A British baker was caught short after placing an overly generous discount deal on money-saving website, GroupOn.
Rachel Brown, who has been in the baking business for 25 years, had decided to use the popular site to drum up extra business for her company, Need a Cake, before Christmas.
She offered GroupOn subscribers a 75 percent discount on 12 hand-decorated cakes – selling them for £6.50 instead of the usual price of £26.
Bargain hunters jumped on Need a Cake's offer leaving 50-year-old Brown inundated with orders for 102,000 cupcakes.
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Overwhelmed by demand Brown, who normally makes 100 cupcakes a month, was forced to hire an extra 25 agency staff in addition to her usual eight employees.
Having spent £12,500 on temporary employees and distribution costs, Brown ended up making a loss of £2.50 on each order. This wiped out Need a Cake's profits for the entire year and nearly rendered the business bankrupt.
“We only expected to get a few hundred orders out of it but we had thousands and thousands pouring in. We had to cut it off at 8,500 orders,” Brown told reporters.
She added: “Without doubt, it’s the worst ever business decision I have made”.
