Walt Disney World is shedding 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 in regards to 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 known as it a “very troublesome resolution to transition away from working company-owned Sprinkles bakeries.” Sprinkles additionally operates a mail-order enterprise and sells merchandise at choose retailers, resembling Entire Meals, which is constant right now.

This marks the tip of an period for the dessert empire that was as soon as a viral sensation. Sprinkles was so common 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 workers, the latter of whom got no discover earlier than shedding their jobs.

On social media, workers reported that they have been solely given at some point of discover earlier than shedding 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, might be provided to staff on the now-shuttered areas.

A number of social media stories recommend that “nothing” is the reply. That retail workers have been notified yesterday that they now not had jobs with simply at some point’s discover and no severance, with their shops closed completely as of January 1, 2026. Some accused Sprinkles of appearing deceitfully in not saying the closure prematurely in order that the chain may retain workers 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 right now together with blacked out home windows.

The webpage for Sprinkles at Disney Springs nonetheless exists, however lists “no instances out there” for right now 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 transport, however navigating to the areas spits again a 404 web page not discovered message.

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

It ought to be simpler to fill an empty storefront at Disney Springs given the upper foot visitors, however we nonetheless wouldn’t count on something for just a few months. It’s a comparatively small store and arrange as a bakery, so the simple substitute/retrofit choices are pretty restricted. Nonetheless, it has an ideal location and wonderful out of doors seating space.

My “vote” could be for McConnell’s Ice Cream. I do know there’s overlap with Salt & Straw, however that chain has turn out to be a bit tedious (regardless that a number of of its flavors are improbable). 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 areas 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 bought dog-friendly cupcakes.

Shortly thereafter launching the Cupcake ATM, the corporate’s founder bought 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 suppose this was how the Sprinkles story would finish regardless that she bought the enterprise to a non-public fairness group in 2014. “Regardless that I bought the corporate over a decade in the past, I nonetheless have such a private connection to it,” she mentioned.

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

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

I bear in mind our first go to to Sprinkles Cupcakes again in Could 2016. Regardless that it was not opening day, we nonetheless encountered an extended line for the store. That was a standard incidence 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 outdoor at Sprinkles at any level since 2019. Perhaps across the holidays?

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

I’ve different ideas about Sprinkles Cupcakes, however will chunk my tongue. “Don’t communicate unwell of the useless” 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 elements used.

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

The writing has in all probability 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 larger ingredient and labor prices isn’t precisely a profitable recipe.

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

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

It’s unhappy to see the Sprinkles story finish this fashion, however I can’t assist marvel which different eating areas will undergo related fates within the years to return. Each nationwide and, particularly, at Walt Disney World. All over the place, there’s the problem 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. Visitors have made Lightning Lanes their ‘non-negotiable’ and have minimize spending on desk service eating places (as we’ve mentioned at size, ADR availability is ample) and extra. We’ve theorized that this explains the Cutbacks to Coral Reef, and that extra may loom on the horizon.

In the meantime, Gideon’s Bakehouse remains 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 company and high quality merchandise, and fewer a systemic subject. We nonetheless preserve that the higher repair at Coral Reef could be to the menu, not the working hours. However there are actually different areas that strike us as susceptible, it doesn’t matter what modifications are made.

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Your Ideas

What do you consider Sprinkles Cupcakes closing for good? Upset within the information, or have been you “over” the cupcake craze? Shocked 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!