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WE THOUGHT WE’D reached the peak of the doughnut craze. We were wrong.
Ireland has been awash with glazed hunks of sugar for a long time. But they were usually available from supermarkets – five jam ones for a few bob. None of your fancy stuff.
But over the last 18 months or so, it’s become more common to see pop-up doughnut shacks squashed inside your local convenience store.
The hipsters came too, of course.
They brought their vegan cronuts and their artisan coffee – draped their offerings in fair trade golden syrup and charged you half your rent for the trouble. And you paid. My God how you paid. Those Instagram likes were worth the poverty, right?
But, like most other food crazes, we may have thought we had reached peak doughnut in recent months. Shutters were pulled on a number of businesses and we waited for the next big thing – deconstructed burgers where you chop your own lettuce, probably.
Alas, that’s when Krispy Kreme arrived into Blanchardstown in the west of the capital. It offered a 24 hour drive-through. Cue hysteria. Hysteria and very long queues.
The store, which is the first of the chains outlets to open in Ireland, closed at 11pm, but the company also operated a 24-hour drive-through.
Krispy Kreme opened the outlet on Wednesday of last week, with hundreds queuing before 7am on the opening day to place an order.
And they kept on coming. The tailbacks became so severe that the firm’s management had been forced to shut the drive-through last night.
Frequent beeping of car horns at 1am meant that those living in an apartment complex 200 metres away were unable to sleep.
So, in the name of journalistic integrity, TheJournal.ie decided to head down for a look.
https://www.facebook.com/SolidShnake/videos/1811876492195367/
Driving from the office in Dublin city centre at 10.30pm last night the roads were as you’d expect: empty. The Navan Road was a ghost town, save for the odd headlight heading towards the city.
A fork left off and around a roundabout and we’re into Blanchardstown Shopping Centre. This is where things change. The lights, the din, the snaking queue open up in front of me – all mashed together as the pungent smell of sweet baked doughnuts filters through and mixes with the nearby bang of McDonald’s (it’s not a great combo).
It was an almost carnival-like atmosphere. The steady stream of cars arriving, young lads and girls whooping, dads bringing their kids for a treat and the taxi man who finished his shift and wanted to see what all the fuss was about.
A Krispy Kreme staff member made sure that the queue behaved itself and that there was nobody cutting in. Elsewhere, there were glimpses of staff members handing out branded hats, till workers were flat out tapping cards and taking cash. Other staff had to keep the place looking good – a tough task considering the volume of people.
One staff member told us, it had been a “mad house” all week.
“It’s been a mad house for a week. This is probably the quietest I’ve seen it in a long time. There was one night, someone was finishing around 4.30 in the morning and then they saw her in her uniform and then the cars started beeping and the lads started shouting and roaring. You can’t have that when there’s young families around the corner trying to sleep. I completely understand why this is happening.”
So we’re shutting it down for a week to see if they behave themselves – if they don’t then it’ll stay shut.
While down there, we observed a number of young people gathered outside the shop, most without any doughnuts to be seen. A lot of people didn’t want to give their names and admit they were queuing for an hour for a treat at 11pm on a Wednesday night.
But then the lads arrived – two guys from nearby Mulhuddart. George Weah (I think he may have been lying) and Sean Delaney said they’ve been coming down here each night for fun.
Sean, who claimed he was a second year computer science student in DIT, said: “It’s a bit like a house party all the time. People are coming down and having a bit of craic. I can understand why they’re closing earlier than usual but that’s the way it goes. It’s cheaper than going to the pub anyway.”
A taxi driver sitting in the drive-through queue didn’t want to give his name but said he was so intrigued by what was happening that he had to come and check.
“It’s all over the news and I was dropping a lad in here anyway so I said I’d give it a go. I’ve been here a half hour and I say I’ve another half hour ahead of me. I’d get out of the queue and go home now but I can’t move. So I’m here for the foreseeable.”
Security from the Blanchardstown centre was drafted in last night due to Krispy Kreme’s decision to shut the drive-through at 11.30pm yesterday. The guard, arranging his cones to block the entrance to the drive-through, shook his head when asked for a chat.
The trip to Krispy Kreme after dark was strange to say the least. The passion to get doughnuts at an ungodly hour was startling. The shell-shocked faces on the staff as they looked at the seemingly never-ending conveyor belt of hungry and agitated people is still etched on my conscience.
Whipping doughnuts from ovens, precision sugar powdering, glazing away as fast as they could go, their company sergeant barking: “MORE CHOCOLATE DREAMCAKES. HAS ANYONE ANY NUTTY CHOCOLATTA?”
Yes, that’ll stay with me. I didn’t even get a doughnut in the end.
We all thought doughnuts had gone the way of the burrito. We were wrong.
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Some very sad people in those Qs.
They are donuts for feck sake.
@Barry Somers: seriously, are people making car journeys and queing up for 30 minutes for a shaggin Doughnut?? Sad is right
@Barry Somers: it’s also one of the most unhealthy things you can eat
@Barry Somers: .
Just drove past it and I couldn’t believe it.
People are queueing up in the lashings of rain and there is a line of cars waiting for the drive-in.
What is wrong with people ??, it’s just a doughnut shop.
