The Story of How One Man Ate a Donut and It Changed His Life. Forever.

[schild]

To be fair, the standard, ho hum krispy kreme glazed donut is 200 cal. Which isn't that bad, I guess... Funnily though, they came out with a wheat one, and it's 180. Just a 20 cal drop.

Yes, but you don't eat just 1 Krispy Kreme. Ever.

For some reason, the dunkin donuts wheat glazed is 310. Might as well splurge.

If Dunkin Donuts actually made donuts that would be an option. But they don't. They make very small round cakes.

[stray]

I think photek should try introducing chimichangas in Norway. About the same calories, but with some protein. Better as a breakfast than "cake" at least.

Personally I think that'd be the shit. Some dude walks in to work with a box full of chimichangas.. Fuck yeah.

[Lantyssa]

My view on donuts is the following:

1. Cake is not a base for a fucking donut. Be a purist or go buy a fucking cake and grab a slice.
2. You might as well eat one with 480 or 500 calories for the extra awesome flavor than "get by" with one that has 380 or 400 calories.
3. DONUTS ARE NOT FUCKING CAKE.

Perhaps, but at least they don't taste like ass.

[Signe]

Donuts can't be THAT fattening.  They have a hole!

[Murgos]

Hot Krispy Kreme >> all others.  However, being in a heathen portion of the US I think that tonight I will pick up a boston creme and a cup of decaf from Dunkin on my evening walk.

[Samwise]

The way to have a successful donut shop is to have an exhaust fan that makes the entire street outside smell like frying dough.

[Chimpy]

Nothing compares to Voodoo Doughnuts in Portland.

[Aez]

Optimal location : gaz station near an highway, with lots of office tower nearby and a police station...

Alternative revenue : bagel/donuts boy.  You deliver donuts and bagels every morning to offices for a set amount of money.  It's a nice sideline for a startup.  Mix it up with fresh coffee for additional $$$.  You can also try to get some shelves space at local grocery stores for your leftover.

It's a nice business model but it's overcrowded here in North America.  It could be very profitable if you have no competitor.

[Trippy]

Dunkin' Donuts > Krispy Kreme

NO. DUNKIN DONUTS ARE CAKE. THEY ARE NOT DONUTS.

I've never been to a Dunkin' Donuts but looking at their crappy Website it looks like they have both cake and raised donuts, like pretty much ever other donut store in the US.

http://www.dunkindonuts.com/aboutus/nutrition/ProductList.aspx?category=Donuts

[Margalis]

It might help to become an office staple. Offer a deal which is a bunch of donuts or donut holes along with a big box of coffee and get people to bring them to work in the morning for their team or for meetings.

I know personallly most of the donut buying I've done has been to bring in to work when I had a meeting scheduled.

[rattran]

Oh, and Krispey Kreme beats the shit out of the frozen batter crap they serve at Tim Hortons you fucking Canadian bitch.

You are wrong. I side entirely with the fucking Canadian bitch.

[Gutboy Barrelhouse]

For some reason here in California the best donuts come from small independent shops owned and staffed by orientals. They make the best but they do not not seem to actually eat their donuts. In fact near my home there was one that was in the same location for years and then a Krispy Kreme opened up 50 yards away, 2 years later the KK is boarded up and the independent shop is still there. 

It helps for a donut shop to be in a area that attracts people on the path of their morning commute (school, work and the like).

[Teleku]

OK, I'm going to just throw out random thoughts, because this thread is all over the place, to address concerns. Also, I'm very drunk right now.

ALSO, WTF is up with all the Krispy Kream hate? Krispey Kreme is amazing, and blew away all the other cake/homemade donutes I'd been eating all my life since I was a kid. Seriously, Krispy Kream is delicious. Fuck you all.

