An increasingly crowded market.

• Crumbs' same-stores sales started declining in mid-2011 as the cupcake market was rapidly growing more crowded.
• When Crumbs opened in 2003, there were only three bakeries devoted to cupcakes nationwide, according to Newsweek. By 2011, there were hundreds.

High real estate costs.

• Crumbs' stores were too large for its needs, according to Darren Tristano, executive vice president at the food industry research firm Technomic.
• The company's shops averaged about 1,000 square feet, with one outlet near Chicago measuring 3,300 square feet.
• That meant high rents and lots of extra space in places where shoppers seldom lingered. All Crumbs really needed was enough room for a cupcake display case and a register.

Consumers lost interest in cupcakes.

• As Crumbs was expanding, analysts began warning that the nation's cupcake craze was subsiding.
• The Wall Street Journal concluded last year that Crumbs' downfall was the result of mass "gourmet-cupcake burnout."

Sales were falling but Crumbs continued expanding.

• Despite falling same-store sales, Crumbs kept opening new locations.
• The number of locations climbed to 70 in 2013, up from 35 in mid-2011, when the same-store declines had begun.