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Groupon creams small bakery with orders for 102,000 cupcakes

November 22, 2011 /

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Bear Paw Development Corporation is a private non-profit organization created for the purpose of administering programs to help improve regional economic conditions in Hill, Blaine, Liberty, Chouteau and Phillips Counties and the Fort Belknap and Rocky Boy's Indian Reservations.

A wildly successfully Groupon promotion wiped out a year’s profit for a small British bakery that had to hire outside to fulfill orders for 102,000 discount cupcakes.

The "Need A Cake" bakery in Woodley had offered 12 cupcakes, which normally cost around $40, for $10 or a discount of 75%. Owner Rachel Brown, who normally fields about 100 orders a month, was swamped with 8,500 orders before she bailed out, the BBC reports.

"As soon as we were making, packaging and sending the cakes out we were on to the next order," she tells The Daily Telegraph. "It was non-stop."

She figures the extra help she had to hire cost $19,500, or about a full year’s profit.

By Douglas Stanglin

Full Story: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/11/groupon-swamps-small-bakery-with-orders-for-102000-cupcakes/1