1.)  OVER HERE, donutes are eaten at odd hours as a snack. As many people mentioned, usually with coffee. So the times you drink coffee are going to be your best. The morning/breakfest crowd, and the late night work/student/cop crowd. In college we use to make Krispy Kreme runs at midnight (if you can set up shop for late night operation near a college, you'll bring in the bucks. Hurray for drunk people). Other local places were open way late at night as well. Sugar works much the same way as coffee does in keeping people awake and energetic, so it applies to the same crowd. Of course, you know Norweigen culture best, so maybe its different over there. In America, eating solid sugar as an meal is acceptable for breakfast. If your a college student, eating or drinking ANYTHING at ANYTIME of the day is A OK.

2.)  Listen to, and scorn, Engles.  He's right, you should try to make some novelty 'local' style donutes (like lingdon berry donutes.  I'd eat that, and if IKEA has taught me anything, so would you fuckers).  It will bring curious people in.  But also go the other direction, and make the American/whatever Sugar coated chocolate frosted bomb with sprinkles donut.  Sell that shit to them.  Over here (and from my experience, abroad as well) people jump at what they think are legitimate strange/gimmick foods from abroad.  People WANT to try new things from out of town.  Make sure it taste good, and you have customers for life.

3.)  On Health.  OK, I live in Berkeley, which is Hippie/Vegan capital of the world.  While I love to make fun of Vegans, I've actually become friends with a few, and they have had me try vegan donutes/pastries that actually taste GREAT.  If they can make a fucking Vegan donut that taste edible, you can deffinatly make a somewhat healthy donute taste great.  Just look up the recipes (there are many cookbooks and online) and you can make a healthy('ish) organic donut that doesn't taste like crap.  And advertise it!  People will come in to try it out of curiosity (like all those health nuts you mentioned).  That will bring people in, and if its good, they'll keep coming back.  But make sure you take it the other way.  As mentioned above, sell the American Heart Attack covered in Fried Lard Donut, and you'll bring in all sorts of curious people as well.  It might be curiosity, it might be from a dare, it might be from alcohol, but they'll try it.  If it taste good (and if your not holding back, there's no reason it shouldn't taste like a deep fried orgasim) they'll come back.  Whether they want to or not.  So more donuts sold!

4.)  As mentioned before, also sell Donut Holes (thats what we call them in California).  Good take away snack, popular with children, also brings in the novalty factor.

5.)  YES, cater.  Advertise to all the buisness's you can that you can have box's upon box's of donuts ready for them if they call in.  Or even delivered if you want to provide that service.  Many offices in America (mine included) will have somebody pick up a box of donuts for the whole office on their way to work in the morning on some day of the week.  This is somewhat tradition, and if its not in Norway, you can make it one there as well  .  As mentioned before, location will be of huge importance.  You need to either be near where a ton of working 9-5 type people will be withing easy access distance in the morning, or at least at a place where a lot of the late night/student/drunk partier crowd people will be able to get to.  Big bonus if you can get both with the same location.

6.)  My favorite donut is the maple donut and/or bar. 

Uh, I guess that's all I can think of for now.  In short, get lots of specialty donuts you can advertise to bring people in (The Health donut!  The Norweigan Lingdon Berry Donut!  The American Death Donut!), and put yourself in a very accessible location.

Oh yeah, and actually make addictivly great tasting donuts.

[Soln]

I went from Lorekeep's thread to this.  Gonna go watch some TV now. 

[Tale]

Krispy Kreme donuts are disgusting. They have a great brand name that makes them sound fluffy and perfect, but their donuts are tasteless lumps of lard that weigh on your gut like lead.

[NowhereMan]

Just on the note of KK and foreign outlets, they opened in the UK about 3 (I think) years ago with a bakery shop in Harrods (one that serves them hot). They've expanded mostly around London with a few other locations (2 in Manchester) I think there's around 20-30 KKs in the UK now so there may be scope for getting them to franchise to Norway. As far as I can tell for the UK market they've pretty much done what they did in the US and it's taken off based on people being curious and offices seeing them as a cheap thing to buy in bulk (with the ridiculous deals for one or two dozen donuts). When they opened up first they were literally giving away half dozen boxes to people for a week or two that seemed to generate a huge amount of interest and made sure people were seeing KK boxes on the Tube and buses. It was probably cheaper than actually pumping advertising out everywhere and got a lot of people to try them.

