When Jody Corridor first opened Cupcake Royale in 2003, it was on the reducing fringe of the cupcake development that swept the nation — she says it was the primary cupcake bakery outdoors of New York Metropolis. Cafes that specialised in desserts had been uncommon, and people who targeted on one explicit merchandise “was a model new thought.”
Now Corridor has a brand new thought. After greater than 20 years in enterprise, Cupcake Royale is pivoting away from its cafes and towards a pickup-and-delivery mannequin. The corporate is within the strategy of winding down its remaining retail areas and can quickly have only a bakery in South Park and a walk-up window Capitol Hill, a alternative that Corridor says is important to protect the long-term well being of the enterprise.
“There’s nonetheless a variety of love and demand for cupcakes,” she says. However the outdated Cupcake Royale mannequin of getting cafes that served ice cream and espresso “didn’t make sense” after a pandemic-driven shift in consumption habits. After the lockdown period, Corridor says, “Most individuals weren’t consuming out, they had been pre-ordering, choosing up, taking house.”
So Cupcake Royale has been within the strategy of winding down its cafes. The Capitol Hill, Ballard, and downtown areas have already closed, and whereas those in Burien, West Seattle, and Madrona are nonetheless up and working, Corridor and her group are hoping to seek out different companies prepared to take over these leases. In the meantime, they’re engaged on opening the area on Capitol Hill — simply throughout the road from the unique Royale location, Corridor says — that can primarily take pickup orders. (The hope is for that window to open within the subsequent few weeks.) The enterprise is in talks with different manufacturers which may wish to function pickup areas; Corridor talked about Lil Woodys and Salt and Straw as attainable candidates.
Royale will likely be using fewer folks, however Corridor is considering doubtlessly changing at the very least a few of the retail employees with supply drivers with a purpose to not rely completely on third-party apps. “A $5 cupcake turns into a $9 cupcake while you purchase it via Uber,” says Corridor.
The purpose is for this to be higher for the purchasers, for the enterprise, and for the employees who’re retained after the closures, a uncommon win-win-win. “With the brand new mannequin we’ll most likely cost much less for cupcakes, we’ll pay our folks more cash, and we’ll doubtless have a stronger basis,” Corridor says.
