have the ability to communicate with our consumers via social media without having to be in a physical store,” Jason said. Now, a package of a half-dozen Crumbs cupcakes at grocery stores costs $10 to $13, while the Crumbs website offers larger cupcakes for $45 for a six-pack. “It was heartbreaking to us to see our baby close.” “We felt we left it in the hands of people who would grow it,” Jason said. He has said previously that he was a minority investor and as such wasn’t able to “effect change.” There were as many as 79 Crumbs stores in eight states at the the peak of the chain’s success. Lemonis could not immediately be reached for comment. In 2014, Marcus Lemonis, star of the CNBC reality show “The Profit,” partnered with Fischer Enterprises to buy Crumbs out of bankruptcy for $6.5 million, but sold his stake in Crumbs at a “significant loss” a year later. “I have no desire to talk about Crumbs,” Geiger told The Post when reached by phone. The problem: mall shoppers spent less per transaction than the typical $20 to $25 purchase at the freestanding stores the Bauers ran, according to Jason Bauer. ![]() The company went public in 2011, briefly nabbing the $66 million market valuation, but the sugar high didn’t last long.Īeropostale’s ex-CEO Julian Geiger goosed growth over the next two years, opening some 25 Crumbs shops in malls.īut the vast expansion only expedited Crumbs’ fall into bankruptcy. Jars of cookies are a new product line for Crumbs Bake Shop. ![]() “We were selling one million cupcakes a month,” Mia said. The Bauers sold half their Crumbs stake in 2008 for $10 million to an angel investor and kept growing the brand.īy 2011, there were 50 stores and the Bauers sold their remaining stake. Crumbs, along with rival cupcake purveyors including Magnolia, Sprinkles, Cupcake Nouveau and Georgetown Cupcake grabbed outsize market share over the next two decades. “Neighborhood bakeries had disappeared at that time and we wanted to become that local destination again,” Jason said. It’s a different world from 2003, when the Bauers were looking to exploit what they saw as customer fatigue with big supermarkets offering tired, mediocre selections of baked goods. Jason and Mia Bauer founded Crumbs Bake Shop in 2003, opening their first store on West 75th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. Instead, Crumbs cupcakes are now being sold on the web and distributed at supermarkets - some 400 ShopRites, Gristedes, Westside Markets and Fairways – and for about half the price. While the Bauers respectfully disagree, they’ve also elected to flip the business strategy - namely, by avoiding a pricey retail expansion. “The USPTO website said that Crumbs’ trademark was ‘dead, abandoned and unreviveable,'” Jason Bauer told The Post in an interview. ![]() Last year, co-founders Jason and Mia Bauer, who started Crumbs in 2003 with a single shop on Manhattan’s Upper West Side at West 75th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, retook control for $300 - that is, the fee that’s required to purchase an abandoned brand from the US Patent and Trademark Office. The Big Apple bakery - credited with igniting a cupcake craze in the early 2000s - had built a chain of 79 stores across eight states, only to be left for dead in a 2014 bankruptcy despite a major growth push by high-profile retail executives. ![]() What cupcake are you based on your zodiac sign?Ĭrumbs Bake Shop - a cupcake empire valued at $66 million when it went public more than a decade ago - was quietly bought back by its founders for $300, The Post has learned. Mom bakes a birthday cake for her kid but people are mortified by what it looks like The 8 best cake and cupcake delivery services to surprise your Valentine Much-buzzed about NYC cannabis-infused bake shops are illegal: officials
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