Personally I don't understand the notion that you never eat only one KK. Maybe two but they're just too sweet and heavy to have more than that without spending the rest of the day feeling sick with horrible indigestion, and I'm just thinking of the regular glazed ones here since the filled ones taste like artificial preservatives wrapped in fat and sugar. The glazed ones (and maple glazed moreso) are pretty ok though for the occasional snack.

For Photek in particular, is there much of a tourist element to your town or are you going to be relying entirely on Norwegians? I agree with some other advice that your main focus should be reproducing American style doughnuts but I think having a couple of Norwegian aimed and maybe 'healthy' doughnuts to get other people in. Best advice generally though is doing quite a bit of customer research, get some recipes together and lure people into filling out surveys with free bits of doughnut. Find out whether Norwegians actually think US style doughnuts taste good or not or if they go wild for localized versions of them. Go with what will sell.

[Trippy]

Okay now I have some more time to properly devote to this topic.


First here are some YouTube links for you:

Anthony Bourdain No Reservations - Pacific NW - Voodoo Doughnut
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TZ7BVWEXqA

Good Eats - Circle of Life - Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLACCFjhyBE

Good Eats - Circle of Life - Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP8L9FXVNq4

If you saw our thread on bacon and the maple bacon donut, that's Voodoo Doughnut. You can search on "Voodoo Doughnut" on YouTube for more clips about them.


Here in the US donuts are part of our culture so there's a wide variety in the way donut shops are implemented around here but many of these ways may not work well over in Norway. E.g. donuts shops are scattered over just about every type of retail food location you can think of here and the stores themselves come in all different shapes and sizes including many where you just order your donuts and leave -- i.e. there's no place to sit and eat them (my childhood donut shop was like this). As others have mentioned some are open very late or even 24 hours, which is sort of an American staple -- i.e. they are the stereotypical place police on the late night/early morning shift visit for their coffee and caloric needs and also for students studying late at night.

My suggestion as somebody who has never opened a retail food store before is to *not* try and duplicate the US donut buying experience "as is" but instead find a way to introduce them into your city via existing retail food distribution mechanisms. E.g. instead of opening up a "donut shop" open up, say, a coffee bar (assuming you have those in your city) that also sells donuts. That will reduce your risk substantially as you'll been able to generate a revenue stream from selling things you know people will buy while you work to introduce people to the taste of donuts.

Since you are a business major you might even want to do research and write a paper about how some other foreign food(s) has gotten introduced into Norway and that may give you better ideas.

Despite your concerns about Norwegian youth being "health-conscious" that's the demographic I would target at first so you should try to open up a store that will get good foot traffic from them (e.g. near a college or university). Donuts here in the US are eaten by everybody including adults but that's cause we grew up eating donuts. Younger people are much more likely to latch onto new foods than us old fogeys which is why I'm suggesting you target them since donuts, like ice cream and other sweet treats, are tailored made to tempt young people.

Many donut shops here in the US do a lot of business selling to businesses either directly (as in phone orders and delivery) or indirectly (workers buying donuts in the morning and taking them into work) but again that's because we grew up eating donuts. Trying to do that initially in Norway where people haven't developed a taste for them is a risky proposition. It's better to get young people hooked on them first and then they can introduce them into the workplace (for those that are working) via the indirect method.

If opening a retail location is too capital intensive for you to start you could try the business meal catering variation on the coffee bar suggestion above by catering simple business meals and offering donuts as a dessert option (you can even just give them away at first) but that'll be harder to target the youth demographic that way.


Re: Krispy Kreme donuts

Krispy Kreme raised donuts are a different "style" than your typical raised donut, at least here in California, which is why many people dislike them. They don't look and taste like the raised donuts they grew up eating. KK's are much smaller, both in diameter and height, compared to normal raised donuts. This is why many people can't eat just one and why the nutritional information is misleading (it's like back in the days here in the US when the "serving size" of a can of soda was "2" instead of "1" so that the calories looked lower) -- they are fricking puny donuts. I'm assuming KK did this so their raised donuts and their cake donuts are the same size so their packaging and automation can be uniform. It's also I'm assuming why donuts that are normally "bars" in shape are round in the KK versions. Their raised donuts also have a different texture than normal raised donuts which is usually much more "fluffy" and airy inside where KK's a little denser and more moist. Even the KK sugar glaze is different being more "pliable" than the "flaky" style of sugar glaze.

