Saturday, September 05, 2009

The once mighty Krispy Kreme

Remember how popular Krispy Kreme was? Rumor has it a former manager of mine used to wait in line for a good hour just to bring in Friday donuts for his team. Whether the hour was on company time is fodder for another post.

The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Krispy Kreme is down to 89 company owned stores and 133 franchises in the U.S. (Internationally they have 326 stores and have benefited greatly to the declining dollar.)

What happened to the drooling fools who waited in line for hours, days, weeks to get a sugar donut? My guess is lack of diversification (e.g. I don't think you can get a mocha or latte at Krispy Kremes, but you can at Dunkin Donuts) and bad management (there were rumors of management-misconduct reported by the Wall Street Journal) lead to the company's decline and the fools' disappreance.

3 comments:

TSnide said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
TSnide said...

I wouldn't venture a guess, as a non-rabid fan of Krispy Kremes. I like donuts OK, but I'm not that particular about my pastries. I will say that for me, they kind of lost their mystique when they were showing up at gas stations.

Scooter said...

Bleah. I never understood the appeal of a donut that's supposed to melt in your mouth. I prefer the old fashioned kind that sort of look like a UFO (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_tK46w6z3FH4/R8iUAfGdOzI/AAAAAAAAAJY/R_QtOPpWlz4/s320/Chocolate%2Bold%2Bfashion%2Bdonut.JPG). I understand they had something like that, but it was so covered with glaze as to be nauseating. On a positive note, Krispy Kreme days on the corporate treat list were days I didn't eat a donut, so they were a healthy alternative when watching my waistline.