Krispie Kreme leaves Calgary via free agency

[missdpuck]

Originally Posted by icarus

What I don't understand is that there are Krispy Kremes all over Sydney and not a single Tim Horton's in the country. This needs to change.

We had a Tim's down here...it was here forever, just north of Ft Lauderdale Fl. It closed down about 4 years ago to make way for a SuperTarget and was never relocated. People cried!!!! Most of us didn't even know who Tim Horton was. The only other donut place was Dunkin Donuts but we liked Tim's more. When Krispy opened here there were waiting lines every morning. Then people got sick of it. I never went to one. Maybe it's because I've never liked Jimmy Buffet. Let's eat donuts and drink too many margaritas. Maybe that's what did it in

[JerzeeGirl]

Originally Posted by ernie

The expanded too quickly everywhere. I also think they began to cannibalize themselves when they introduced the donuts to grocery stores and gas stations.

Starbucks is experiencing a similar thing right now.

They showed up in Calgary/most of Canada right when the militant anti-carb diet fad hit too which didn't help them either when added to the militant Tim Horton's fanbase as well.

[Eastern Girl]

My friend was one that wanted to wait in line for the first one in the Toronto area to open. She raved about Krispie Kreme and I hadn't ever had one. So, I went with her and thought the whole scene was pretty sad. And to boot, they weren't even that good. I am not even sure if it's still open.

[The Goon]

I moved from Toronto to Calgary in the midst of Krispy Kreme-mania, just before the Calgary store opened. The friends I was staying with while doing job interviews asked me if I could bring a dozen KK doughnuts with me. Of course, this was my carry-on luggage and I was harassed from one end of the trip to the other by people wanting a doughnut. It was insane!

Then when I gave the box to my friends, I tried one and I thought I was going to go into a diabetic coma instantly. Not for me!

Also, their coffee sucked.

[Top Shelf]

Yeah I remember going there when they first opened up. It was bloody ridiculous though; they had like four lanes marked off with ribbon for vehicles, and they all funneled into their drive thru lane. I think in total we waited 45 minutes. Then we got a box of regular doughnuts and a box of assorted. They were pretty good if you put them in the microwave for about 8 seconds. But yeah, very sweet and not something you wanted to indulge in very often.

[mykalberta]

Best donuts in Canada bar none, you can also get them at Costco and Superstore in the NE, but only the glazed, not the other crazy dilicious varieties.

Krispy Kreme went on an expansion due to their stock hitting highs, then as usual some BS liberal health authority in New York goes to war against trans fats and the KK stock takes a big hit. They were leveraged and it all wound up as them deciding to bunker down and concentrate on their home market rather than go to war against Tims.

Big time loss.

[browna]

Too bad. Looks like Calgary's the only Canadian location shut down.

Although not a daily thing, or even a weekly thing anymore, if the location was better, I would have frequented it more...loved those donuts, but only the fresh ones, not out of the Marda Loop Petro-Can.

Horrible location can be blamed on this for general purposes too. The business plan is that they don't like to be on the main strip for any of their locations, but in this case they picked probably the second worst mall to be attached too. I've been to the NE a handfull of times in the past few years other then trips to the airport, since the Ikea shut down up there.

Plus the cultural demographic in that area is probably the least likely in the city to be craving donuts at a premium price, as many were born or grewup not knowing what doughtnuts were.

Put that in the NW up Crowfoot way or anywhere in the far SE or SW at a mall or a major strip mall, and there'd have been a lot more traffic.

[Montana Moe]

Ours shut down in Billings, MT about 4-5 months ago. It was 3 blocks away from my house, closer than any grocery store. I've probably gone there a total of 6 times or about twice a year. I prefer the grocery store bakery donuts, though I'm not a big donut eater overall.

I have a friend that used to eat about 2 dozen Krispy Kreme's when he would take trips to Vegas on the weekend. When they opened here, I was pretty sure I would find him in a Homer Simpson type coma laying on his couch someday. Even he got tired of them after a while.

[macker]

http://bigcharts.marketwatch.com/qui...freq=2&time=12

This is the 5 year chart on KKD. Nuff said!

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Dion

When you have only one location in Calgary it's not surprising it failed. People in the deep south aren't going to travel to the other end of the city for a doughnut. It might have had a chance if it had locations in all areas of the city.

The NE was just a silly location to begin with.

I liked Krispy Kreme, but as you say, living in the south, I simply wasn't going to battle the mess that is 36th St N.E. to get one. Hell, most people in the NE don't want to deal with that road.

