Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Savor Prediction of ByHeart Radio.
Speaker 2: I'm Anny Resa and I'm Lauren vogel Baum, and today
Speaker 2: we have an episode for you about Krispy Creme.
Speaker 1: M hm. Was there any particular reason this was on
Speaker 1: your mind? Lauren?
Speaker 2: Uh, well, okay, So I've been wanting to do I
Speaker 2: love doing corporate episodes because they can go in wild
Speaker 2: places that you're not expecting them to. And I had
Speaker 2: been looking at the major US donut chain brands, and
Speaker 2: I have been in the South for long enough that
Speaker 2: I was morally obligated to pick Krispy Kream before Dunkin Donuts.
Speaker 1: Yes, which I briefly mentioned in the last episode that
Speaker 1: we did. Oh gosh, what was it?
Speaker 2: It could have been anything.
Speaker 1: It could have been anything, but whatever previously came out
Speaker 1: to this. I mentioned that in the US, we don't
Speaker 1: really have a breakfast and I found a whole article
Speaker 1: from the Bitter Southerner that was about how Dunkin Donuts
Speaker 1: kind of capitalized Oh sure, you know American runs on
Speaker 1: duncan go fast, fast fast, and Krispy Kreme was like, no,
Speaker 1: come in and sit down or you know, and stay
Speaker 1: a while. Yeah, the kind of differences between southern and northern,
Speaker 1: but also what succeeded where and it was really fascinating.
Speaker 1: But yes, they're not a sponsor Chrispy krean no, nor
Speaker 1: Dunkin Donuts, No, no, nope, not currently. I haven't had
Speaker 1: Krispy Kreme in a really long time, but college years
Speaker 1: I remember it very well. Oh sure, yes, there was
Speaker 1: a there, there's one. I know, we're going to talk
Speaker 1: about it. But there's kind of a famous Krispy Kreme
Speaker 1: in Atlanta and one time my good friend was driving
Speaker 1: and the hot sign was on. If you don't know
Speaker 1: if that is, we'll talk about it more or later.
Speaker 1: But essentially it's just like there's hot fresh doughnuts.
Speaker 2: It tells you when the donuts are fresh.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And she made a very dangerous turn get into
Speaker 1: the Krispy Kreme and we later found out it's always on.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, that's great at that location at least it's
Speaker 2: always on.
Speaker 1: And I read that in multiple articles when I was
Speaker 1: studying studying, researching this is that people would take these
Speaker 1: turns to get into.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I have hot sign. I have seen that.
Speaker 2: I have witnessed that. I think I've been in the
Speaker 2: car when someone else did that. Yes, it is a
Speaker 2: pretty universal Atlanta experience.
Speaker 1: It is, indeed. And another friend of mine, she loves
Speaker 1: Krispy Kreme.
Speaker 3: She she's always texting me about Krispy Kreme has this
Speaker 3: new flavor, and I'm like, well, what, I'm glad you're
Speaker 3: excited about it.
Speaker 1: What newsletter are you on? But also I remembered that
Speaker 1: when I was in marching band, we used to sell
Speaker 1: Krispy Cream doughnuts as fundraising techniques totally, and one time
Speaker 1: I was selling them inside Walmart and I got kicked
Speaker 1: out for soliciting. And I still they were correct to
Speaker 1: kick me out, but I still chafe at the memory
Speaker 1: of the whole thing.
Speaker 2: Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't remember having access to
Speaker 2: Krispy Kreme anywhere when I was growing up, but in college,
Speaker 2: the first place that I lived was like downwind of
Speaker 2: a Krispy Kreme, and so I could tell just by
Speaker 2: walking outside whether or not the hot now sign was on.
Speaker 2: And it was horrifying. It was the most dangerous, wonderful things.
Speaker 2: Perhaps shockingly, I didn't actually eat that many at that
Speaker 2: point in my life because I was so broke. I
Speaker 2: just didn't have money to spend on donuts. But I
Speaker 2: guess that helps.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but uh yeah, oh it's wonderful and uh and yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: I've got a very positive association with the brand from
Speaker 4: any number of like like office coffee hangouts or you know,
Speaker 4: like like family visits or stuff like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I do also have a lot of good associations with
Speaker 1: I don't know, and early morning where somebody in a
Speaker 1: dozen Krispey cream or something like that. It's just like
Speaker 1: nice and sweet, but it's not too sweet. They're generally
Speaker 1: pretty good because I'm very sensitive to sweet.
Speaker 2: So yeah, yeah, I was gonna say, you don't even
Speaker 2: enjoy sweet things that much. So if you have good
Speaker 2: feelings about it, then they're doing a good job.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Admittedly this is a long time ago, but but yeah, uh, okay,
Speaker 1: you can see our donut episode Jelly Donuts.
Speaker 2: We did it one on jelly donuts, not all donuts.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, all right, you can see that one.
Speaker 1: I would say biscuits is relevant.
Speaker 2: Related, sure maybe churros, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I can see that. All right. But I guess
Speaker 1: this brings us to our question.
Speaker 2: Sure, Crispy Cream, what is it? Well, Krispy Cream is
Speaker 2: a brand of donuts and coffee that can be found
Speaker 2: in grocery stores and also that owns and franchises out
Speaker 2: donut shops. They focus on yeast raised doughnuts that are
Speaker 2: very airy and fluffy, very melt in your mouth. They
Speaker 2: come in your typical donut ring or toroid if you're nasty,
Speaker 2: with a thin sugar glaze and or a topper of
Speaker 2: only slightly thicker icing in flavors like chocolate or strawberry.
