The time to make the doughnuts is 7 p.m. Or at least it was for me.
I’m very familiar with the old Dunkin’ Donuts commercial.
Off and on for about 10 years of my adult life, I helped make – and deliver – doughnuts for LaMar’s Donuts on South Campbell Avenue. The old ad would occasionally be cited jokingly after dinner in the same forlorn way the mustached baker said it. For most of my time at LaMar’s, I was a finisher. I would come in, fill the fresh doughnuts, put icing on them once they’d cooled, box deliveries to convenience stores and hotels, and set up the store to open at 5 a.m.
At different times, and for different periods, I ran a route for the company, driving around in the wee hours of the morning. I also cut and fried my share of the sweet treats, but more often than not, I was the finisher.
It was an overnight job. It wasn’t easy work and I wasn’t the fastest, but I was reliable. I also cared about the work – how the doughnuts looked, when the routes got out – and several of my former co-workers are still friends. We had music. We could talk politics. It wasn’t so bad.
The position helped my young family, allowed my wife and I to work opposite shifts and supported us when I went back to school. I will always be grateful for that.
The store these days operates under the moniker of Ray’s Donuts. It’s a name my former boss and franchisee Bill Risberg adopted after an impasse with the franchisor in Kansas City. In fact, my very first story with Springfield Business Journal was about that name change and dispute.
It was awkward, but it was business news. Risberg sold the business to current owner Marty Witt in 2012.
I got my first chance to talk to Marty this week for the story “#Fanfare,” which runs in the Sept. 7 print edition and today’s digital edition. It focuses on Dunkin’ Donuts coming to town and Hurts Donut Co. opening a second location on the south side. I broke the Dunkin’ Donuts news Monday after receiving a tip from commercial broker Ross Murray that a deal on the former Back Yard Burgers restaurant at 4020 S. Campbell Ave. was in place. Several local media outlets ran with the story, and it was all over my Facebook newsfeed on Monday evening.
I told Murray it was one of the first business stories I’ve seen my wife get excited about in years.
On Sept. 1, I reported the Hurts Donut news after seeing a Facebook post from Ken Schwab and Wilhoit Properties. That received its own share of attention, with follow-up stories from the News-Leader, KY3 and others.
The whole thing reminded me of the time when I was on the other side of the news. There was a lot of concern among employees in 2002 when we learned a Krispy Kreme was moving in down the street.
The whole community was abuzz, but I was nervous I might have to find another job.
Risberg, who was a new owner then, said he wasn’t worried in the same sort of way that Witt told me this week he wasn’t concerned. From what I remember, LaMar’s did take a dip in orders after Krispy Kreme, but Bill always said we took a bigger hit when Starbucks opened up shop in 2004 right in front of us in the Kickapoo Corners lot.
We pushed through. We struggled, we picked up more delivery customers, but we survived. What option did we have?
The truth is competition can be scary because it creates winners and losers. On the whole, I believe it makes people stronger, but when new announcements happen, it can be easy to forget how others might be impacted.
For me, I plan to stay away from the crowds when the new stores open. In fact, while I really respect the south-side newcomers, as my old friends said on Facebook earlier this week, I can barely bring myself to eat doughnuts anymore.