Since most Norwegians probably don't have any preconceived notions about what a raised donut should look or taste like you are free to choose whichever style of raised donut you think is better for your market. Just be aware that you'll have to experiment with recipes to find one that matches the style you want to reproduce.


Re: "healthy" donuts

Donuts are never going to be health-food but you should probably look into ways of minimizing or cutting out entirely things like trans fats and saturated fats. Donuts here in the US have for a while now been made with trans fats though some places are switching to trans-fat free oils/fats. In the really old days they used to be fried in lard. However beware of claims of "zero trans fat" donuts like Krispy Kreme makes. Their donuts are not actually trans-fat free but thanks to our fucked up food labeling laws if a "single portion" has less than 0.5g of trans fat they are allowed to label it as "0g" trans fat. Trans-fat free donuts supposedly don't taste the same (e.g. they tend to absorb more oil) but again since your target market doesn't know the difference you don't need to try and exactly reproduce the taste most of us in the US grew up eating. Also note that non-trans fat oils aren't necessarily better for you. E.g. "fractionated" oils are pure saturated fat in which case you might was well just fry the suckers in lard 



Making donuts well is actually not an easy thing. If you read the history about Voodoo Doughnut on their site you'll see that the owners went to train with some "donut masters" before they had the skill to make their own donuts. You might want to consider coming over here for your Summer break and working in a donut store learning how to make donuts properly if you are serious about doing this.

[K9]

All I know is that I discovered Krispy Kreme donuts in North Carolina when I lived there, then 6 months after my return to England they opened a concession in Harrods. Now Krispy Kreme is raping face in England.

The next big thing is cupcakes though, if you want to get ahead of the trend.

e.g. Hummingbird

[Oban]

There must have been a movie with cupcakes in them, the whole cupcake only bakery thing seems like such a fad.

[NowhereMan]

Hummingbird also do loads of cakes, they have large (I guess authentic American style) serving sizes. They are also horrible. The cakes and muffins are really dry and very, very sweet and covered in inches of ridiculously sweet icing. They are also (at least the one near my parents in London) very popular, queues out onto the street at lunchtime popular. I will never understand people and food.

[Baldrake]

You should actually look into the Tim Horton's versus Krispy Kreme fight here in Canada. Krispy Kreme lost not because of the quality of the doughnuts themselves, but because in Canada, doughnuts don't actually sell that well any more. These days, Tim's makes its money from soup, sandwiches and bagels.

(By the way, the taste issue between Tim's and KK is largely one of what you're used to. Canadians find KK overly sweet, because we grew up with less sugared doughnuts. From what I gather, Tim's hasn't been doing so well in the US, so it seems to be purely subjective.)

[Nevermore]

I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks Krispy Kreme tastes like crap.  'Cake' or not, I'll take Dunkin' Donuts over Krispy Kreme any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

[Oz]

imho the best donuts in the world are Cruller's.  And dunken donuts makes one of the best. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruller

[rattran]

I'll now link one of my favorite movies.
Blood and Donuts
And an original donut recipe from WWI http://www.sacollectables.com/donut.html

At least in Northern Ontario in the late 70s/early 80s, the donut shop served a analogous position to the diner in the US.

[WayAbvPar]

Nothing compares to Voodoo Doughnuts in Portland.

Those are damned good. Finally got a chance to try Top Pot Donuts. Starbucks has been carrying their old fashioneds for a year or two, but I hadn't tried any of their other varieties until last week. I got stuck going to work on Saturday for a couple of hours, so I took the opportunity to hit the Bellevue location (usually WAY too crowded to hit during the week when I am trying to get to work). Picked out a dozen and brought them home to my wife, and we had a delicious and fattening weekend. Man they are good.

