Baker Forced to Make 102,000 Cupcakes for Grouponers

Store flooded after offer of 75 percent discount

A London baker is steamed at daily discounter Groupon after customers flooded her shop and forced her to bake 102,000 cupcakes.

Rachel Brown offered a 75 percent discount on a dozen cupcakes through the Chicago-based daily deal company. With 12 cakes normally costing $40, her Need a Cake bakery was swarmed. More than 8,500 people signed up for the deal, which cost them just $10. Brown had to hire extra workers and wound up losing nearly $3 on each batch, according to the BBC. She ended up losing nearly $20,000.

"Without doubt, it was my worst ever business decision," Brown told the BBC. "We had thousands of orders pouring in that really we hadn't expected to have. A much larger company would have difficulty coping."

Groupon spokeswoman Heather Dickinson said there was no limit to the number of vouchers that could be sold.

"We approach each business with a tailored, individual approach based on the prior history of similar deals," she told the BBC.

Brown, who has run her business for 25 years, told the Telegraph she had no choice but to make good.

"My poor staff were having to slog away at all hours — one of them even came in at 3 a.m. because she couldn't sleep for worry," she told the newspaper. "We are still working to make up the lost money and will not be doing this again."

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