I have gone through nearly my entire life with absolutely no impression one way or the other about Dunkin’ Donuts. Until recently, I had never set foot in one, not because of any negative opinion but because it barely impinged upon my consciousness. I was aware of its existence, because I could hardly avoid it: they are popping up at a furious rate around here. But I had no occasion to actually go there until twice in recent weeks, when, by sheer coincidence, two different store locations were the convenient place to stop in for coffee and a breakfast sandwich.
Hence my question: why are they popping up all over the place? In both cases the experience was of solid mediocrity: an acceptable choice if no place that is actually good is available, but I can do as well or better at a gas station convenience store. The coffee was unremarkable except for being served too hot, so I had to eat my food first and then wait for the coffee to be drinkable. (This is an old trick usually associated with McDonalds to squeeze more coffee out of the beans.) Also, the staff adds any cream or sugar, which means that I have to negotiate with them what to put in and hope they get it close enough to what I would have done. They succeeded, but I imagine it would be a crap shoot every time. The breakfast sandwich was blandly inoffensive. I’m a sausage/egg/cheese guy; the sausage is the key ingredient, assuming that it isn’t ruined by using too cheap a fake cheese. There was nothing particularly wrong with the sandwich, but neither was there anything particularly right with it. The deep fried potato-like slabs were above average, so I will give them that.
All in all, though, I came away with no idea why the chain is growing. Can anyone explain this to me?
