We Fixed It, You're Welcome - Fixing Krispy Kreme's Meltdown

Episode Date: July 22, 2025

In this episode of "We Fixed It. You're Welcome," hosts Aaron Wolpoff and Melissa Eaton, joined by guest Qadira Oliver, tackle Krispy Kreme's recent challenges. They explore the donut giant's failed McDonald's partnership, declining stock, and brand identity crisis. The team dissects Krispy Kreme's expansion strategy, discussing the mismatch between its "Hot Now" experience and McDonald's fast-food model. They propose solutions focusing on local community engagement, leveraging franchise owners' knowledge, and embracing technology for data-driven growth. The conversation highlights the importance of stakeholder communication and maintaining brand authenticity while adapting to modern consumer needs. The episode concludes with innovative ideas like mini donut kiosks and campus locations to revitalize Krispy Kreme's presence and appeal. https://wefixeditpod.com/ A quick disclaimer. We are going into this somewhat cold and nothing we say should be construed as legal advice, financial advice or anything that would get us in trouble. These are our views and opinions. We're here to ask the kinds of questions everyone's thinking. Have an engaging conversation and maybe come to some conclusions that we feel are worth exploring. By the end, if we fixed it, you're welcome. All trademarks, IP and brand elements discussed are property of their respective owners. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Forever. I just love my job. Get tickets now. The Devil Wears Prada 2 in theaters May 1st, directed by David Frankel. You're welcome. The show where we're welcome. We take over companies. You come along for the ride. We try to put them back better than we found them. All right. Crispy Cream. Their big partnership with McDonald's fell apart. Their stock price has seen

better days. There's been a crisis in confidence with the leadership. Things are not too sweet right now. We're going to get to all that. And to do that, we're going to need some help. And we're down one fixer. Our fearless fixer Chino will be taking a much deserved break for a while. What are we going to do? Well, fear not. I'd like to welcome Kadira Oliver. to our show. Kadira's background is in people, culture, corporate responsibility, community, engagement, and a whole lot of things she can tell you better than I can. Kadira, say hello and tell everyone a little bit about yourself. Hello, everyone. Thank you. Thanks for having me. It is great to be here. Yeah, I've led social impact, ESG, corporate social responsibility initiatives across

industries like tech, healthcare, retail, insurance. So pretty industry agnostic, but what I'm really passionate about is working with companies who see CSR. in this work is not performative or a defense play, but I really focused on creating real impact that reflects their values. So I also enjoy speaking on panels and podcasts just like this about all things impact and how companies can lead with clarity and intention. And then lastly, I enjoy coaching other CSR professionals on how to build strategic influence inside their organizations because this work is not always easy to get buy in. So any leaders out or companies out there wishing to talk further, you can find me on LinkedIn. Thanks, Keneer. We're so happy to have you on with us.

And do you like donuts? I love donuts. I'm very hungry thinking about this topic. So it's going to be when you did this to us, Aaron. It's going to be a problem the whole way through. How you doing, Melissa? I'm hungry too. Well, let's do that. Tell it, Melissa, when did you first become aware about Krispy Cream and what they're all about? I was the president of our summer swim team in San Antonio, Texas. One of the things that needed to happen was snack table and crispy cream donuts were a huge hit for both the parents and the swimmers. So I've always loved a huge, hot, crispy cream blazed donut. The chocolate ones are pretty good too, but I'm an original, an OG kind of person. And I actually had an opportunity when I first graduated from college, a girlfriend in mine, we were living in

in San Francisco and she said, would you be interested in opening a donut shop? Oh. And in San Francisco? No. Like, I didn't go to college to open a donut shop. And she was from the East Coast. And she was like, there are these donuts called Krispy Creek. And we should franchise them in San Francisco because I'm telling you people would love them.

And I remember her asking me that we had no money. I don't know where she thought this was coming, but I guess it was coming from going home and having so many. And now looking back on that, if we could have had the first Krispy Kreme in San Francisco, that would have been amazing. And I should have, you know, really kind of turn that love into some sort of business. I probably wouldn't be on this podcast. You'd be the donut queen of San Francisco. That's right.

I'd be from Krispy Kreme looking at you going, what do you mean having, you know, a partnership with McDonald's is a mistake. Yeah. Oh, what about you, Kedera? Any early Krispy Kreme impressions when you first heard about their? their expansion or back in the day? Absolutely. So I'm originally from Wisconsin, and it was the early 2000s when they opened their first store, right outside of where I was living at the time.

