Famous Cupcake ATM Closes All Locations Nationwide, Leaving Employees Blindsided

Sprinkles Cupcakes is the latest victim of private equity.

Sprinkles founder and celebrity baker Candace Nelson took to Instagram to announce that all locations would be closing nationwide on Wednesday, Dec. 31. Nelson started the brand in 2005, scaled it and sold it to a private equity firm in 2012. 

“Even though I sold the company over a decade ago,” Nelson says in the video, “I still have such a personal connection to it, and this isn’t how I thought the story would go.” 

All Locations Closed

There were two brick-and-mortar Sprinkles locations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area: One in Plano’s Legacy West and another in Dallas’ Preston Center. Five Sprinkles ATM’s were spread across North Texas, including The Galleria, Southlake Town Square, The Shops at Clearfork, the Gaylord Texas Resort and at DFW Airport.  

All of them have shuttered as of Dec. 31.

The First of Its Kind

Sprinkles was the first-ever cupcake-exclusive bakery that opened in Beverly Hills in 2005. It was the catalyst for the gourmet cupcake craze that took over the mid-2000s. 

“I thought Sprinkles would keep growing and be around forever”, Nelson continues, “It was going to be my legacy.”

Twenty-two brick-and-mortar and 25 ATM locations were spread across the states of Arizona, California, Florida, Nevada, Texas, Utah and Washington, D.C. The location at the Plaza at Preston Center in Dallas was the first location outside of California when it opened in 2007.

The Dallas Morning News reports that the Preston location was sold out of cupcakes by midday, leaving only a few dozen cookies and some Pupcakes, which are cupcakes for dogs. Every ATM stood empty.

Little Notice for Employees

Many fans and employees of Sprinkles Cupcakes took to Nelson’s Instagram comment section to say they were given less than a 24-hour notice befor the closure. 

“Can we please talk about how all associates were made aware not even 24 hours ago, commented user @chelllllll_c,“ We are all now jobless, and tonight we are all losing our health insurance. All of our financial is cut off completely. Happy New Year’s to the thousands of people who gave this company everything.” 

Other commenters ruminated about their core memories of Sprinkles. One gave credit to the bakery for introducing them to red velvet in 2005 and others bid their farewells, pointing out that despite the closure, the legacy that Sprinkles created lives on through bakers today.

As for the rest? User @silkmint said it best, “Private equity always runs companies into the ground, and they make major profits from doing that.”

Another one bites the dust.