YET
Exactly the same thing happened in our town, timeline and everything. Except in this case, I guess it was the Atkins’ thing that did them in.
I’ve had one, and as far as I can figure out the appeal is that the donuts are completely glazed, then iced with frosting. Anyway I don’t eat donuts, since I worked in bakeries as a youth; there are very few bakery treats that I still like.
They’re opening a KK in Canberra beginning of July. They’ve hooked people by giving their sugary treats away outside a local CD/DVD/Hi-Fi store. I tried one, they’re nice - but not nice enough for me to understand the people who are milling around the ‘KK coming soon’ sign as though it could burst forth with doughnuts at any moment.
It’s like Lord of the Flies out there, people!
The people here in my office in Sydney are just batty over these things. Yes, they queued for an hour or more when the first shop opened near here.
I tried one out of curiosity when the first box arrived. I had to spit it out, I think it was the most disgusting thing purporting to be food I’ve ever put in my mouth. Even by US standards it was staggeringly sweet, and had a gooey sticky doughy consistency that was simpy vile.
Doughnuts I’m used to here are light, only semi-sweet with a dusting of icing sugar and that’s it. And freshly made, they should be piping hot right out of the machine. I used to wait until they were making a new batch before stepping up to buy.
Don’t “ask” me!
If you have Krispy Kreme, can the Luther Burger be far behind?
Is that a joke? Or is that really a chain restaurant ?
I think it is interesting and important that they opened the first franchise in Narre Warren (an outer suburban area that is home to lots of young families in new estates with mum and dad working mega hours to pay the mortgage).
It’s a marketing delight, and just the thing to keep the cogs of free-enterprise rolling. :rolleyes:
Along with Pizza Hut, MacDonalds, KFC and the plethora of other fast-food outlets, Krispy Kreme now adds to further disadvantage for the people in this areas…making it easier and more attractive to buy take-away than it is to purchase fresh food to prepare at home. Certainly they have a ‘choice’, but try making such a choice after leaving home at 7.00 am and not returning home until 7.00 pm at night…whipping up a home-made culinary masterpiece just doesn’t cut it when there’s a shitload of fast-food just a few k’s down the road.
Sucking them in to the KK ethos is another way to ensure that this next generation of Australians will be the FIRST not to live beyond the age of their parents because of obesity and related problems.
Food for thought?
Here is the link to a story illustrating what you said. Krispy keeps us korpulent
Heh. I must admit to having read that editorial piece a few days ago which of course inspired my minirant. 
However, it is still scary to drive through the outer areas of any major metropolis and see the Golden Arches and suchlike that line the major thoroughfares…turning off the freeways and highways to get to a shopping centre (like Dandenong or Frankston for a Melbourne example) to purchase fresh foods is a major bloody hassle compared to pulling into a drive-in for fast-foods. You’ve gotta find a carpark, and you’ve gotta negotiate the big mall complexes before you find a greengrocer and a butcher and a supermarket to buy the stuff for dinner. And then you’ve got to get home and cook the stuff…after a 9 or 10 hour day already, I know which one I’d be opting for.
Yes, the fast-food corps have targetted their markets brilliantly. Just a shame that life in the 21st century leaves us so little time or energy to fight their encroachment.
:mad:
Lining up for three hours? Shit, just wait a few months and the things will be everywhere.
Actually, the best doughnuts in Australia are to be found at the Daylesford Market in Victoria, on any winter Sunday morning. Hot and sprinkled with sugar and fresh cinnamon, two of them are bliss, any more than two and you’ll be sorry for the rest of the day.
I think the appeal of Krispy Kremes is not so much the product itself (since doughnuts are not actually unknown in Australia), but the iconography of the name… one of those American products which we’ve read about and seen on TV, they have all the charm of the strange and exotic. I hope that the excitement will wear off sooner or later though.
Is it really easier to buy fast food than to cook something? I can produce decent food from my cuboard and fridge in no more time than it takes to find a fast food outlet and wait for my bag of fat and sugar and drive it home.
It’s … not great, exactly, but much better than you might expect. New and improved donuts - no need to chew! - Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share - Straight Dope Message Board
Not true, you can. I just did, in fact. You just pour the sugar in the pitcher after you fill the tea maker, and then let it brew.
KK is heavenly, and trust me, they’re so much better warm. I’ve been known to microwave cold ones.
Could you — or any Australian here — comment on the slang that Outback uses on their menus? I’m curious if these phrases are still in current use, or are now out of favor. (My own interpretations are in parentheses.)
[ol]
[li]bonzer (good, excellent)[/li][li]Hooley Dooley (quite large, irresponsibly so)[/li][li]Too right! (That thing you’ve just said, I agree with it whole-heartedly. In fact if anything sir, you have understated the case.)[/li][li]Reckon! (Strewth.)[/li][li]No worries! (There’s nothing to worry about. (Not for me, anyway.))[/li][li]She’ll be apples. (See previous.)[/li][li]fair dinkum (reasonably dinkum)[/li][/ol]
Clears THAT right up!
-
Correct.
-
The term we used in Australia was “Holy dooley,” and it’s usually an exclamation of surprise, a bit like “Holy crap” in the US.
-
Correct.
