Tesla leaves small businesses hanging
Musk wants to “fix things with the bakery.”
February 25, 2024, 7:04 p.m
The story of a small bakery in California that received a large order from the car company Tesla and was dumped cold at the last moment is causing outrage around the world. Now Tesla boss Musk is getting involved personally. He apparently fears damage to his image.
Tesla boss Elon Musk has announced that he will repair the damage to a small bakery through a large order from the car manufacturer that was canceled at the last minute. “I’m just hearing about it now,” Musk tweeted on Saturday. And further: “I’ll put things right with the bakery.”
On Valentine’s Day, the bakery “The Giving Pies” in California received a relatively large order of 4,000 pies for an event. However, on the day of the desired delivery, the order was canceled. Voahangy Rasetarinera, the owner of the bakery popular in Silicon Valley, was left with immense costs for labor and ingredients.
As an explanation for the short-term cancellation, Tesla stated that the decision was made in the executive suite, Rasetarinera wrote on Facebook. Attempting to shift blame onto upper management only reinforced her feeling of betrayal, Rasetarinera said. She did not receive a refund for the costs incurred due to the late cancellation in the following days.
Rasetarinera’s post not only went viral on Facebook, where Musk, the owner of X (formerly Twitter), is apparently not active. The story of the small bakery that was damaged by the large car company was picked up by many media outlets, first in the USA and then around the world. Finally, Musk himself heard about the matter and now wants to repair the damage to Tesla’s image. “People should always be able to trust Tesla to do its best,” Musk wrote.
Exactly how much damage is done to Rasetarinera is not known. The Tesla contract was reportedly worth $16,000. For Musk, the richest person in the world, that’s hardly a significant amount. In the end, the trouble with the Tesla order could even be a good thing for “The Givings Pies”. In addition to Musk’s assurance that he would repair the damage, Rasitarinera received great support and solidarity. Her company is now world-renowned and she has reportedly gained new customers among local businesses and institutions.