Requiem for Krispie Kreme

Sometimes you take a photo and you don't know how significant it will be. Such was the case on February 15th when a group of us attended a product demo for security cameras. Along with his presentation, Steve brought a box of Krispie Kreme doughnuts. Since we don't have a Krispie Kreme up in our neck of the woods, I popped out the camera and took a picture. Doesn't this just make your mouth water?

Little did we know, that it was the last box of Krispie Kremes we'd see in Minnesota. On February 21st, Krispie Kreme ceased Minnesota sales. WCCO news story.

Krispie Kreme's short tenure in Minnesota has been newsworthy, but sales have evidently been less than profitable. The first store opened in Maple Grove in 2002. They had to call the cops to control the traffic jam around the doughnut shop (now there's an irony). At that time I lived in Rochester (about 75 miles south) and people coming through the Cities would stop in Maple Grove and pick up a box to impress their friends.

A couple years later, we got a Krispie Kreme in Rochester. It was pretty popular for a while, but closed up fairly quickly. The last time I was there, the empty store (without the signature "Hot" light) stood monument empty.

What's this got to do with libraries? Well, other than the doughnuts were brought to a library, when I went to the Krispie Kreme website, I found out that Krispie Kreme solicits visitors to join its "Friends of Krispie Kreme" (just like library Friends groups). The site promises that Krispie Kreme will "regularly send you timely information about exciting new products, special offers, and local events." What a neat idea, to sign up Friends on the website!