We continue to get email about Dunkin’ Donuts, Krispy Kreme and the whole doughnut competition.
One MNB user wrote:
“Wouldn’t it be a win win situation for someone in the northeast- Hannaford or Shaw`s -to partner with Krispy Kreme? Think of the customer draw for the supermarket as well as the fact that K.K. wouldn`t need to look far for real estate. You should have seen customer reaction to a Krispy Kreme mobile trailer in Medford, Mass.-the future site of their first Mass. store- it was incredible!-just donuts for thought!”
Excellent idea, especially because Ahold’s Stop & Shop has partnered with Dunkin Donuts.
The only problem we can see, based on experience, is whether supermarkets have enough parking spaces to handle a Krispy Kreme outlet…
Which, at least according to MNB user Bob McMath, wouldn’t be a problem for a Dunkin’ Donuts shop:
“My last experience in Ithaca long before we moved to Ann Arbor was with the DD store on the main street. We would stop there for donuts whenever we had a client team coming in for a day's presentation. What I found was an increasingly "don't care" attitude among the staff of the store, and sloppy looking premises. Half the time the bins were empty, and once in a while, I wasn't sure I was getting fresh donuts made that morning! The donuts, despite what I assume was an automated process, didn't always seem the same size -- nothing like paying ever higher prices for what seemed ever increasingly smaller donuts. Even the holes got smaller!
“Meanwhile, the famous Wegman's Supermarket moved into town with a great new, big store, and offered donuts you could pick from, yourself. The price was comparable or less as DD kept raising the price of its products.
“Eventually, with Tops doing the same self-service on donuts, DD went out of business at its stand-alone store up the street. But I think, as far as I am concerned, it was the caliber of the clerks behind the counter, the attitude they had, the lazy way they chose to wait on you, and the overall poor "shopping experience" I had when I left the store that turned me off. I recall at one time a clerk who waited on my looked as if she hadn't washed her hair in a month! In any case, seeking donuts only, I could walk into Tops or Wegman's, pick what I wanted, walk out through the check out and be out of the store faster than I could get a dozen donuts from DD and for a while there, the supermarket donuts were cheaper than those of DD!”
But another MNB user wrote:
“My two favorite Dunkin Donuts locations serve donuts as their main product but also serve really good lunches. When I was a student, we'd go to Dunkin Donuts and get hot soup, fresh bread, a drink, and a donut for less than what the people who went to Mac Donald's were paying. More recently at another Dunkin Donuts I found really good bagel sandwiches and raspberry iced tea.
“I've had the Krispy Kreme donuts but have never been to a location...do they serve lunch items, too?
“Being a "stick with what works" kind of gal, I'd sadly miss Dunkin Donuts should they disappear. No matter what the donuts are shaped like.”
We’ve never been to a Krispy Kreme that served lunch. Which is not to say that we haven’t had lunch at a Krispy Kreme.
It’s just that we had doughnuts and coffee for lunch.
On to another subject…
MNB user Bob Thomas, of www.internationalf1.com, wrote to respond to another MNB user who commented that "there have been no scientific, statistically valid tests that show there is correlation between human disease resistance and use of antibiotics in animal agriculture." The user also said it was the "Birkenstock wearing tree hugging liberals" raising the non-existent problem.
Bob wrote:
A study on the subject, by members of academia as well as private industry, concluded:
"A link can be demonstrated between the use of antibiotics in food animals, the development of resistant microorganisms in those animals, and the zoonotic spread of pathogens to humans."
I went to the Bush Administration FDA website where they state:
"This antibiotic resistance, also known as antimicrobial resistance or drug resistance, is due largely to the increasing use of antibiotics. Other facts:
Though food-producing animals are given antibiotic drugs for important therapeutic, disease prevention or production reasons, these drugs have the downside of potentially causing microbes to become resistant to drugs used to treat human illness, ultimately making some human sicknesses harder to treat."
That is enough said for me to go out and buy some Birkenstocks and hug a few trees. The FDA is not known for its specific wording but what they say is scary indeed. What is more dangerous - the Birkenstocks or the super bugs?
