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Saturday, March 10, 2007

Rachael Ray and Dunkin' Donuts

The news that our favourite coffee shop here in New England is going to hire local gal Rachael Ray has caused no small amount of consternation among the populace. The Boston Globe online discussion board about this is one of the longest I've ever seen. (I'm not going to link to it...it's snarkier and meaner than I could imagine being, but if yer wicked smaht you'll figure out how to find it on boston.com. I expect that some marketing VP's email inbox has burst into flame several times over the past few days. Perhaps this ad campaign will be short lived.

We're a provincial people, New Englanders. Starbucks has made a good stab at being successful here, but DD still outsells Starbucks 2 to 1. Krispy Kreme didn't make it, mostly because they cooked the books (so to speak) but also because two outside chains trying to compete for local coffee dollars wasn't going to work. Opinions vary about the coffee at DD (too weak, or just right...), at Starbucks (too strong or just right...), about the atmosphere, the food, the corporate atmosphere...(DD isn't so good about having full time workers with benefits...but neither is Starbucks).

Me, I like Dunkin' Donuts better than just about anything else. Starbucks, Seattle's Best, even Krispy Kreme's coffee always tastes too strong and bitter for me, even the light varieties.

I'll have a regular, please. (And here, that means cream and sugar.)

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