Speaker 2: They also have disc shaped doughnuts that are similarly glazed
Speaker 2: and or iced and filled with like jelly, custard or
Speaker 2: fluffy type of icing that they call cream with a
Speaker 2: K because that's how their name is spelled. You can
Speaker 2: buy them singly or more commonly by three, six or
Speaker 2: a dozen. For drinks, they have like plain coffee, iced coffee,
Speaker 2: and then a bunch of sweetened and flavored espresso drinks
Speaker 2: and blended frozen drinks. The shops and packaging are branded
Speaker 2: in like white and forest green, with a really like
Speaker 2: retro mid century kind of vibe. The shops are the
Speaker 2: kind of place that you might stop for a treat
Speaker 2: with the kids, you know, and they often feature a
Speaker 2: window into the donut machinery in the back and out front.
Speaker 2: Each shop that has that also has this red orange
Speaker 2: neon sign that says hot now that they turn on
Speaker 2: when fresh donuts are coming off the line. Maybe that
Speaker 2: shop has fresh donuts coming off the line all the time.
Speaker 2: I don't know their business. And yeah, these these donuts
Speaker 2: are often eaten for breakfast or a snack, like in
Speaker 2: group settings, right, like someone might pick up a dozen
Speaker 2: to bring to the office or to your mechanic or
Speaker 2: something like that, or maybe like as a weekend breakfast treat.
Speaker 2: The brand is kind of aggressively nostalgic and is very loved.
Speaker 2: It is sturdy and long lasting in exactly the way
Speaker 2: that its donuts are not.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's got a vibe. It's got like a the
Speaker 1: whole look of the stores if you go in, if
Speaker 1: you actually go in and you can see the donuts,
Speaker 1: like the line.
Speaker 2: It's all very clean, very very spick and span, very shiny,
Speaker 2: you know, like they'll give you a little paper donut hat. Yes,
Speaker 2: it's not shaped like a donut, it's just you know,
Speaker 2: the little service hat.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: I don't know what it's called anyway, Okay. Krispy Kream
Speaker 2: has several standard donuts and usually four ish limited time ones.
Speaker 2: The standard rings are original glazed, chocolate iced, and chocolate
Speaker 2: ice with rainbow sprinkles. These standard fills are glazed with
Speaker 2: raspberry jelly, glazed with lemon custard, chocolate iced with vanilla custard,
Speaker 2: and chocolate iced with that fluffy cream that I mentioned before.
Speaker 2: They do also have a single standard cake style donut
Speaker 2: at this very moment, which is a blueberry cake with
Speaker 2: that glaze on it, glazed a yeast raised cinnamon roll
Speaker 2: right now. They're limiteds are like spring and or Easter themed,
Speaker 2: like a filled donut with marshmallow flavored cream and a
Speaker 2: pastel yellow icing on top, with like cute little bunny
Speaker 2: face drawn on with chocolate drops for the eyes and nose,
Speaker 2: and then little candy ears. Yeah. Each franchise can choose
Speaker 2: which flavors to stock Their coffee drinks. Do come and
Speaker 2: write hot, iced and frozen with flavors like caramel or mocha.
Speaker 2: They do have an original glazed flavor of coffee. And
Speaker 2: I'm intrigued because I don't know what nervous. I don't
Speaker 2: know what flavor the glaze is like. It's glaze flavored
Speaker 2: like what is what? Anyways, the brand does also have
Speaker 2: a pretty popular fund raising program that lets organizations basically
Speaker 2: purchase goods at a discount and then sell them for profit,
Speaker 2: either via pre sale sale of digital coupons or by
Speaker 2: picking up a whole bunch of donuts to sell wherever
Speaker 2: except for inside a Walmart. Apparently, they also do catering
Speaker 2: if you'd like to order more than like four dozen
Speaker 2: at a time. And that's all at their shops. Some
Speaker 2: grocery stores and convenience stores sell Crispy Creame brand coffee
Speaker 2: to make it home, and donuts that are delivered in
Speaker 2: fresh daily from a local shop or production center. Some
Speaker 2: McDonald's I think currently only in Kentucky and Indiana do
Speaker 2: also sell individual donuts. Yeah, yeah, that's new. But anyway,
Speaker 2: this is all in the United States. Shops in other
Speaker 2: countries which do exist have other flavors and stuff. For example,
Speaker 2: in the UK, they have options like a chocolate hazelnut
Speaker 2: filled donut you know, Natella type style one filled with
Speaker 2: strawberry cream, a ring dipped in a milk and white
Speaker 2: chocolate icing, and a bisc Off Co branded donut filled
Speaker 2: with Biscoff flavored cream and topped with a biscof spread
Speaker 2: and biscoff crumbles. It's a it's a lot of bit.
Speaker 2: It's very biscoffee. They have had similar limited time options
Speaker 2: in the States, but I have I have the idea
Speaker 2: that that that that bisk Off one is more permanent. Anyway,
Speaker 2: the system that they have worked out to produce and
Speaker 2: distribute all of these donuts is pretty intricate. So like
Speaker 2: they do have regional donut factories to help supply fresh
Speaker 2: doughnuts to shops that do not produce their own, along
Speaker 2: with supplying to other vendors like carts and food trucks
Speaker 2: and grocery stores. But those stores with the machinery in
Speaker 2: the back and the hot Now sign out front can
Speaker 2: be self sustaining and can even provide product for those
Speaker 2: other vendors Locally, they're called factory stores or in business lingo,
Speaker 2: the hot light theater shops. Oh I read. I read
Speaker 2: a lot of investor relations information while preparing for this episode,
Speaker 2: and it's really funny. They just just all investor relations material.