Edit- they have even been called America's Top Donut.

[Oban]

Oh yeah, the Starbucks donuts are not bad.

[Aez]

Teleku : vegan donuts?   

I've seen some picture of a bacon donuts but the vast majority of donuts aren't made with meat...

Or is it about no milk, no egg and all organic?

[Bunk]

Timmy's is an industry unto itself up here. There are places in my town that I can stand and see two different Tim Horton's stores. They are to Canada what Starbucks is to Seattle.

Timmy's business model is simple - donuts - both cake and traditional - other breakfast food like bagels and biscuits, good sandwiches and soups for lunch, and most important - good, affordable coffee.

They don't charge Starbucks prices - they give you good fresh coffee, with 18% cream in it to hook you. They locate near businesses to get the lunch crowd, and they are open really early to get the morning cofee crowd.

[Trippy]

Or is it about no milk, no egg and all organic?

No eggs and milk is the key. Cake donut dough typically has both.

[Yoru]

Timmy's is an industry unto itself up here. There are places in my town that I can stand and see two different Tim Horton's stores. They are to Canada what Starbucks is to Seattle.

Timmy's business model is simple - donuts - both cake and traditional - other breakfast food like bagels and biscuits, good sandwiches and soups for lunch, and most important - good, affordable coffee.

They don't charge Starbucks prices - they give you good fresh coffee, with 18% cream in it to hook you. They locate near businesses to get the lunch crowd, and they are open really early to get the morning cofee crowd.

And some of them even have all-night drive-throughs for kids and/or drunkards (on foot, natch).

Having grown up with Dunkin' Donuts, I prefer their less-sweet basic doughnuts to Krispy Kremes; I find the latter far too sugary and heavy. The Tim's doughnut I had while in Canada last year was at least as good as Dunkin' Donuts, and possibly even less sweet, although it's been years since I've had a doughnut from Dunkin'.

[Segoris]

There is a place around here that supplies equipment for a good amount of shops and has a great list of equipment to look at. This same place runs what is called Swiss Maid Bakery. That link is to their area on Bakery.com, which they run. Point of that link is they give a few summaries and ideas of what the items are generally used for, and a lot of products some people might not even think about mentioning in a store like this.

The best place for donuts I've ever been to is the one in my town, it's called Country Donuts, take a look at how simple their menu is, and they are normally busy as hell.

To add:
-Have fun with it.
-Someone said to try and localize a bit, this I agree with.
-Friendly, eventually personalized service. This is a no brainer, but a lot of companies are losing this factor lately. There are regulars for coffee/donut places, and the best service I've ever had in any place (bars/local diners especially) that I've been a regular at, is when I have my drink sitting there on the first walk by from the employee.

Favorites:
At Country Donuts, it would easily be the blueberry or devil's food for cake style, and Boston creme for raised style. Any other donut from anywhere else is some random donut and nothing that great after having this place available to me for so long.

[Mosesandstick]

I first had KK in California (despite spending around 3 months in the place I don't remember ever having real donuts). What they have in the UK tastes practically the same, like unhealthy shit.

I can't remember when KK first came out in the UK (I might not have been here) but what they are doing to increase their market penetration is selling their donuts at supermarkets and their small 'local' versions (they sell them in Tesco).

[Oz]

California (despite spending around 3 months in the place I don't remember ever having real donuts).

This is kind of funny b/c for the 4+ years i spent in SoCal it felt like a burger and/or donut shop was every 50 feet or so.  We used to crack jokes about all these health nut Callies and their obesions with donuts and burgers.

[Abagadro]

My advice on opening a food service business: Don't. It is a very tough business with small margins. Just don't.

[Oban]

California (despite spending around 3 months in the place I don't remember ever having real donuts).

This is kind of funny b/c for the 4+ years i spent in SoCal it felt like a burger and/or donut shop was every 50 feet or so.  We used to crack jokes about all these health nut Callies and their obesions with donuts and burgers.

If In-n-Out started to sell donuts, my heart would be so fucked.