Sprinkles Cupcakes Closes Completely at Disney World

Walt Disney World is dropping yet one more third-party eating choice, because the once-popular Sprinkles Cupcakes abruptly closed all of its retail storefronts, together with the one at Disney Springs. Right here’s what we all know concerning the demise of the sweets store that fueled the cupcake craze and as soon as drew prolonged strains at WDW.

Sprinkles Cupcakes introduced it’s shutting down its company-owned bakeries nationwide, “after considerate consideration.” The chain referred to as it a “very tough choice to transition away from working company-owned Sprinkles bakeries.” Sprinkles additionally operates a mail-order enterprise and sells merchandise at choose retailers, comparable to Complete Meals, which is continuous at the moment.

This marks the tip of an period for the dessert empire that was as soon as a viral sensation. Sprinkles was so well-liked that it turned a staple at Disney Springs with the reimagining and growth of Downtown Disney over a decade in the past. Its closure has prompted a backlash from former and present staff, the latter of whom got no discover earlier than dropping their jobs.

On social media, staff reported that they have been solely given sooner or later of discover earlier than dropping their jobs. Others indicated that they realized the information by way of media rumors of the upcoming closure. Sprinkles has not indicated what, if something, can be provided to employees on the now-shuttered places.

A number of social media experiences counsel that “nothing” is the reply. That retail staff have been notified yesterday that they not had jobs with simply sooner or later’s discover and no severance, with their shops closed completely as of January 1, 2026. Some accused Sprinkles of performing deceitfully in not asserting the closure upfront in order that the chain might retain staff by way of the busy vacation season earlier than laying them off with no discover as soon as that final rush subsided.

The Sprinkles storefront at Disney Springs is one such location that has abruptly ended operations, with an indication out entrance indicating that it’s not open in the present day together with blacked out home windows.

The webpage for Sprinkles at Disney Springs nonetheless exists, however lists “no instances accessible” for in the present day by way of March 2, 2026–as far out because the calendar goes. The official Sprinkles Cupcakes web site likewise nonetheless exists, and has choices for nationwide delivery, however navigating to the places spits again a 404 web page not discovered message.

Walt Disney World has not launched an announcement concerning the closure of Sprinkles. Clearly, given the abrupt nature of the closure, there may be not but a substitute tenant lined up. A really comparable story performed out with Large River Grille & Brewing Works at BoardWalk in January 2024, and that location continues to be vacant.

It needs to be simpler to fill an empty storefront at Disney Springs given the upper foot site visitors, however we nonetheless wouldn’t anticipate something for a couple of months. It’s a comparatively small store and arrange as a bakery, so the straightforward substitute/retrofit choices are pretty restricted. Nonetheless, it has an incredible location and beautiful out of doors seating space.

My “vote” can be for McConnell’s Ice Cream. I do know there’s overlap with Salt & Straw, however that chain has turn into a bit tedious (though a number of of its flavors are implausible). McConnell’s is nice ole customary decadent and scrumptious ice cream with zero gimmicks.

Sprinkles was based in 2005 by Candace Nelson, opening its first location in Beverly Hills. The bakery chain opened its first retailer outdoors of California in 2007, in Dallas, Texas. Sprinkles expanded to a number of states throughout the U.S., together with Florida, and opened extra places in California.

The model made headlines in 2012 when it launched what it billed because the world’s first Cupcake ATM, a headline-grabbing gimmick that additional fueled the nationwide cupcake craze. The Cupcake ATM allowed Sprinkles to promote cupcakes even after storefronts have been closed, and will maintain 400 cupcakes at a time. On the peak of its recognition, the Cupcake ATM was restocked all through the day to make sure freshness. The Cupcake ATM even offered dog-friendly cupcakes.

Shortly thereafter launching the Cupcake ATM, the corporate’s founder offered Sprinkles to a non-public fairness agency.

In a submit to Instagram, Nelson shared an emotional response to the “surreal” information, saying she didn’t assume this was how the Sprinkles story would finish though she offered the enterprise to a non-public fairness group in 2014. “Although I offered the corporate over a decade in the past, I nonetheless have such a private connection to it,” she stated.