Some people have feck all else to be doing with themselves
@Barry Somers: there’s crack in the glazing
@tommytukamomo: that’s the wonderful thing about a democracy, you don’t have to do it yourself if you don’t want to. The same could be said about playing golf, going to a soccer match or playing computer games. If people want to eat a donut at 3am, then isn’t it great that we live in a country that allows them to do that.
@Big Red: we are allowing them to do it but as you said this is a democracy, we are allowed to think they are completely sad. And yes, they are completely sad
I wish the free publicity for this shop would end.
Tis getting a bit silly alright
@Ciarān: free doughnuts for the Journal office would dry up.
@Ciarān: free me ar€é. Even though it’s not marked as ‘sponsored’ It’s Obvious that the journal are getting quite a sum with the amount of articles they’ve written for the opening of a big global doughnut franchise.
See the part about the taxi driver?? To see what all the fuss is about. The irish really do love a good queue, you can be walking past a long queue outside a shop it reaches around the corner, you don’t know what it is for but jesus you are going to join the queue to find out
@Lisa Byrne: yep your right, exactly what we are seeing now with social housing
Put in a Garda checkpoint near the entrance and you’ll see what happens to the honking queues! No tax , no insurance , no NCT, no L plates no N plates! There will be a mass exodus!! Simple solution!
Rumours that the welfare class getting addicted… May have to add another tax.
@Socky Varadkar: anyone getting up early to work .. wouldn’t be there !
Ah was waiting for the daily Krispy Kreme Journal piece.. phew.
But the housing cri-hi-hi-hi-issssss!!!
Such a crowd of lemmings,sad people
Unless there’s Cocaine in those Doughnuts then why would anyone in there right mind want to sit in the car for an hour or two just to get a sugar cake?
Is this what Irish people are now, lazy, fat, can’t walk and eats sugar cakes?
@Dotty Dunleary: em … generalization there !
@Mairtin Cathbhar: The endless queues of families in cars queuing all night and morning shows how things are going, most of them probably live within a 20mins walk of the place
@Mairtin Cathbhar: it’s more fact than generalisation as we’re one of the most obese countries in Europe with Irish men having the highest BMI and women the third highest. One in four children are overweight or obese. I don’t think children having doughnuts at night as a treat will help with our statistics.
From the Irish stew to Krispy Kreme, that’s the progress right there!
I’m embarrassed to be Irish right now…
The new head shops
This story has received more traction than the presidential campaign, The housing crisis and Indonesian earthquake combined. It’s really sad Journalism has come to this, is it any wonder print media dieing a slow death when people consumed by this utter nonsense.
@Joseph Dempsey: this isn’t print media. It’s digital media. And it’s just a fun story. The stories you mentioned are serious subjects, but sometimes people just want something to smile and laugh about, and to wonder at how mad some other people can be. It’s just a bit of fun.
@Joseph Dempsey: your point is muddled. Per your reasoning, the death of print media is an absolute wonder if this tripe is the alternative
Clearly good taste is in very very short supply bet most of these doughbombs are washed down with Red Bull.
It’ll be closed in less than a year. Toronto is notorious for this big craze of people lining up for hours just to take pictures of food. They never return and the place closes down 6-12 months later. Ireland is going through this phase now unfortunately, which I never thought Irish people would actually line up for silly things like this. Mark my words in 2 months time you’ll be able to saunder in here with not a sinner in the place.
“The firms management were been forced to close the drive through last night ”
In the name of journalistic integrity, please go back to class and learn some English.
Traffic around blanch terrible this evening again all queuing to get in!! Sad sad people.
There’s some right donuts on that side of the liffey
Donut judge me, but I donut get it. (I know it’s bad)
This is terrible news, where will I get doughnuts now at 4.20 in the mornin’ ><
Sorry, tasted about 12 of them and they are REVOLTING!!! Doughnut window on O’ Connell St for me.
@Sharon O’Doherty: At least you gave them a fair try before arriving at that conclusion.
@Toon Army: Yes, she’s far more forgiving than I would be.
Stop the free advertising
Look at all those people out to get their hole!
Sad indeed.
Seriously though, have you tasted them?
We pre-ordered them online on the first day, walked by 200 people in the queue, grabbed the couple of boxes we ordered and brought them back to work – in and out in 10 mins.
I like Donuts, wouldn’t love Donut’s, but these Donuts were ridiculous nice, specifically the original glazed ones. Don’t get why anyone would queue for an hour or more for a donut but after tasting them I do understand a bit better why they are so popular
Queuing for doughnuts!! If ever there was a poster for how Americanized our Society has become then this is it. Queue for a doughnut, post the madness of the queue and the doughnut on “insta”, sit back and frantically check for likes. How has a story about a doughnut shop stayed in the news for over a week. Amazing publicity
This is absolutely bizarre behaviour. I love a donut as much as the next girl but ITS A DONUT. Go to bed. I’m actually embarrassed for us as a nation.
Americans – wait in line for hours for a donut.
Irish – wait in line for hours for a donut and cause a public disturbance.
This is how low the journal will go ,I wonder how many free Krispy Kreme were had for this article.
@damien ryan: Apparently none… “Yes, that’ll stay with me. I didn’t even get a doughnut in the end.”
Ridiculous.
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