Bryan wrote:
Wait! I know how to make this on topic. Do you ever start your boating day
with Krispy Kremes?

Krispy Kreme donuts are a relatively new item in my part of California.
I'm watching _That 70's Show_ and a box of Krispy Kreme donuts appears.

Have Krispy Kreme donuts been around a long time east of California (that's
my guess) or was it out of place as a 1970's stage prop?

I used the word prop, so this really is an on topic post; really, it is.

While visiting a city some years ago that I now seem to remember as
Atlanta, we dropped in on the original Krispy Kreme Store. There were
old photos on the walls of the early years of the joint- and based
strictly on a quick glance at wardrobes, etc, in the crowd scenes I got
the impression that the photos dated from some time between the late
1930's and the early 1950's.

We had several of them open up in the Seattle area within the last few
years.
Can you spell "phizzle"? For the first few months there were traffic
jams at the first location. People would wait in line for 2-3 hours to
buy donuts. (!)
If you drop by any of their locations today, you might easily be the
only guy on the premises. I stop at Krispy Kreme once a month, as there
is a location just a couple of blocks from the bulk mail unit where I
do a major mailing.
This used to be a pretty good gig, as they were always running the
donut machine non-stop and would pass out a free, piping hot, glazed
donut to everybody walking in. Voila', buy one of their surprisingly
decent coffees for a buck and a half and wind up with coffee *and* a
donut.

Alas- last week the donut machine was shut down. The free samples
consisted of sliced up sections of some day-old chocolate donut, (pass,
thanks), but the buck and a half coffee was still pretty good. Skeleton
crew on duty. I know a business that's about to tank when I see one,
and too bad.

After the glamor wears off, people discover that a Krispy Kreme is just
a donut.
Better than average donut, maybe, but Krispy Kremes are only truly
outstanding when they're hot and if you eat one every day you'll be fat
as a house in no time at all. :-)

Gotta hand it to some marketing genius, however; just when America is
getting all health conscious and worried about cholesterol and blood
pressure, just when Winchell's and other donut chains are going the way
of the Passenger Pigeon, some guy figures out how to relieve thousands
of folks of their life savings to put them into new Krispy Kreme donut
franchises.