Bye, bye Krispy Kreme

Yesterday morning the two Krispy Kreme doughnut stores in Albuquerque abruptly closed, with trays of doughnuts still on their shelves. They've declared bankruptcy. Customers were looking in the windows trying to figure out what happened.

One of the Krispy Kremes was involved in a brouhaha several years ago when a police helicopter landed nearby and a cop ran inside to buy some doughnuts. After calculating how much that cost with the copter running, the cops were disciplined and the law laid down against that every happening again. (Maybe they were looking for the real killer of OJ's girlfriend.)

Personally, I think Krispy Kreme is overrated, so it doesn't mean a hoot to me.

Did you know that's there's no word in German for "schadenfreude"?

My guess is that with the loss of cop business, there was no chance for KK to be viable.

Oh, Larry -- you scared the beejesus out of me -- that's only the New Mexico and Arizona franchisee. We're safe here in effete New Jersey.

At least for the nonce -- I understand the CEO of Krispy Kreme is also running Enron.

Two of 3 (?) of the Krispy Kreme shops here in Dunkin Donuts country closed about 6-9 months ago just as abruptly. It's hard to compete with Dunkins placement in supermarkets, gas stations, airport, rapid transit stations, and shops on most every street corner. Not to mention being the "official donut of Fenway Park" ...and here I was thinking that was David Wells.

Come to think of it, I don't know whether the one in Sacramento is still around or not. When they opened a few years ago, one of my co-worker's husbands was the manager. As they went through the training process, they ended up "donating" many of the resulting doughnuts to us. There were days when she'd bring in fifteen or twenty dozen Krispy Kremes.

Never liked them much before that, but now I can't stand to even think about them...


Mike

Looks like it's closed, Mike. Not on the website store locator. 12.29 miles
to your nearest opportunity. :-)

Not that it sounds like you miss them much.

Here in New Jersey, lots of little delis have three boxes that are filled every day with a variety of donuts. A minimal sized outlet, but it has to avoid overhead.

From what I understand, the company just got too big too fast...now they are paying for it.

Besides, .75 cents for a puny, overly glazed donut is not terribly appealing....to me, at least.

Right on, Tim. :-)

Looks like it's closed, Mike. Not on the website store locator. 12.29 miles
to your nearest opportunity.

Not that it sounds like you miss them much.

Here in New Jersey, lots of little delis have three boxes that are filled every day with a variety of donuts. A minimal sized outlet, but it has to avoid overhead.

You're right, Bob. After a little research, I found that the store closed in November of last year. My co-worker who brought in the doughnuts no longer works for us and I hope her husband landed on his feet (along with the rest of their employees).

They must still have some presence in the area, though, as we also have their doughnuts in grocery stores and delis. I don't think that's a good thing - the only doughnuts I ever had of theirs that I liked were the ones that were still hot off the assembly line. But as Tim said, they seem like a classic story of a small company with a loyal following that tired to get too big too fast.

Mike

Never had the product myself, but was asking a clerk at Raley's last week if she had tried them. She said "yes, they aren't very good."
I had heard this from other folks, as well. We have some very good local doughnut shops in town, along with local bagel shops. They have been here a long time and are always busy.

[quote At least for the nonce -- I understand the CEO of Krispy Kreme is also running Enron.[/quote]

In that case, my guess is, with the Israeli/Lebanon, Venezuela, Iran and Iraq, China, etc. things, the CEO will probably raise a doughnut to $3 or so.

It is odd, without the one near my house, though. Whenever I'd go to the library, I'd wonder what that sweet smell was. Oh, yeah. It's the Krispy Kreme place a couple of buildings away.

Besides, .75 cents for a puny, overly glazed donut is not terribly appealing....to me, at least.

You mean a puny, doughy, overly sweet doughnut, absolutely DROWNing in glaze, right?

D

Karen: The one and only time when KKs are good is when you buy them right off the assembly line, still hot. When they cool, they suck. Just over-sugared pasty blobs. (and how American that is!)

My favorite was when I was in New Orleans, long before Katrina. At the height of KKs hubris time they opened a large KK store on the other end of Jackson Square from Cafe Le Monde, the venerable beignet and chicory coffee joint.

The result: Le Monde stayed strong, with complaisant crowds lined up down the block in the hot, humid morning air, listening to the corny old saxophone player. KK was mostly vacant, with the occasional blubbery midwestern family overflowing their clothes and feeding their sugar jones. By my return the following year, KK was closed.

Guess people like powdered sugar more than the glazed variety.

Besides, .75 cents for a puny, overly glazed donut is not terribly appealing....to me, at least.

You mean a puny, doughy, overly sweet doughnut, absolutely DROWNing in glaze, right?

D

Exactly.

Well, all I can say, as a native New Englander from Dunkin Donuts home turf, is effing about time.

I've never eaten a Krispy Kreme donut. All the descriptions of them that I've read have revolted me in the extreme. To quote Moon Zappa, "gag me with a spoon!" (Or, perhaps more appropriately to Krispy Kreme's repugnant corporate image--"gag me with a spork!").

Good to see this bit of disgusting corporate non-food bite the dust, at least in some areas.

Bravo! Here's to real donuts.

-Paul W.

They closed two or three KK here in Charleston a couple of year ago and replced them with one big store, which I also found no big loss. The only ones they had that I considered any good at all cold were their blueberry doughnuts. For the rest, if they ain't hot off the line, they just don't cut it. Yet every gas station and convience store in SC that I've ever stopped at sold KK instead of Dunkin Doughnuts. Go figure.

When I lived in SoCal, I used to be a frequent flier at Dunkin' Donuts.


But in the San Joaquin Valley...no such diet killer nervana is to be found anywhere.