Speaker 2: Is really funny.
Speaker 4: Why not?
Speaker 2: No way that it intends to be at any rate. Yes,
Speaker 2: deliveries from these places to other places that sell them
Speaker 2: are made daily, and they also have manufacturing facilities where
Speaker 2: they blend and package the ingredients for their products, including
Speaker 2: donut mixes, the specific sugar and yeast that they use,
Speaker 2: and also the filling mixes, and right in the factory stores,
Speaker 2: you can peek in on the machinery. Back when our
Speaker 2: original company that we were podcasting under, How Stuff Works,
Speaker 2: was still based in North Carolina, in like the early Oughts,
Speaker 2: they took a tour and explained how it all worked.
Speaker 2: Since then, the physical machinery is still pretty much the same.
Speaker 2: I suspect it's been that way since way before then, actually,
Speaker 2: but they have updated their drives and controllers to make
Speaker 2: everything more easily monitored. And a fish a little bit
Speaker 2: more in that on that in the history section. But yes, So,
Speaker 2: in order to create a crispy cream donut, the donut
Speaker 2: mix is added to some water in yeast, and then
Speaker 2: the rings are formed by an extrusion machine. It's the
Speaker 2: kind of thing that uses pressurized air to force the
Speaker 2: dough through a ring shaped tube and then we'll slice
Speaker 2: each separate donut off at the other end. No donuts
Speaker 2: never have a hole that needs to be punched out.
Speaker 2: That's a marketing thing for filled donuts, the ring shaped
Speaker 2: tube is swapped out for just a cylinder that makes
Speaker 2: a solid circle. Anyway, the extruder deposits the rings or
Speaker 2: circles on a conveyor belt that brings them to the proofer.
Speaker 2: And this is a big glass box with a controlled
Speaker 2: heat and humidity inside to help the dough proof. That
Speaker 2: is for the yeast to get to work and make
Speaker 2: the dough rise. Baker's yeast, as we have talked about before,
Speaker 2: eats sugar and poops carbon dioxide and flavor yeast fool.
Speaker 2: The carbon dioxide bubbles will stretch out the dough and
Speaker 2: make it puff out. The process takes like fifteen to
Speaker 2: twenty minutes, and the doughnuts zigzag through the box on
Speaker 2: these conveyor trays at just the right speed so that
Speaker 2: when they reach the end of the box they're ready
Speaker 2: to be cooked. The machine then tips them out onto
Speaker 2: another conveyor belt, which pulls the donuts through a bath
Speaker 2: of hot oil. The conveyor belt has these bars just
Speaker 2: tall enough to trap rows of doughnuts in place and
Speaker 2: let them float through the oil. It's a little bit
Speaker 2: like how in some theme park water rides the cars
Speaker 2: do like a controlled float yeah, except through hot oil
Speaker 2: not water. Since the donuts are floating, only one side
Speaker 2: will cook, so halfway through the bath, this rotating arm
Speaker 2: flips them over from underneath. It takes about forty five
Speaker 2: seconds on each side. And I don't know if this
Speaker 2: is still accurate, but at least as of the early
Speaker 2: two thousands, a few times a day a manager like
Speaker 2: checks and make sure that the timing is just right
Speaker 2: on both the proofing and the frying end, because, as
Speaker 2: anyone who's ever gotten into baking knows, all kinds of
Speaker 2: environmental factors can affect dough and cook times even in
Speaker 2: a relatively controlled kitchen environment. The belt will deposit be
Speaker 2: fried doughnuts onto a cooling belt, and then when they're
Speaker 2: a little bit cooler, the doughnuts destined to be glazed
Speaker 2: are pulled under the sort of waterfall of liquid glaze
Speaker 2: made of sugar and water and stuff basically flavors and
Speaker 2: a lot of things to help make the texture just right.
Speaker 2: And when that hot now sign is on, an employee
Speaker 2: will pull donuts right off of the glazing belt and
Speaker 2: box them up for you. And if you order something
Speaker 2: like chocolate ice, just hand dip the chocolate icing on.
Speaker 2: If they're meant to be sent out for delivery elsewhere, though,
Speaker 2: they're allowed to cool for another forty minutes or so
Speaker 2: on a long slow ride back to the packing room
Speaker 2: so that the glaze has time to stiffen up a bit.
Speaker 2: You can get almost crackly when it's dry, which is
Speaker 2: nice for the package donuts. Any icing will be applied
Speaker 2: with another waterfall type machine. They're then handboxed, loaded into trays,
Speaker 2: and loaded into company run delivery trucks. Filled donuts are
Speaker 2: super cool. Okay, they're filled by hand with the help
Speaker 2: of a machine that the filling gets mixed together and
Speaker 2: then poured into this tank that's attached to a pump,
Speaker 2: and the pump can feed the exact right amount of
Speaker 2: filling out through this long, sharp ended nozzle and two
Speaker 2: nozzles sit side by side, so a worker can take
Speaker 2: a pair of donuts, slide them onto the nozzles, and
Speaker 2: then push a button in under the nozzles to activate
Speaker 2: the pump, and then pull the donuts off the nozzles
Speaker 2: as the filling is injected, so that it goes in evenly.
