Sprinkles is closing?

When I was there Dec 12 - 16, I was in Disney Springs most days and evenings, and there were only a handful of people at Sprinkles at any given time. I thought a few times it was closed as it looked so dead - but then I'd see one person inside. Meanwhile, Disney Springs was PACKED, Gideon's line was 100+ people long, and everything was buzzing. I get the feeling Sprinkles is fighting too many hip dessert spots in Disney Springs that are the 'it' places.
 

I hate to see places close, but there's so many other options at the Springs it's hard to compete in the desserts arena.
 
Be it a lesson to all: when you hear the words “Private Equity”, DON’T ACCEPT THE DEAL. This is what happens. Private equity is basically like a business landfill.
 
The company was founded in 2005, sold to a private equity company in 2012, and closed now. So it spent more time existing under private equity than it did with the original founder.

I know "private equity" is a big internet boogeyman word, but 13 years isn't exactly a "gut and sell the parts" scheme that people tend to think of with that term.
 
The company was founded in 2005, sold to a private equity company in 2012, and closed now. So it spent more time existing under private equity than it did with the original founder.

I know "private equity" is a big internet boogeyman word, but 13 years isn't exactly a "gut and sell the parts" scheme that people tend to think of with that term.
It’s still bad… in the long term…
 
Basic cupcakes at an inflated price was trendy 4-5 years ago. Im surprised it lasted so long to be honest.

It's also quite a nice size unit that is wasted by just being a counter.
 
Expensive? Sure. But certainly not basic cupcakes. We'll miss the location, which used to be a very popular spot. But like someone mentioned above, when we walked by in mid December, it was eerily empty, which we never used to see. We were concerned something was up. This was definitely a go-to spot for us many trips. We're not fans of Gideons and loved many of the Sprinkles flavors. Hopefully, they replace it with something fun and tasty. Very sorry to see the place closing......
 
I wonder, looking at the ingredients list for just their vanilla cupcake, if the 2026 removal of all artificial dyes was the straw that broke the camel's back (thus the 12/31 11:59pm national closure). Private equity doesn't remake the wheel, and having to redesign all the cupcakes to meet the new US health standards was something that financially they decided wasn't worth more than just closing and selling off the assets. I mean, they would already be struggling with labor costs vs sale per unit (high hourly wages per employee mean you want to sell a certain dollar value per transaction to stay profitable, and you can only charge so much per cupcake), the decreasing popularity of cupcakes and sugared products from their high, their corporate national but still limited reach, etc.

For the ingredient design, their vanilla cupcake had "may contain: fd&c blue #1 (e133), blue #2 (e132), red #3 (e127), red #40 (e129), yellow #5 (e102), and yellow #6 (e110))". Now, that's likely line residue possibilities from their other cupcakes, but this was spot checking the 1st cupcake listed...
 

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