Apparently my social skills aren’t quite as refined as I thought they were.  I thought I’d been rather convincing as a ‘regular guy’ when I accompanied Finn on his last scout weekend away, but he just had another one, and this time the wife announced that she’d be taking Finn, and not me. Actually it may not be entirely down to my unavoidably-antisocial nature: when I asked the wife if she wanted me to dig out the tent again she replied “Um, no. We’re staying in a hotel”. I guess I drew the short straw there, then.
And the straw got shorter still when I realized that I’d be stuck at home all weekend looking after Gil and Freya, which is always a challenge. Actually, it could have been worse, as Freya went off to a friend’s for a play date for most of the Saturday, which meant that I only really had Gil to contend with. Although I still had to spend most of the day pulling him out of the mud piles in the garden (the wife is mid-‘landscaping’) and washing the kitchen floor where he’d left muddy footprints all over it.
Still, it was all worthwhile when the wife turned up again on Sunday afternoon, with a gift from her trip for me – a dozen donuts. This may sound a bit cheap for a weekend of babysitting, but these were Krispy Kreme donuts. And the first Krispy Kreme donuts I have had since I got back to the U.S. over a year ago, at that. So I ate half a dozen straight off the bat (washed down with some of the coffee I brought back from my last trip to Guatemala). I had no choice. Krispy Kreme donuts are like French bread (in France/Belgium) – they’re only really good for about 4 hours – so I was eating to a deadline!
So why are Krispy Kreme such a treat? Quite simply, Krispy Kreme are just the absolutely best food you can get (when bought fresh off the conveyor belt – not the supermarket-bought ones). Bar nothing.  There’s something about an Original Glazed Krispy Kreme Donut that you just can’t beat. And they are even more of a treat now, because you just can’t get Krispy Kreme in Houston any more – the closest store is apparently 3 hours away, wherever the wife was for the weekend. I got hooked on Krispy Kreme when I was over here the first time, but by the time I returned (after a brief, and reluctant, repatriation to Belgium) – eagerly anticipating the chance to sinking my teeth into a Krispy Kreme donut again – they had disappeared.  How come?
Back in 2005, Krispy Kreme had a disagreement with their Houston franchisee, Lone Star Donuts. Lone Star claimed that Krispy Kreme was charging them too much for ingredients, leaving them too slim a margin to survive on. Although Krispy Kreme denied this, the case went into litigation, and as part of the settlement, Krispy Kreme agreed to sell all of their Houston stores to the franchisee.
The Houston Krispy Kreme stores closed February 9th 2006, and reopened on March 8th under the new brand name of Jumbles Dough Factory and Coffee Bar (about as convincing a name as Uncle Moe’s Family Feedbag!). Obviously, Jumbles weren’t using Krispy Kreme’s ‘overpriced’ ingredients, and so the product just wasn’t the same (I’m relying on other reports here, as I never tried them – I was back in Europe by then, although I wouldn’t have eaten them just on principle, anyway). In fact, they weren’t the same to the point where people in H-town just weren’t buying them. At all. Within three months, Jumble’s Donuts was out of business, and the stores boarded up (my previous regular store – and I was a regular patron – is now a branch of Washington Mutual Bank). Which just goes to show that sometimes you really don’t want to bite the hand that feeds you (donuts).  The ingredients may have been more expensive than ‘own brand’ equivalents, but they were well worth the money. That was true when Mr. Krispy Kreme (real name Vernon Randolph) bought the recipe from a French baker in New Orleans in 1937, and it’s evidently still true today.
And it’s not even as though Krispy Kreme forced them out of business by opening up new shops across the road. Krispy Kreme completely withdrew from the Houston market. Most people think that this was part of the settlement, but in fact it was not. There was no non-competition clause in the agreement at all. In fact, at the time of the settlement, Steve Panagos, President and Chief Operating Officer of Krispy Kreme said “Krispy Kreme remains committed to developing the brand in the Houston market and plans to re-establish stores in the area at the appropriate time”. Which means that there is nothing to stop them coming back. It’s now been three years since their departure, and over a year that I’ve been back in Houston and barely surviving on a diet of Shipleys. I’d say now would be the appropriate time for Krispy Kreme to return like the prodigal son, and plug the ring-like hole in my stomach.
So this is an open plea to Krispy Kreme Corporation. Please, please, PLEEEEASE, bring Krispy Kreme back to Houston. And help an old sociophobe break the 200lb barrier (only about 10lb to go!).
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