Speaker 2: It's just really simple, but like really cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is really cool. I mean it's me if
Speaker 1: you go in it is very it feels like one
Speaker 1: of those very touristy you want. Yeah, something get made,
Speaker 1: which we are going to talk about a little bit
Speaker 1: in his rejection. But yeah, it's fun.
Speaker 2: Watching how stuff gets made is a whole thing. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it is.
Speaker 1: It is part of why we're here. M Well, what
Speaker 1: about the nutrition.
Speaker 2: Oh, treats are nice. Treats are nice.
Speaker 1: Treats are nice. Well, we do have some numbers for you.
Speaker 2: Oh, quite a few see above read and investor relation papers. Okay, So,
Speaker 2: as of the early two thousands, Krispy Kreme's largest factory
Speaker 2: shops could produce eight hundred and eighty donuts an hour.
Speaker 2: Uh huh. Today, getting a factory shop up and running
Speaker 2: costs between two to five million dollars. There is a
Speaker 2: real fancy one in Times Square that costs ten million
Speaker 2: when it opened in twenty twenty. If anyone has been,
Speaker 2: let me know it sounds real.
Speaker 1: Goofy. It does a note when it opened.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, right and interesting. As of twenty twenty four,
Speaker 2: Krispy Kreme had three hundred and ninety four factory shops
Speaker 2: around the world, plus another one thousand, six hundred and
Speaker 2: eighty four shops that do not produce their own donuts,
Speaker 2: and over fifteen thousand other vendors, for a total worldwide
Speaker 2: of seventeen thousand, five hundred and fifty seven places that
Speaker 2: you can buy at Krispy Kreme.
Speaker 1: Wow. Yeah, they've got fans. They've got a fan base.
Speaker 2: Interesting machine. Yeah. About half their shops are franchisees, half
Speaker 2: her company owned. Together, they employ some twenty two thousand,
Speaker 2: eight hundred people. In twenty twenty four, the company made
Speaker 2: a net revenue of one point six billion dollars. Along
Speaker 2: the fundraiser line, apparently, Krispy Kreme earned over forty three
Speaker 2: million dollars for about one hundred thousand organizations in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty three alone. They are an international company, but do
Speaker 2: about sixty percent of their business in the United States,
Speaker 2: and as of twenty twenty the company was selling about
Speaker 2: one point three billion donuts a year, sixty four percent
Speaker 2: of which was the original glazed.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a lot of donuts. It's a whole bunch of donuts.
Speaker 2: But they started they started mid sized. Actually, I feel
Speaker 2: like they always kind of had a plan.
Speaker 1: I think they did. And what is comical to me
Speaker 1: is that they realized early on. You know what, the
Speaker 1: smell business, oh spelling of the hot fresh donuts is
Speaker 1: important to our business. So there is quite a history.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, and we are going to get into that
Speaker 2: as soon as we get back from a quick break.
Speaker 2: For a word from our sponsors, and we're back.
Speaker 1: Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you. Well again see our
Speaker 1: jelly donut episode. I guess we haven't done just a
Speaker 1: donut one yet.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: Foiled again, but yes. Krispy Kreme was the brainchild of
Speaker 1: Vernon Rudolph during the Great Depression. Rudolph, like many others,
Speaker 1: was trying to find a way to make a living
Speaker 1: when things were pretty grim, so he got the idea
Speaker 1: of opening a donut shop. He purchased a recipe for
Speaker 1: a yeast raised donut from a chef out of New
Speaker 1: Orleans in nineteen thirty three. There's a lot of a
Speaker 1: lot of debate over who that was or if it
Speaker 1: was true, but that's the story. That same year, he
Speaker 1: opened a doughnut shop in Paducah, Kentucky. Okay. At this
Speaker 1: point things get a little messy because a lot of
Speaker 1: places like to claim they're the birthplace of the first
Speaker 1: Krispy Kreme, especially state websites.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, oh yes, but here it goes.
Speaker 1: A few cities do lay claim to the first official
Speaker 1: Krispy Kreme, and there are some technicalities involved. National claims
Speaker 1: that the first official Krispy Kreme was opened there by
Speaker 1: Rudolph and Ishmael Armstrong, who was Rudolph's uncle and business partner,
Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty seven. Soon after that one was opened,
Speaker 1: a few members of Rudolph's family opened stores in Atlanta, Georgia,
Speaker 1: and Charleston, West Virginia. So those cities they also get
Speaker 1: in on this whole thing, yes, But with dreams of
Speaker 1: owning his own store without a partner, Rudolph moved on
Speaker 1: to Winston Salem, North Carolina, and opened a Krispy Kremes
Speaker 1: store there on July thirteenth, nineteen thirty seven, which yes,
Speaker 1: is the same year as the one in Tennessee. But
Speaker 1: he was on the move. He was quick. Allegedly, he
Speaker 1: didn't have enough money to buy the ingredients he needed
Speaker 1: in the beginning to make these donuts, so he made
Speaker 1: a deal with grocery stores to pay them for the
Speaker 1: ingredients as soon as he earned the money from his store.
Speaker 1: And I guess they went with it. At first, Rudolph
Speaker 1: would make the donuts in the store and then sell
Speaker 1: them to these local grocery stores. But yes, as many
Speaker 1: of us know, the smell of fresh hot donuts is
Speaker 1: like a siren's call, so passerby started visiting the store
Speaker 1: directly wanting to buy them. So the story goes that
Speaker 1: Rudolph cut a hole in the wall so he could
Speaker 1: sell the donuts straight to customers. This also allowed customers
Speaker 1: to see some of the production, which they really in.
