Sprinkles Cupcakes abruptly closes all stores, including San Diego's only location in La Jolla

California cupcake empire Sprinkles Cupcakes is permanently closing all locations nationwide on New Year’s Eve, which includes its only San Diego location in La Jolla, according to a manager at that location.

Though the California-born company has yet to make an official announcement, Candace Nelson — who founded the company and sold it more than a decade ago — posted to Instagram on Wednesday talking about her surreal emotions at the company’s closure.

“A few days ago, I learned that Sprinkles Cupcakes, the company I started in 2005, and then sold to private equity in 2012, will be closing its bakery doors today,” Nelson said in the video.

“This isn’t how I thought the story would go,” Nelson said. “I thought Sprinkles would keep growing and be around forever. I thought it was gonna be my legacy.” She clarified that she has no ownership nor operational involvement in the company.

The success of Sprinkles launched Nelson into an admired businesswoman, speaker, mentor and New-York-Times-bestselling author.  She sold the chain to the KarpReilly LLC equity firm in 2012.

Julie Radcliff, Assistant General Manager at Sprinkles Cupcakes in La Jolla, told NBC 7 that managers were informed about the closures on Monday at about 4 p.m. Front-of-house employees, bakers and frosters were told they would be out of a job on Tuesday night, a day before closure.

“It’s a bummer. Almost 15 years at this location, 20 years in the business,” Radcliff said.

The brand was founded in 2005 in Beverly Hills and grew to 21 stores across various states and 25 cupcake ATM machines, which the company touts as the first of its kind.

The closure seemed altogether unexpected with the company advertising on social media about the opening of a new store in Burlingame, California, as recently as Dec. 16.

The La Jolla location had already sold out completely of cupcakes by 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, and would be closing as soon as their pre-orders were picked up, according to Radcliff. She added that cupcakes at the Westfield UTC ATM were heavily stocked on Wednesday.

Radcliff described a lot of employees at her store as already having second jobs, but said that it may be harder for older employees such as their frosters to find new jobs.

“Thank you to all the loyal guests who come in every week. We’re really sorry we didn’t get to see everyone before closing doors. But we got to say goodbye to some regulars today,” Radcliff said.

Social media users took to Sprinkle’s social media pages on Wednesday to gripe about swift their layoffs.

“Thanks for the one day notice of unemployment and no severance!” said one commenter.

“One day notice of losing my job how will i take care of my 5 kids now” another commenter wrote.

Sprinkles Cupcakes was contacted on Dec. 31 but did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.

Oprah called Sprinkles one of her favorites and the Los Angeles Times called it “The progenitor of the haute cupcake craze,” according to the company’s website.

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