How did Krispy Kreme doughnuts become so popular, so suddenly, to the point where people are willing to wait in very long lines just to get doughnuts?
I read that the company uses the same formula it did when it was founded in the 1930’s, but it didn’t become popular nation-wide until very recently. Why didn’t it? Could it be because they don’t taste that much better than their competitors??
Do the long lines make customers (think SHEEP) want to stand in them so they can be just like everybody else? Or is it because the term ‘hot doughnuts’ is some sort of a sexual metaphor??
I’d never even heard of Krispy Kreme until fairly recently. Could it be that they are simply expanding into new markets? Hard for a place to become popular in a market where it doesn’t exist. The extensive media coverage doesn’t hurt, either.
I’d guess that the “sheep” are interested in seeing what the hype is all about. Krispy Kreme does seem to be the media’s darling these days.
I’ve never had a Krispy Kreme doughnut. My question is not “Are they better than regular cold doughnuts”, but rather “Are they better than those hot little ‘Mini Donuts’ from the stand at the state fair?” Those are gooooood…perhaps people are remembering those and just want to compare.
Hey jGuinistasia, I tasted KK doughnuts and they are decidedly run of the mill. Now, before you think me some sort of iconoclast, please understand that pastries are something along the lines of a lifestyle for me. KK doughnuts may look perfect; but, in the clear light of day, they don’t stand the taste test. Do a blindfold test with friends and I bet KK gets a kicking.
We just had one open up in Minnesota. The amount of media coverage it got was stunning. Live remotes from the parking lot a day before it opened. Why that’s newsworthy is beyond me, but they made it sound like it was the second coming.
OK.
But why? They never did answer that one. Just that it was opening and we should all be happy. They interviewed people in line (Camped out on a thirty degree night, no less) and all they could come up with was ‘Why not?’.
OK.
Myself, on the other hand, I think of the whole thing differently- I’m cynical.
Personally, I think KK has got one hell of a marketing departement. To get the amount of airtime and print that this thing got would cost a company thousands if done privately. Kudos for them for drumming up the interest in the press, even though it does prove to me that the general press is just a bunch of wankers who like to be led by the nose. A marketing department is designed to get the word, and the want, out there… and here they did it big time.
And kudos to the department for paying some poor college saps some cashola to camp out and act all nutso about donuts. It gives those of us skeptical about it all that much more reason to avoid the place.
I mean, who wants to be so addicted to donuts that you feel the need to not only look like a goon on TV, but that you camp out overnight to get one?
They recently expanded into my area (N. Calif), so I can give first-hand eyewitness testimony:
Tamex pretty much has it right–It’s curiosity. Everyone around here had heard of them, but no one had ever actually seen one. (Like Bigfoot.) So there was a lot of pent-up demand, to the point where the opening was a news story.
It’s not advertising. I’ve never seen a KK commercial.
They are good–not better than sex, but definitely tasty, especially when warm. There menu is a bit limited, though.
Does Dunkin Donuts actually sell donuts? I only hear people talk about their coffee.
As I said, I can’t wait for them to come here. Right now all we really have is Dunkin’s, which makes a decent product if you get it fresh.
The only other “chains” around here are pretty localized. One does a fair job with the pastries, although their coffee is pretty weak. The other one can’t do anything right, but you do get a bible verse on all the bags and coffee cups.
Say what? DD will always kick butt over those over-sugared KK donuts any day (trust me-- I am a donut expert, heck by all rights I should weigh 350 pounds given my lack of control around donuts). Actually the only contenter might be the delightful Canadian import Tim Horton’s. Makes up for all that crappy stale beer they used to ship down here in the eighties prior to the micro-brew explosion (put down the flamethrower- real Canadian beer in Canada was pretty good- but the crap they exported. . . . ) :rolleyes:
MOST of KK’s product is, indeed, mediocre. BUT the sour cream one is GREAT! Since donuts are most a case of DGNED (de gustibus non est disputandem – there’s no accounting for taste), YMMV, but I love the sour cream ones, and I’d go out of my way to pick some up.
Yes, I’ve tasted them. They were a fairly regular Friday thing here for a while. They’re on the verge of disgusting. Too sweet, too greasy, not enough substance. I much prefer Winchell’s or Spudnuts.
KK seems to be an “Eastern thing”. The people out here that really seem to like KK tend to be from the east or south (including Texas, which is, after all, east of here). Those of us who were born here or have lived here a long time seem to prefer Winchell’s over KK, and we wonder what the big deal is about. I think it might be a nostalgia thing. People move out here and miss the treat they had back home; so when KK comes out here, it’s the best pastry ever. But people who didn’t grow up with KK find them so-so at best.
I am living in the home area of Krispy Kreme, North Carolina. I have always thought them to be VERY overrated. As was stated by Heptatod, anything hot out of the oven tastes great.
So getting media interest and word of mouth isn’t advertising? I doubt that local news outlets are giving attention to this particular establishment because they’re huge doughnut fans.
All doughnuts are tasty, especially when warm. Unless they’re sprinkled with urine salt and filled with diarrhea. Coconut too.
I doubt that they’ll even notice Krispy Kreme, simply because they’re so busy selling bagels and soup and chili and the like that the donuts became a secondary thing a long time ago.
Besides, no way can KK catch up with the franchise density of Tim Hortons. A friend of mine from Hamilton swears that in that town, you can look out the window of a Tim Hortons and see another Tim Hortons. Krispy may be good, but TH is ubiquitous.
Yup. I go to the one in Culver City (Venice Blvd. at Sawtelle), but here’s the first one I grabbed off of google. Spudnuts (“Since 1939”) are different because they use potato flour instead of wheat flour.