Speaker 1: It showcased how clean and modern the facility was. It
Speaker 1: was very kind of touristy. As we mentioned, the first
Speaker 1: doughnuts he sold are essentially what the company now labels
Speaker 1: the original glazed and people really dug the product, and
Speaker 1: in the nineteen forties and fifties, Crispy Cream expanded throughout
Speaker 1: the Southeast. With the expansion came some growing pains though.
Speaker 1: For one, all the doughnuts were made from scratch, which
Speaker 1: resulted in a pretty inconsistent product, just not what a
Speaker 1: lot of these stores wanted at the time. So to
Speaker 1: counter that, Rudolph opened a mixing plant just for Krispy
Speaker 1: Cream donuts. Each store received deliveries of dry dough from
Speaker 1: the plant, and the next step was developing mechanized donut
Speaker 1: making equipment that cooked and glazed the donuts, speeding up
Speaker 1: the whole process. Then nineteen sixties, the look of the
Speaker 1: stores was standardized as well, with the tiled green roof
Speaker 1: and the sign that we're familiar with. From there, locations
Speaker 1: began opening up outside of the Southeast. Rudolph himself died
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy three, and his family sold the chain
Speaker 1: to Beatrice Foods Company a few years later, and for
Speaker 1: many franchisees this was unpopular. Moves oh yeah, oh wow.
Speaker 1: The recipe was changed to cut costs, the sign was changed.
Speaker 1: So in response, Joe mcalar spearheaded an effort with other
Speaker 1: early franchisees to come together to buy the company in
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty two, which they did. One of the first
Speaker 1: acts of business was to reverse these changes.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: They were not having it.
Speaker 2: They were like, no, we know how to make our donuts,
Speaker 2: don't you tell us?
Speaker 1: Right? Ridiculous. The infamous hot light was introduced to nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety two, and by nineteen ninety nine Krispy Kremes they
Speaker 1: operated nationwide. A few years later, the business went international,
Speaker 1: opening a store in Canada.
Speaker 2: They went public in the year two thousand and then.
Speaker 2: This is a little bit of a sidebar, but in
Speaker 2: two thousand and eight researchers out of Northwestern University did
Speaker 2: a small study about how hunger affects our self control
Speaker 2: when we're tempted with treats by using Krispy Kreme. A
Speaker 2: press release called it perhaps their first starring role in
Speaker 2: neurological research. So what happened was subjects were either given
Speaker 2: as many donuts as they wanted to eat or asked
Speaker 2: too fast for eight hours. Both groups were then placed
Speaker 2: in fMRIs and shown pictures of two things, screwdrivers and donuts.
Speaker 2: In subjects who had just eaten, neither photo really got
Speaker 2: any kind of reaction, but in subjects who had fasted,
Speaker 2: the picture of the doughnut caused a couple parts of
Speaker 2: the brain to just light up the parts that detect
Speaker 2: and then focus your attention on things that are motivationally
Speaker 2: significant in some way, like you know, food when you're hungry,
Speaker 2: or a car horn when you're walking along a sidewalk,
Speaker 2: which which only makes sense, but you know, doing the
Speaker 2: science to prove it is always pretty cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Meanwhile, sidebar aside, there was some corporate drama. In
Speaker 2: two thousand and nine, the US Securities and Exchange Commission
Speaker 2: settled this inquiry that had dated from two thousand and
Speaker 2: four into the company's accounting practices that wound up finding
Speaker 2: three then former executives one hundred and fifty thousand in
Speaker 2: just fines and almost six hundred and thirty three thousand
Speaker 2: dollars in ill gotten gains and interest.
Speaker 1: Oh my, yeah, well, continuing with the drama, in twenty fifteen,
Speaker 1: a UK branch had to apologize for promotion for the
Speaker 1: Krispy Kream Club as they were calling it are what
Speaker 1: they also dubbed KKK Wednesday because of the association with
Speaker 1: the American.
Speaker 2: Hey, yeah, I'm assuming that what happened was that whoever
Speaker 2: put together that acronym didn't know or.
Speaker 1: One can hope fingers crossed. I think I think you're right.
Speaker 1: I think you're right, but fingers crossed indeed? Yes, all right.
Speaker 1: In twenty sixteen, JAB Holding Company purchased Krispy Kreme for
Speaker 1: one point three five billion dollars.
Speaker 2: They immediately took the company private again.
Speaker 1: Yes, and then the German family that owns jab Holding
Speaker 1: admitted in twenty nineteen that they profited off of forced
Speaker 1: labor during World War Two. On top of that, investigators
Speaker 1: discovered two of their family members actively abused workers during
Speaker 1: the thirties and forties. After the investigation into the family's
Speaker 1: Nazi ties went public, the managing partner of the company
Speaker 1: and the family's spokesperson didn't deny the accusations and said
Speaker 1: Ryman Senor and Ryman Junior were guilty. The two businessmen
Speaker 1: have passed away, but they actually belonged in prison.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it was a really big deal. The holding
Speaker 2: company owns a lot of other stuff like Panera things
Speaker 2: like that, And Junior had actually had kids with a
Speaker 2: woman whose Jewish father was murdered by the Nazis in
Speaker 2: a concentration camp, and their kids are now the heirs
Speaker 2: to the family fortune. And since that investigation, they spend
Speaker 2: at least some of it funding benefits to survivors of
Speaker 2: the Holocaust and to survivors of forest labor. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: Nazis are bad as it turns out. Around twenty nineteen ish,
Speaker 2: the company began replacing its power drives and controller mechanisms
Speaker 2: in their donut making machinery they had last been updated
Speaker 2: around two thousand and one, and they wanted to put
Speaker 2: in more modern like connected equipment and software that can
Speaker 2: help keep everything running smoothly and reduce wear to components
Speaker 2: like motors and troubleshoot issues from any shop anywhere in
Speaker 2: the world due to Internet connectivity. Like for example, the
Speaker 2: fry oil in in that bath is constantly heated and
Speaker 2: pumped through the bath in order to keep the the
Speaker 2: temperature and viscosity within the right range and to you
Speaker 2: filter out any stray bits of dough and to prevent
Speaker 2: hot and cold spots. You know that that kind of thing.
