Edited by: TJVNews.com

In this age of inflation and devaluation, it appears that things that were once worth quite a bit of money have taken a proverbial nosedive.

The New York Post recently reported that a once well known cupcake empire valued at $66 million when it went public more than a decade ago — was quietly bought back by its founders for $300.

Crumbs Bake Shop , an iconic New York City bakery that was credited with igniting a cupcake craze in the early 2000s had built a chain of 79 stores across eight states, the Post reported. Unfortunately, the chain declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2014 in spite of a major growth push by high-profile retail executives.

Crumbs was established in 2003 as a single shop on Manhattan’s Upper West Side at West 75th Street and Amsterdam Avenue by co-founders Jason and Mia Bauer, the Post reported. Last year, the duo retook control for $300. That amount was for the fee that’s required to purchase an abandoned brand from the US Patent and Trademark Office.

Speaking to the Post in an interview, Jason Bauer said, “The USPTO website said that Crumbs’ trademark was ‘dead, abandoned and unreviveable.”

In order to avoid an expensive retail expansion, the Bauers have opted to change their business strategy.  The Post reported that they have brought Crumb’s goodies to online shoppers and their famous cupcakes and other baked goods are being distributed to a number of big supermarket chains. Currently, Crumbs is available at some 400 ShopRites, Gristedes, Westside Markets and Fairways , and their items for about half the price.

In 2003 when they first got started in the cupcake business, the Bauers were seeking to appeal to customers who were increasingly disillusioned with big supermarkets who only offered a mediocre selections of baked goods. Rather, they got into the boutique bake shop craze where a highly unique and even tastier selection was available, according to the Posr report.

Bauer also told the Post that,  “Neighborhood bakeries had disappeared at that time and we wanted to become that local destination again.”

Some of Crumbs’ rival cupcake makers included Magnolia, Sprinkles, Cupcake Nouveau and Georgetown Cupcake grabbed outsize market share over the next two decades, the Post reported. But that was then and this is now.

In 2008, the Bauers sold their stake in Crumbs for $10 million to an angel investor and kept growing the brand, as was reported by the Post. In a short three years after selling their initial stake, 50 Crumbs stores sprouted up and the Bauers sold their remaining stake.

Describing their business success, Mia Bauer told the Post that, “We were selling one million cupcakes a month.”

Also in 2011, the Crumbs company went public and for a short while its market valuation was $66 million, but unfortunately that did not last all that long.

The Post also reported that in the two years subsequent to that around 25 Crumbs bakeries appeared in shopping malls across the country, under the operation of Aeropostale’s ex-CEO Julian Geiger.

The significant expansion of Crumbs’ stores only ended up serving as a catalyst to their demise as a bricks and mortar business as their bankruptcy was right around the corner. The Post reported that the typical mall shoppers spent less per transaction than the typical $20 to $25 purchase at the freestanding stores that the Bauers ran, according to Jason Bauer.

Speaking to the Post over the phone, Geiger said, “I have no desire to talk about Crumbs.”

In 2014, Marcus Lemonis, star of the CNBC reality show “The Profit,” partnered with Fischer Enterprises to buy Crumbs out of bankruptcy for $6.5 million, but sold his stake in Crumbs at a “significant loss” a year later, the Post reported.  He has stated that he was unable to “effect change” in the company as he was a minority investor.

Jason Bauer also told the Post,  “We felt we left it in the hands of people who would grow it. It was heartbreaking to us to see our baby close.”

He added that,  “Fast forward to 2023, and we now have the ability to communicate with our consumers via social media without having to be in a physical store.”

In the next few years, New York City may see another version of Crumbs as the Bauers are planning to bricks and mortar shop.

The Post also reported that they are in discussions with licensors for shops in the Middle East and Asia — but are steering clear of amassing a real estate portfolio, they said.

They’ve also slimmed down their offers from 60 varieties to about a dozen of the most popular flavors, including a chocolate blackout, red velvet, cookies and cream and cotton candy and added jars of cookies to the line-up, according to the Post report.