-
Reckon!, as an exclamation, generallt implies agreement. For example:
“This is bonzer tucker!”
“Reckon!”
Translation:
“These victuals are most satisfactory”
“I wholeheartedly concur.”
In a more general sense, “reckon” is indicative of speculation, and people in Australia say “I reckon…” in the same way that Americans say “I guess…” or “I think…” For example, “I reckon he’ll arrive around four o’clock.”
-
Sort of correct. It can mean that, and often does. It can also be used in the same way that Americans use “No problem.” E.g. “Can you give me a ride to the airport today?” “No worries.”
-
Again, pretty much correct. Means that everything will be fine.
-
Fair dinkum is, in many ways, an Australianism that stands for many different variations on the idea of authenticity or genuineness.
If you are a “fair dinkum [something],” then you are considered to be the genuine article, not an imposter or a sham. This can, it should be noted, be both positive and negative, so you could be a fair dinkum genius or a fair dinkum fuckwit. And if someone is described just as “fair dinkum,” as in “That guy’s fair dinkum,” it usually means he’s someone you can trust, someone without artifice.
It is also used as an interrogative, to mean “Are you serious?” or “Are you shitting me?” For example:
“Australia won the World Cup”
“Fair dinkum?”
Hope that helps.
Some of these aren’t really Australianisms. I think hooley dooley is American-derived? In any event, it means something along the lines of “yay, that’s wonderful/how exciting”. As in, “I’ve just bought first class tickets to Paris, let’s get packing”. “Hooley dooley”.
You’ll hear all the rest of them occasionally, depending on who you’re talking to and where you are. “Bonzer” is pretty archaic, but you’ll hear it sometimes, mostly from older men (as in older than me, which means pretty old).
Too right = yes, I agree.
Reckon = you’re right! Can be used pretty much interchangeably with “too right”.
Strewth is a swear word of sorts, a contraction of “god’s truth”. You’d use it as a sort of all-purpose comment on something surprising and difficult. Someone says to you, “I’ve just backed my truck into your fence”, and you’d scratch your head and go, “Strewth!”. It’s sort of a ejaculation of surprise, usually at an unpleasant surprise.
No worries can be used in a lot of contexts. It can be interchangeable with “she’ll be apples/she’ll be right”, but you can use it other ways. In a shop if you say thanks to the shop assistant, they might well say, “no worries” in reply, meaning, it was nothing really, it was all easy.
She’ll be right/she’ll be apples you’d use as a kind of reassurance or statement of competence. You might say to someone as they tow your truck away after you’ve driven it through your neighbour’s fence, “I’m a bit worried about that off-side dent”, and the driver will say, “Nah, she’ll be apples”, meaning, it will be OK, don’t worry about it.
“Dinkum” means real or true, I think the “fair” indicates good rather than medium. The phrase is mostly “fair dinkum”, although dinkum can be used on its own.
It kind of works like “strewth” in some contexts. But I could say, “Fair dinkum, I never thought the silly bugger would go through the fence”, meaning, “Truly, it never occurred to me”.
Or someone tells you something and you say, “Fair dinkum?”, as in, “Really?”.
Or you could say, “He was fair dinkum about helping me fix the fence”, which means he was serious and honest about it, actually willing to do the work.
Just a follow-up to the Krispy Kreme hysteria…
We stopped at the famed Fountain Gates Shopping Centre (mall) at about 3:30 this afternoon, six days after Krispy Kreme opened their doors. Several shoppers were spotted carrying two KK boxes apiece which indicated that the business was indeed thriving. It wasn’t until we arrived at the door that we realised how thriving - a chirpy staff member greeted us and indicated we should join the queue at the side of the building and said there was an estimated 45 minute at present. Mr Cazzle exclaimed “Forty-five minutes!” and she said (with a smile) “Yes! It’s the shortest it’s ever been.” We decided no doughnuts were worth three quarters of an hour queued up outside on a slightly chilly day, and headed back towards the car. On impulse I asked her what the waiting time on the drive through queue was. “About two and a half hours I believe,” she smiled. I thanked her and said we’d come back another time.
Oh, and there was a sign in the window that explained the reason why every customer seemed to be carrying two KK boxes - they have a Sampler pack, which is a dozen of their original frosted and another dozen made up of the other flavours they offer, for the bargain price of $23.90 (that’s about $17.40 in US dollars).
For that amount of money, the donuts ought to play a little tune. Or vibrate, or point north, or something. Over here they’re about two or three to the dollar. Of course the prices there will become more sensible, surely, after the novelty has faded a bit. Either that, or you must have some sort of foreign donut tariff going on.
Thanks to people for discussing the slang phrases. I could Google on these sorts of questions, I know, but it’s more fun to get the answers directly from the natives.
We use “reckon” in that same way. We just don’t use it as an exclamation on its own. If you uttered “Reckon!” to a North American, and if he gleaned meaning from it at all, he’d take it as a rather odd and curt command to figure out something. Kind of like saying “Calculate!”, out of the blue. You’d be called upon to explain yourself.
Possible, though I don’t think so. I’ve been all over the eastern U.S. anyway and never heard it. I suppose it could be a western regionalism, or a bit of American slang that died out long ago.
Such a shame if it’s dying out. It’s one of my favorites.