Dunkin'/Baskin-Robbins Acquired By Inspire Brands

BillyGr
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Re: Dunkin'/Baskin-Robbins Acquired By Inspire Brands

Post by BillyGr »

storewanderer wrote: February 4th, 2021, 6:29 pm Dunkin does run some real shoeboxes back east (have seen some in subway stations or transit centers that are about the size of a closet) so these Wal Mart locations may be just the right idea for them. They can staff with one employee and probably don't need to do a very major level of volume to stay open. Much cheaper to run than freestanding locations with a drive through for sure.
They do have some - one that comes to mind is in this area, built into a gas station. That one used to have an (even more) limited menu, just due to lack of space for some of the needed equipment, but has a couple employees (likely due to both drive thru and walk in options).
TW-Upstate NY wrote: February 5th, 2021, 9:08 am As I've mentioned, I'm a retired Letter Carrier and there was one on my route that's located in a former bank and that place is just too large for the business it does. They retrofitted the existing drive thru and it's no where near the front of the building where the counter and seating space is-hugely inefficient. The franchisee does not own the building. For several years, the franchisee has been trying to get approval to build on a piece of property they own at an intersection of two busy state highways not even a mile from the current location which obviously would close. Last time I was in that area, I noticed construction appears to have started so obviously they finally got the go ahead. It's a much more visible location than where they are now and would never accommodate the large structure they're in now.
Interestingly enough, about 5 minutes from that gas station mentioned above is another Dunkin. This one dates back to the days of counters and stools, has no drive thru and has quite a large open space "behind the wall" (but visible if you order a sandwich from the separated pickup window), most likely where the equipment used to hide when they actually had "time to make the donuts" in store.

Apparently it just does well enough (not a huge parking lot, but not many spots open most times) that they haven't tried to move (there could be spots available in the area).
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Re: Dunkin'/Baskin-Robbins Acquired By Inspire Brands

Post by TW-Upstate NY »

From time to time, they've also gone in the opposite direction so to speak on size of locations. A route I had years ago (early 90's) on the opposite end of the city had one of those old style sit down counter stool locations as well which dated back to the late '60's/early '70's. They did indeed "make the donuts" there with a window to the kitchen so you could see what was going on from the counter area. The building was decently sized enough but the customer area was very small so most of it was devoted to baking operations. It's long since been closed and torn down but the point I'm trying to make is that in the very late 80's or early 90's the then franchisee opened a second store in the neighboring city a few miles from there in the first floor store front of a vacant department store building on that city's main street. I don't know if he was pressured/forced by Dunkin into doing it but be that as it may he went ahead with it. The seating area there rivaled a medium/large size McDonald's. All the baked goods for that unit were prepared in the original location and driven in daily to the second store by the franchisee's father in law. Neither one had a drive thru obviously and I don't think the second store was very successful at all because it was gone in very short order. Ironically with that original location, there was a vacant lot behind the building which would've been perfect for a drive thru but while it was in a commercial district it was so far off the beaten path I doubt it would've paid to make the investment.
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Re: Dunkin'/Baskin-Robbins Acquired By Inspire Brands

Post by cjd »

I've noticed DD is now opening a third location in my town next to Home Depot. It's in one of those pop-up outparcel style "strip malls" I guess that have been popular here lately. I don't know what you'd really call them as they are just two or three small retail spaces put together. in a tiny parking lot. It looks like it might have a drive-thru, but I didn't get a good look.

Our original DD is part of a Marathon gas station (originally it was Shell.) It has a drive thru also and it's not really a convenience store gas station at all - just basically a DD with a gas station attached. It was probably built in the late 80s.

The second is inside Walmart. I noticed the other day it actually had a few customers sitting inside.

I have noticed Dunkin' is also moving into some of the smaller towns. One took over a former Taco Bell, another is in a former Burger King, that both had moved to new locations.

They did build a new location as well in my former hometown. It is a fairly large building with a drive thru, on the site of a former Subway that was previously an A-frame style Whataburger. Interestingly, the new building sat unused for what seemed like a couple of years before it finally opened. Don't know if they had some kind of franchisee issues or what.
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