[J pold]

I recall lining up to get a fresh one when it first opened, and god lord it was amazing

But the location really turned me off, I live in the deep south and was just not willing to make the trip not matter how good they where

One night some friends and I where bored so we drove all the way up there at 2am and order 2 dozen donuts between the four of us. And we ate them all, when I woke up the next morning I had never felt so sick in my life. To this day it was worse than any hangover I have ever had.

[MissTeeks]

I'm quite sad that it's been shut down. I didn't eat them very often, but man were they good fresh off the line. My sister and I would buy a dozen glazed and eat the whole thing. I can't even eat a Tim Hortons doughnut anymore, tastes like sugar-coated sawdust.

[FlamesAddiction]

Krispy Kreme - exporting diabetes globally now.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1218...d=MKTW&ru=MKTW

[Resolute 14]

I'll never forget when they opened. I was working in Edmonton, and a day or two after they opened, the Edmonton Journal ran a page 3 headline: "Edmonton beats Calgary, Again!" The Journal (not the Sun, the JOURNAL) wrote a story bragging about how two Edmontonians cut school to drive to Calgary and ended up as the first customers at the Krispy Kreme.

There has never been a story that so perfectly described the Edmonton inferiority complex as that one.

[MaDMaN_26]

Originally Posted by Dion

When you have only one location in Calgary it's not surprising it failed. People in the deep south aren't going to travel to the other end of the city for a doughnut. It might have had a chance if it had locations in all areas of the city.

Color me confused... if the NW quadrant of the city could not keep one store afloat why would having three more help?

That said, my first KrispyKreme experience was in SF at a giants game... I had never heard of them but tons of people said I "HAD" to try them when I was there... so I walked for what seemed like an hour lost in that huge stadium until I found a cart and I bought the donuts, which only came in a four pack or 12. Got back to my seat and my brother and I each bit in to a warm krispy creme donut and from the hype we expected it to be fantastic... well I gagged and spit it out and my bro ate his but complained for an hour about how it felt in his gut. I gave the remaining two away to fat American strangers in adjacent seats... concerned I asked the fat Americans if the donuts were ok... I thought maybe we had eaten a bad batch, in fact based on the taste and the hype I was sure they were bad... but they told me they were perfect and delicious and that we were nuts...

I have never eaten another krispyKreme and don't plan on it. No loss, in fact I'm proud of Calgary for letting it die. Good riddance.

[fredr123]

It was in the NE. Parking lot of Sunridge Mall.

I was there in the first week to wait in line. We oohed and aahed as we watched the donuts make their way through the automagic donut maker. It was a fantastic touch to get hot fresh donuts for free to sample as we waited in line. Notwithstanding that they were horribly bad for you, I really enjoyed those little things.

But at the end of the day, they are a donut shop. A shop that probably made their products in the most ridiculously expensive way and gave out free samples no less. With the profit margin as thin as it is, and with competition for better coffee and better (or at least cheaper) donuts coming from all directions it was only a matter of time before they had to accept their fate.

[bluntus logicimus]

Originally Posted by worth

I've never had one of their donuts ever.

X3
But boy did they ever go fast when someone announced that there was a fresh box in the lunchroom.

[Superflyer]

I think one of the biggest things that killed them was the price. It was I think $9 for a dozen, that was nuts for donuts. When you can go to timmies and get a dozen for $6 or safeway or something for about $5 it was even less worth it to travel that far to get them, then you add the disbeties supplies that you need to get after eating a dozen, that just adds to it.

[North East Goon]

Actually the N.E. is a good place to open a new business as on average there is more disposable income around those older paid off communities add to the smaller mortgages in that area as well.

[Bertuzzied]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

I'll never forget when they opened. I was working in Edmonton, and a day or two after they opened, the Edmonton Journal ran a page 3 headline: "Edmonton beats Calgary, Again!" The Journal (not the Sun, the JOURNAL) wrote a story bragging about how two Edmontonians cut school to drive to Calgary and ended up as the first customers at the Krispy Kreme.

There has never been a story that so perfectly described the Edmonton inferiority complex as that one.

I don't understand this? Did Edmonton open their location first? If they did, why would it be a big deal for them to drive down to Calgary to be the first customers? Or did Calgary's location come first?


To be honest I totally forgot that we even had a Krispy Kreme location. I was in line during that first week but after you tried it a few times they get old pretty quick.