Speaker 2: With this modern equipment, it automatically monitors the flow rate
Speaker 2: and can adjust the motor speed automatically if anything goes
Speaker 2: goes off, and furthermore, can adjust the amperage to make
Speaker 2: sure that the motor doesn't overheat while it's doing that,
Speaker 2: so you get a more consistent product and your parts
Speaker 2: don't wear out as fast. And because you know exactly
Speaker 2: how and how often things muck up, you know to
Speaker 2: replace parts before you have a failure. The team working
Speaker 2: on this wound up designing like a retrofiting kit that
Speaker 2: shops could install quickly and easily shout out to Food
Speaker 2: Engineering Magazine, which I'm always glad to see come up
Speaker 2: in my search results because they always have something really
Speaker 2: nerdy and cool to report on. Like, like, all of
Speaker 2: this is just so Like, if any of y'all we're
Speaker 2: doing any kind of tech reading in like the early
Speaker 2: twenty teens, then you are probably as tired as I
Speaker 2: am of the phrase Internet of things. But this, this
Speaker 2: is what it's meant to be right here. Not oh
Speaker 2: I can text my fridge. This is the Internet of things.
Speaker 1: That is cool. What do you have against your fridge, Laurene?
Speaker 2: Wow, Look, my fridge is dumb as a bag of rocks,
Speaker 2: And I love that.
Speaker 1: We're learning a lot about you.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: When the COVID vaccine became generally available to the public,
Speaker 1: the company Krispy Kreme offered things like free donuts for
Speaker 1: those that could show proof a vaccination.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, they do promoms like that for various things,
Speaker 2: like a tax day in the USA. So if yeah,
Speaker 2: it's which is which is cool? I'm like, yeah, you
Speaker 2: can reward people for doing good stuff. Also, in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty one, they went public again. You can now find
Speaker 2: them on the Nasdaq under the ticker d nut, which
Speaker 2: I think is cute.
Speaker 1: I wonder what duncans is.
Speaker 2: Oh, I haven't looked it up. It's probably it's probably
Speaker 2: dkn I would assume anyway. Possibly relatedly to going public again,
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty one, they also launched a new responsibility
Speaker 2: directive called b Suite. It includes initiatives to curb environmental harm,
Speaker 2: reduce waste, promote animal welfare like us switching to cage
Speaker 2: free eggs, and encourage DEI and other labor considerations, which
Speaker 2: are good things. Yeah, yeah, love them. Okay, Now onto
Speaker 2: our extremely Atlanta note. I couldn't let us go without
Speaker 2: putting in here that right. We have had this this
Speaker 2: one location in this busy part of town since the
Speaker 2: nineteen sixties and it's very popular. It is the one
Speaker 2: that both Annie and I have had near death experiences
Speaker 2: trying to get to. And in twenty sixteen, Shaquille O'Neill
Speaker 2: bought the location, or I mean, you know, franchised it,
Speaker 2: and then it got set on fire twice in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty one, leading to its demolition, but then was rebuilt
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty three. They never caught the arsonist that
Speaker 2: is also Atlanta.
Speaker 1: Yes, it really is.
Speaker 2: Oh, I love it. I love it. But anyway, Yeah,
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty four, some McDonald's locations began selling individual
Speaker 2: Krispy Creme donuts, and the company is actually planning like
Speaker 2: a factory store expansion in several cities in order to
Speaker 2: get donuts into more McDonald's locations. Huh okay, uh huh yeah.
Speaker 2: As part of that. So okay, remember how I said
Speaker 2: that you can currently purchase a Krispy Kreme at over
Speaker 2: seventeen thousand locations. They're looking to get that number up
Speaker 2: to seventy five thousand locations and become as Restaurant Business
Speaker 2: Magazine termed it, quote an omni channel treat provider.
Speaker 1: Oh no, I'm scared.
Speaker 2: For Omney channel treat provider.
Speaker 1: I'm on edge, feel threatened.
Speaker 2: Yeah. For the second time this episod. So the first
Speaker 2: one was the original glazed flavored coffee.
Speaker 1: I know, Krispy Creme, they're up to stuff. They are
Speaker 1: up to stuff. Well, that was kind of the point
Speaker 1: of that article I mentioned about the competition between Duncan
Speaker 1: Donuts and Krispy Kreme. Duncan excuse me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and oh my goodness, like Duncan is going
Speaker 2: to be a really interesting episode as well. And I
Speaker 2: feel like the fight between those two companies could be
Speaker 2: a third separate episode.
Speaker 1: I think it could be too. I think it could
Speaker 1: be too. But yeah, basically, it was sort of like,
Speaker 1: you know, Krispy Kreme is really trafficking in this nostalgia aspects,
Speaker 1: but outside of the South, people might not necessarily have that.
