After offering a 75 percent discount on Groupon, a British bakery owner said she lost thousands of dollars and her business was nearly destroyed.
Owner of the Need a Cake bakery in Reading, England, Rachel Brown, said she offered a deal on the Web site that allowed users to receive a $40 dozen cupcakes for only $10, and she was surprised when 8,500 people quickly signed up for the deal, The Daily Telegraph reported Wednesday.
Taking a loss of between $3.88 and $4.65 on each order, Brown said she had to spend $13,389 on shipping and extra workers to take care of the orders, UPI.com reported.
"It's been an absolute nightmare," she said.
Only expecting a few hundred orders from Groupon users, Brown aid joining the Web site was "without doubt, the worst ever business decision I have made."
"We had thousands and thousands [of orders] pouring in. We had to cut it off at 8,500 orders. As soon as we were making, packaging and sending the cakes out we were on to the next order. It was non-stop," UPI quoted Brown as saying. "We take pride in making cakes of exceptional quality but I had to bring in agency staff on top of my usual staff, who had nowhere near the same skills. I was very worried about standards dropping and hated the thought of letting anybody down."