“This isn’t how I believed the story would go. I believed Sprinkles would continue to grow and be round endlessly,” Nelson added. “I believed it was going to be my legacy.”

Sprinkles Cupcakes opened at Disney Springs practically a decade in the past, again on Might 15, 2016. This was on the peak of the chain’s recognition, and the sweets store had day by day working hours from 10 a.m. to midnight. The Cupcake ATM was open day by day from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. Supply was additionally accessible inside a 100-mile radius by way of on-line and cellphone ordering.

I keep in mind our first go to to Sprinkles Cupcakes again in Might 2016. Although it was not opening day, we nonetheless encountered an extended line for the store. That was a standard prevalence again within the first few years that the chain was open. It was the same story out at Disneyland, the place one other Sprinkles Cupcakes storefront round Christmas 2016.

I can’t recall encountering a line that prolonged open air at Sprinkles at any level since 2019. Possibly across the holidays?

Sprinkles Cupcakes was just like the Gideon’s Bakehouse of its day. This isn’t to say that Gideon’s will endure the same destiny in 5-10 years, simply that it was as soon as insanely well-liked and was the rationale some vacationers made the journey to Disney Springs.

I’ve different ideas about Sprinkles Cupcakes, however will chew my tongue. “Don’t communicate in poor health of the lifeless” and all that. I’ll say that Sarah was a fan of the chain at one level, liking it not for the trendiness however the high quality and comparatively clear components used.

(Maybe that’s my situation–I couldn’t care much less what’s in a dessert. They exist as decadent indulgences, and if gnarly chemical compounds and different awful-for-me issues are the perfect means to that finish, so be it!)

The writing has most likely been on the wall for some time for Sprinkles Cupcakes at Disney Springs. Its counterpart out at Disneyland closed over two years in the past. Excessive hire plus decrease quantity plus increased ingredient and labor prices isn’t precisely a profitable recipe.

I don’t sustain with meals developments nicely sufficient to level to a selected date and even 12 months when the cupcake fad was performed out, however it appears just like the development peaked inside a 12 months or two of Sprinkles opening at Disney Springs, and began dying down pre-COVID.

By that time, gimmicky doughnuts, outsized ice cream sundaes, scorching rooster, gigantic cookies, artisanal scoop retailers, and extra had all displaced cupcakes as the recent ticket meals. A few of these different developments are nonetheless going sturdy, whereas others have likewise since pale out.

It’s unhappy to see the Sprinkles story finish this fashion, however I can’t assist surprise which different eating places will endure comparable fates within the years to come back. Each nationwide and, particularly, at Walt Disney World. In all places, there’s the difficulty of upper labor and ingredient prices colliding with shoppers who’re feeling the squeeze of inflation and reducing the figurative fats from their consumption budgets.

However there’s one other distinctive wrinkle to this at Walt Disney World, the place there (anecdotally) seems to be far much less discretionary spending on meals. Company have made Lightning Lanes their ‘non-negotiable’ and have reduce spending on desk service eating places (as we’ve mentioned at size, ADR availability is plentiful) and extra. We’ve theorized that this explains the Cutbacks to Coral Reef, and that extra might loom on the horizon.

In the meantime, Gideon’s Bakehouse continues to be going sturdy–to the purpose that it’s opening a second location at Walt Disney World–so maybe it’s extra about ideas that resonate with friends and high quality merchandise, and fewer a systemic situation. We nonetheless preserve that the higher repair at Coral Reef can be to the menu, not the working hours. However there are definitely different places that strike us as weak, it doesn’t matter what modifications are made.

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Your Ideas

What do you consider Sprinkles Cupcakes closing for good? Disillusioned within the information, or have been you “over” the cupcake craze? Stunned by the information or not? Any particular chains or ideas you’d prefer to see substitute Sprinkles? Agree or disagree with our evaluation? Any questions? Listening to your suggestions about your experiences is each attention-grabbing to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas or questions beneath within the feedback!