In the meantime, big news in the Review-Journal today! Dunkin' Donuts is
coming to Vegas! Jennifer Robison has this terrific scoop that they're opening tons on the West Coast, much to the grateful delight of millions of transplanted East Coasters. Miles loves it so much he wanted a picture with one of them -- dressed in their colors! -- last time we were in Pennsylvania.I am a little concerned, though: Not only are they expanding awful rapidly (41 stores in Vegas by 2010) and that was the undoing of the highly overrated Krispy Kreme, but just imagine how much Miles and I will expand!
8 comments:
In their new expansion plans, despite their name, they focus more on their coffee and liken themselves more to Starbucks... In this light, the expansion makes a bit more sense... and even seems moderate compared to Starbucks.
Well, to us it's all about the vanilla cremes!
Last Fall I attended a business conference in Phoenix and met Dunkin's head of research. A very sharp woman. She discussed how a couple years ago the company was bought out by some equity capital group and brought in a new CEO who has very ambitious growth plans. All of their planning is driven by detailed customer research and testing. And yes, they view their strategy as the "workingman's Starbuck's"--good coffee without the pretension.
Uh, isn't that what 7-11 and McDs already are doing?
Yes, it's interesting that the media has portrayed Dunkin's growth aspirations as challenging Starbucks. But internally Dunkin does see 7-11 and McDonald's as their real competition.
Ok I'm a Boston guy who moved to the Bay Area in 1996. At the time totally addicted to DD coffee. I mean come on! They put the cream and sugar in for you at just the right ratio. I was not prepared for a DDless existence on the west coast. They had 1 DD in San Jose. It was a farce. Did not even use real DD coffee or ingredients. It closed. So I switched to Starbucks. And now when I go back to Boston it's hard to drunk DD coffee because it's so much weaker than Starbucks. But I'm moving to Vegas! And if the DD coffee is authentic... I might just have to re-aquaint myself with this old habit. "Medium coffee Regular" will net me a medium sized coffee with 2 sugars and cream already put in and stirred. And it's cheaper than Big Bucks.
There were once several DD in the Portland, OR area (1970s? 1980s?) and elsewhere in the West. They touted their coffee which was famous long before Starbucks, and coexisted with Winchell's donuts. Both are long gone from that area now.
I remember seeing their logo in movies long before ever hearing of Krispy Kreme. I'd love to see DD in Vegas.
Winchell's donuts are scary. Eeek.
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