One MNB user wrote:
“Wouldn’t it be a win win situation for someone in the northeast- Hannaford or Shaw`s -to partner with Krispy Kreme? Think of the customer draw for the supermarket as well as the fact that K.K. wouldn`t need to look far for real estate. You should have seen customer reaction to a Krispy Kreme mobile trailer in Medford, Mass.-the future site of their first Mass. store- it was incredible!-just donuts for thought!”
Excellent idea, especially because Ahold’s Stop & Shop has partnered with Dunkin Donuts.
The only problem we can see, based on experience, is whether supermarkets have enough parking spaces to handle a Krispy Kreme outlet…
Which, at least according to MNB user Bob McMath, wouldn’t be a problem for a Dunkin’ Donuts shop:
“My last experience in Ithaca long before we moved to Ann Arbor was with the DD store on the main street. We would stop there for donuts whenever we had a client team coming in for a day's presentation. What I found was an increasingly "don't care" attitude among the staff of the store, and sloppy looking premises. Half the time the bins were empty, and once in a while, I wasn't sure I was getting fresh donuts made that morning! The donuts, despite what I assume was an automated process, didn't always seem the same size -- nothing like paying ever higher prices for what seemed ever increasingly smaller donuts. Even the holes got smaller!
“Meanwhile, the famous Wegman's Supermarket moved into town with a great new, big store, and offered donuts you could pick from, yourself. The price was comparable or less as DD kept raising the price of its products.
“Eventually, with Tops doing the same self-service on donuts, DD went out of business at its stand-alone store up the street. But I think, as far as I am concerned, it was the caliber of the clerks behind the counter, the attitude they had, the lazy way they chose to wait on you, and the overall poor "shopping experience" I had when I left the store that turned me off. I recall at one time a clerk who waited on my looked as if she hadn't washed her hair in a month! In any case, seeking donuts only, I could walk into Tops or Wegman's, pick what I wanted, walk out through the check out and be out of the store faster than I could get a dozen donuts from DD and for a while there, the supermarket donuts were cheaper than those of DD!”
But another MNB user wrote:
“My two favorite Dunkin Donuts locations serve donuts as their main product but also serve really good lunches. When I was a student, we'd go to Dunkin Donuts and get hot soup, fresh bread, a drink, and a donut for less than what the people who went to Mac Donald's were paying. More recently at another Dunkin Donuts I found really good bagel sandwiches and raspberry iced tea.
“I've had the Krispy Kreme donuts but have never been to a location...do they serve lunch items, too?
“Being a "stick with what works" kind of gal, I'd sadly miss Dunkin Donuts should they disappear. No matter what the donuts are shaped like.”
We’ve never been to a Krispy Kreme that served lunch. Which is not to say that we haven’t had lunch at a Krispy Kreme.
It’s just that we had doughnuts and coffee for lunch.
On to another subject…
MNB user Bob Thomas, of www.internationalf1.com, wrote to respond to another MNB user who commented that "there have been no scientific, statistically valid tests that show there is correlation between human disease resistance and use of antibiotics in animal agriculture." The user also said it was the "Birkenstock wearing tree hugging liberals" raising the non-existent problem.
Bob wrote:
A study on the subject, by members of academia as well as private industry, concluded:
"A link can be demonstrated between the use of antibiotics in food animals, the development of resistant microorganisms in those animals, and the zoonotic spread of pathogens to humans."
I went to the Bush Administration FDA website where they state:
"This antibiotic resistance, also known as antimicrobial resistance or drug resistance, is due largely to the increasing use of antibiotics. Other facts:
Though food-producing animals are given antibiotic drugs for important therapeutic, disease prevention or production reasons, these drugs have the downside of potentially causing microbes to become resistant to drugs used to treat human illness, ultimately making some human sicknesses harder to treat."
That is enough said for me to go out and buy some Birkenstocks and hug a few trees. The FDA is not known for its specific wording but what they say is scary indeed. What is more dangerous - the Birkenstocks or the super bugs?
- KC's View:
