Tuesday, April 19, 2011

$17 for Six Doughnuts?!

I was perusing The Oatmeal today - I'm not sure why my company's IT department unblocked it, but it's been a very unproductive day - and I came across this comic:

How to make your restaurant insanely popular
Why is this relevant? About two weeks ago a tiny doughnut shop opened up behind the Merchandise Mart, serving your basic, everyday doughnut. Doughnut Vault doesn't have regular hours or a reliable product supply. The only way to know that they are open and serving food is to follow them on Twitter.

Oh yeah, and six doughnuts cost $17. This may very well be the most obnoxious food establishment in the city of Chicago.

Yes, I understand these doughnuts are supposed to be delicious, gourmet, all-natural, blah blah blah. But I'm not lining up at 8:00 a.m. in the morning in the hopes that they'll open at 9:00 a.m. and that they won't run out before I get one.

And by the way Doughnut Vault, tweeting pictures of all the people waiting in line makes you look like a douche.

(Why did all of the Krispy Kremes have to go away?!)

15 comments:

  1. AHHHHHH bummer! i really really wanted to go to the donut vault. $17 for 6 is crazy. when i was in portland we got 3 giant donuts (that were AMAZING) for under $5 at voodoo donuts.. shame on you vault.

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  2. I truly miss the KK's in the area. It was such a reliable place for me to pull up a chair for my son and make him watch the donuts for the next hour while I flipped through a magazine. Doughnut Vault huh? Hmm. Haven't heard of them but not I sort of want to make fun of them

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  3. I love this! The doughnuts sound intriguing, I will give them that!

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  4. WHAT? Sounds like a douchy restaurant...even if it probably is mouth watering delish. Why does everything have to be so damn trendy....and expensive?!

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  5. I did a rip job on the Vault on my podcast on Tuesday http://tinyurl.com/DonutVault. I too, miss the Kreme

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  6. @sdahl Love your podcast! I'm so glad anthropologists are now weighing in on the doughnut "phenomenon." Thanks for reading!

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  7. I'd pretty much resigned myself to never trying them since I don't work in the Loop so I can't drop everything at the drop of a hat to get over there, but then one of my coworkers actually came to work late so she could stop and get a box and she gave me one. I had the glazed yeast donut (basically the same kind they serve at Krispy Kreme), and although it was about twice as big as the ones at KK, the flavors in it were so clean that I actually kind of missed the dirty grease flavor of the chain donuts. There were actual vanilla bean flecks in the glaze though, so I have to give them props for that.

    I love your blog, by the by! I stumbled across it when I was googling the food truck summit yesterday, and came back to become a follower today. My blog is a mix of city life and personal stories, if you're interested in checking it out at http://stateofhaley.blogspot.com/

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  8. Wow- can't believe people fall for this crap. What a horrible business plan. Gordon Ramsey would definitely NOT be having any of this! :)

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