Speaker 1: And even South, sure, we just don't. We're on the
Speaker 1: run all the time. We don't. Really. I have friends
Speaker 1: clearly who love it and get it. I don't think
Speaker 1: it's not I don't. I don't think it's doing poorly
Speaker 1: at all. But there is a space where they are lacking.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean they just don't do things
Speaker 2: like breakfast sandwiches that Duncan does, and so it's kind
Speaker 2: of an entirely different business model.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think I read somewhere that they don't
Speaker 1: they do like special flavors, but a lot of them
Speaker 1: don't like work out. Oh yeah, they're like good at
Speaker 1: what they do, but what they do is kind of
Speaker 1: outside of that. But I mean people people love it.
Speaker 1: People do love it, and they're big fans.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, oh yeah, And no shade on duncan either.
Speaker 2: I mean no, yeah, both of us have in defense.
Speaker 1: Backing away from we would never dare never never.
Speaker 2: Would not mess with Ben Affleck on my best day.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, no, no, no no, it's just interesting.
Speaker 1: I thought it was an interesting I guess I haven't
Speaker 1: really thought about Krispy Kreme like that in a while.
Speaker 1: But they are good. They're original, glazed, so good, m
Speaker 1: m mmmmmm, so light. I do like the crackle that
Speaker 1: you mentioned, like, yeah, well, listeners, if you have any
Speaker 1: opinions or thoughts about donuts k please let us know.
Speaker 1: But I think that's what we have to say about
Speaker 1: Krispy Kreme for now.
Speaker 2: I think it is. We do already have some listener
Speaker 2: mail for you, though, and we are going to get
Speaker 2: into that as soon as we get back from one
Speaker 2: more quick break for a word from our sponsors.
Speaker 1: And we're back. Thank you, sponsors, Yes, thank you, And
Speaker 1: we're back with right off the belt, into my mouth,
Speaker 1: into your face. Yeah, it is fun. It is fun.
Speaker 1: It's cool, it is it is indeed all right, Uh,
Speaker 1: Mary wrote hello because we all need giggles right now.
Speaker 1: I played my listener mail when I talked about Hatch
Speaker 1: Green Chili and Annie admitted she is now an addict.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry and you're welcome. We were in the car
Speaker 1: and my husband pipes up with I wonder if the
Speaker 1: P n M cookbook is still out there. I told
Speaker 1: him this was a great idea. I suggested he tell
Speaker 1: you who it was, and I got the look of
Speaker 1: nope from him. I then suggested he tell you that
Speaker 1: his mom tortilla recipe is in there. That didn't get
Speaker 1: a look, but it didn't make it in there either.
Speaker 1: My final suggestion was to put at the end the
Speaker 1: one who rolls his eyes and groans when my wife
Speaker 1: and Annie crack up laughing at puns. That got a
Speaker 1: verbal no. Fast forward to his listener mail being read.
Speaker 1: I was in the car by myself when I heard it.
Speaker 1: I screamed with joy and.
Speaker 2: Stopped the podcast.
Speaker 1: He received a text message filled with more exclamation marks
Speaker 1: than I have you since high school. I was so
Speaker 1: excited for him. His response cool, he doesn't understand how
Speaker 1: amazing it is to have it read on the show.
Speaker 1: Maybe one day. I'm still hoping for a live show
Speaker 1: one day. Our daughter is now old enough to appreciate
Speaker 1: a will placed curse word, so she would be able
Speaker 1: to come to or maybe do a tour. We are
Speaker 1: coming to Atlanta in June. We are hoping to hit
Speaker 1: the aquarium, World of Coke, Natural History Museum, Shakespeare Theater,
Speaker 1: and a ghost tour too. Any suggestions would be appreciated,
Speaker 1: and the more random or local the better.
Speaker 2: Oh oh, we have suggestions for you.
Speaker 1: We do, we do. I've already sent along my map,
Speaker 1: but I I think I could. I think I could
Speaker 1: add some more random if you really want, like the
Speaker 1: random local stuff. I think Lauren and I could oh
Speaker 1: yeah together something yeah, I mean, and it depends on
Speaker 1: what y'all are into. I mean, I mean, aquarium is
Speaker 1: absolutely worth it. The fern Bank Natural History Museum is great,
Speaker 1: Shakespeare Tavern is terrific. I don't think I've been on
Speaker 1: any ghost tours here, but we do have some excellent cemeteries.
Speaker 1: And it's very on brand of me to say that,
Speaker 1: I know, but we really do. Oakland Cemetery is like
Speaker 1: kind of right in the middle of the city and
Speaker 1: it's got you know, like Confederate sections and Jewish sections
Speaker 1: and it's fascinating, really fascinating place to go. You can
Speaker 1: go to the Krispy Cream on ponstantly on. Yes, it
Speaker 1: is really cool. It's great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you've never seen donuts being made at a
Speaker 2: Krispye cream it's terrific. And yes, I said ponstantly on
Speaker 2: and yes, that's how we pronounce it. I understand, yes,
Speaker 2: but that's not how you say that name.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: But if you said it the correct way, you would
Speaker 2: be looked at like you had a double like like
Speaker 2: you had a second head here.
Speaker 1: So it's what it is.
Speaker 2: I'll see, I'll I'll brainstorm a little bit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, and just write in let us know
Speaker 1: if there's anything specific, uh that you're into. We've got
Speaker 1: We've got a bunch, we've got a bunch of ideas.
