Few Phoenicians will probably miss their Krispy Kreme doughnuts now that a franchisee has filed for bankruptcy protection and closed eight stores here. And that’s the heart of the problem.
Krispy Kreme never became the next Starbucks, as was the great hope in 2000, when investors had more money than brains and the doughnut company’s stock shot up 74 percent immediately after it went public.
It’s not a small world after all. Wildly popular local cult items won’t necessarily translate into products of global homogeneity, like Big Macs, Cokes and grande non-fat, no-whip mochas.Nobody in his right mind would try to take, say, Cincinnati’s Skyline Chili national. That three-way is magic after a night of partying in the Queen City, but it would just be soupy chili-spaghetti with cheese here in Phoenix.
It was also probably loopy to think this sweet Southern ball of dough, popular in the Carolinas since 1937, would be swallowed - with sustained high margins, at least - by a world overwhelmed by fast food.
After all, how many doughnuts do you eat a day? Krispy Kreme never evolved the large product line of Starbucks, which even includes music, or had its stores become soothing “third places” to congregate.
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