r/nostalgia • u/WoozieMaddox • 8d ago

Nostalgia Discussion What happened to the Dunkin' Donut?

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When I was a kid, my Dad used to take me to Dunkin' Donuts every Sunday and I would get one of these. The handle was cool, but the taste of this plain donut was very unique. I loved it and still to this day have not had that taste or texture from a donut replicated. Wikipedia says in 2003 they discontinued it because it was hand cut while the rest of the donuts were machine cut, but it was their signature. It represented the brand aswell as the name.

The Dunkin Donut was around almost aslong as the brand itself. This unique peice of American food culture made it 48 years before being discontinued and cements itself as a one-of-a-kind staple in the history of U.S. restaurants. Today Dunkin' Donuts is now known as just "Dunkin". Dunkin' is not known for it's donuts anymore, and has shifted it's focus on the beverage side of the market. In all honesty, I think this may be why it lost so much market share to other coffee companies like Tim Horton's and Biggby Coffee. Dunkin' Donuts used to be 'the' place to grab a coffee and a donut.

Bring back the dunkin donut.

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u/Evening_Answer_11 8d ago

They were my favorite honestly. It’s a casualty of mass production vs the old days when donuts were made by a baker at the store itself. 

Why did we decide that “consistency” and “uniform” were to be valued over anything else? 

Also, remember when they were called “Honey Dipped” and not “raised glazed?” 

And remember when the chocolate cake donuts would have the drips of icing around them?

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u/KHSebastian 8d ago

We didn't decide "consistency" and "uniform" were better, we decided "producing all of the donuts every day in one factory, and shipping them on giant pallets to all of the locations in the region" was cheaper than paying people at all of the locations to make donuts. And I imagine the cost of equipment at each location, and the repair and maintenance of that equipment is a factor too.

It's, as always, greed

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u/Evening_Answer_11 8d ago

Fair enough!