Speaker 1: I did get to apologies to everybody. I answered listener
Speaker 1: mail for the first time yesterday as we record this
Speaker 1: since January oh wow.
Speaker 2: Oh but yeah, it's been a rough couple of months.
Speaker 1: It's been a it's yep, but I yes, but I
Speaker 1: got to see this kind of unfold with Mary and
Speaker 1: your husband because we did read his listener mail, and
Speaker 1: I didn't realize that the connection related, yeah, until this
Speaker 1: came through. But it was really really fun and so
Speaker 1: I hope I hope that uh, this continues to be
Speaker 1: a fun time for him and not a terrible time.
Speaker 1: But the live show, I mean maybe one day.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a food tour, yeah, one of these things. I
Speaker 2: don't know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, one of these things we.
Speaker 2: Should We should reach out to the iHeart marketing department
Speaker 2: and see and see what they want to put us through. Yes, no, we.
Speaker 1: Would love it.
Speaker 2: We would love to hang out. We would okay, Uh,
Speaker 2: John wrote, I have been following you since episode two. Actually,
Speaker 2: I sleep with you guys every night. I tune into
Speaker 2: old episodes and let them lull me to sleep. I
Speaker 2: usually can't get through more than one. It keeps my
Speaker 2: mind off of whatever would keep me awake. Anyway, I
Speaker 2: wanted to comment on the stable non dairy creamer episode
Speaker 2: from last fall. You guys say so.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Sometimes with cream, I feel like you're lucky to get
Speaker 2: a week. I get home and it's already off well.
Speaker 2: In my experience, heavy whipping cream has a long shelf life.
Speaker 2: Attached as a photo of a container I bought today
Speaker 2: with a date of May twelfth, twenty twenty five, which
Speaker 2: is six weeks in the future. My experience with this
Speaker 2: particular brand is that it lasts well beyond the best
Speaker 2: BUYE or whatever date on the package, and yeah, photo
Speaker 2: is attached. There's photo evidence there is.
Speaker 1: I have been researching this.
Speaker 2: Lately, yeah, like yeah.
Speaker 1: Kind of, yeah. I just have a couple of things
Speaker 1: that I'm like, really, this is bad already because it
Speaker 1: feels like it shouldn't be and it's like prepackaged in
Speaker 1: such a way. But I also don't want to risk it,
Speaker 1: so I have been looking into I have been looking
Speaker 1: into some things, but this the date is clear, the
Speaker 1: data is clear on the package, and the brand for
Speaker 1: the record is HB SO, which I don't think.
Speaker 2: We have in our area. But I'm not sure if
Speaker 2: they're connected to another grosser brand that I'm not sure.
Speaker 2: I would have to look at that, and there's no
Speaker 2: way for me to check right now. I mean, okay,
Speaker 2: So the thing about dairy is that, like, it's probably
Speaker 2: not gonna hurt you. If you drink it past its
Speaker 2: due date, it might not taste and feel right, yeah,
Speaker 2: And if you are looking strongly to avoid that experience,
Speaker 2: then by all means, use all caution rights.
Speaker 1: And that's the thing that's where I was trying to
Speaker 1: get some sort of clarity, Uh, in my specific issue.
Speaker 2: I wonder, I wonder if we could get you like
Speaker 2: like little like acid test strips, and if you could
Speaker 2: if you could like find data on like at what
Speaker 2: acidity milk or cream is off? Yeah, I bet, I
Speaker 2: bet you could. I mean those test strips can be expensive,
Speaker 2: or at least the ones for aquarium testing were, but
Speaker 2: they test a lot more than acid levels.
Speaker 3: So.
Speaker 1: That could be interesting. I could run my own experiment. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: future future as will look into it. I will say,
Speaker 1: I do always get a laugh out of when people
Speaker 1: write in and say we help them sleep. I'm glad.
Speaker 2: Uh oh oh yeah, oh no. I totally always have
Speaker 2: something that I go through, some media that I am
Speaker 2: consuming when I'm falling asleep, because otherwise I'm alone with
Speaker 2: my thoughts and that's the worst. As murder Bot would say,
Speaker 2: my head is where most of my problems are. That
Speaker 2: I don't want that. So yeah, like right, it's lately
Speaker 2: it's been old episodes of Supernatural. But yo, absolutely understand
Speaker 2: if we are soothing, that's like the best news I've
Speaker 2: heard in my life.
Speaker 1: Yeah. No, no offense is taken. In fact, I'm happy
Speaker 1: to hear it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, if you had phrased it as you guys
Speaker 2: make me fall asleep. That would be weirder.
Speaker 1: And I'd feel a certain way, but I might get
Speaker 1: on board with that.
Speaker 2: Took actually either way, I mean yeah, if it's still soothing,
Speaker 2: that's great and you're still listening. Uh huh, there you go,
Speaker 2: there you go.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you to both of these listeners for writing in.
Speaker 1: If you would like to write to us, you can
Speaker 1: our emails hello at saborpod dot com.
Speaker 2: We're also in social media. You can find us on
Speaker 2: Instagram and blue Sky at saber Pod. I know I
Speaker 2: haven't posted in like ever, but again, it's been a
Speaker 2: weird couple of months and our years and or lifetimes,
Speaker 2: but we would love to hear from you. Savor is
Speaker 2: production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,
Speaker 2: you can visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 2: you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks us always to
Speaker 2: our super producers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to
Speaker 2: you for listening, and we hope that lots more good
Speaker 2: things are coming your way.