And I can remember driving by the store the first few months, you couldn't get on the street. Cars were lined up, even into the early evening hours. People were waiting in line. I mean, it was madness. And what I remember is people walking away with boxes and boxes. and boxes of donuts of these hot, just tasty, ooey-gooey donuts. But the other thing was you had people watching, right, the spectacle of the donuts coming hot off the line.

So it was just such a really cool moment. I remember again for the town, there was tons of media and PR about it. People could not wait to get a taste of crispy cream in their local community. So definitely excited to be talking about this topic. Very cool. Yeah, I remember the early buzz. People did all the,

PR for them. I'm sure they had orchestrated campaigns, but anyone from Chicagoland or wherever they, you know, they had already been in abundance where we're talking them up and saying, oh, you've got to get the plain ones, you know, or whatever, the original. I don't, I like fancy donuts. I don't like the, they're like, now this is all about the original donut. And I mean, they're right. There's something to them, right. Yeah, that's right. I mean, look, I'm with Melissa. I've tasted, you know, the chocolate and this, you know, the other flavors and with the other frosting and things like that. But I tried and true. I also am just giving me a straight glaze and I'm good. Melt in your mouth. Yeah. Yeah. It kind of reminds me your stories, both of you,

like how when in and outs are now, you know, kind of moving away from California, right? And so they're opening them and like here in in Colorado in. The line, you know, the ride through line is just ridiculous, right? You know, it's like, what an hour? You know, like who, you know. But I think that That's kind of the the, the, the, the, you see the sign and it says hot donuts and you see the cookie cream, I mean logo and the big neon sign. And you're like, yes. And I, yeah, yeah, it's hard to resist to drive by it when it's blinking. Yeah.

That's right. We're wired that way. We just see a line and we just get it. I don't know what this is, but it's going to be good. Well, don't want to miss out on a good donut. That's right. Yeah. Well, let's get into the always relax.

Never Wrong Web Research. So Krispy Cream, we know them, we love them, the irresistibly melty donuts that are just way too easy to eat. Crispy Cream isn't just a donut brand, though. We can call it American nostalgia in a box because it started all the way back in 1937. Vernon Rudolph bought a secret recipe, set up a shop in Winston-Salem, and started selling to local grocers. But when the smell of fresh donuts had people literally knocking on the door, he cut a hole in the wall and sold them hot off the line. And the walk-up window became the start of something special. It's still around today. where you can go in and see the donuts being made.

So it's part bakery, part spectacle, and part real-time experience if you're at one of the stores themselves. We jump way ahead to the early 2000s. Krispy Kreme was everywhere. They went public in the year 2000. They opened a Times Square flagship store, rolled out that iconic hot now sign, and hit $50 a share by 2003, which was a high back then. But then, too much expansion, not enough infrastructure. And in 2004, they were also hit by an accounting scandal that led to SEC. trouble and a stock crash. By 2016, they were taken private by Jab Holdings. They cleaned up

their operations and started rebuilding and even reopened that Times Square store in 2020. Interesting timing on that. They re-entered the public markets in 2021 under the ticker donut DNUT, which let's be honest is perfect. And they kicked off an aggressive growth strategy over 17,000 points of access, including a major partnership established in 2023 with McDonald's. That deal was supposed to be the big win, the icing on the cake, if you will, donuts at thousands of McDonald's locations nationwide. But by mid-20205, that's over. The logistics did not work. The economics didn't work. The quality. It fell short. And now Krispy Cream is left with falling sales, a suspended dividend to shareholders, a CFO swapout, and a brand identity crisis. So before we try to fix anything,

which we'll get to, Melissa, what's happening with Krispy Cream? Well, I think it's very clear. I mean, what we've all talked about of what we recognize in Krispy Kreme is that magic in the hot now, right, and the open theater kind of kitchen, Kadira, you mentioned that, you know, viewing the fresh warm donuts coming out of the open kitchen. And this is a mismatch brand experience with McDonald's. So I think that's one of the things strategically. It wasn't really aligned. I mean, I understand the idea around growth, but McDonald's is about speed and consistency. not artisanal baking, you know, and that's kind of where Krispy Kreme is kind of the leader there, right? So those challenges, like you mentioned, Aaron, that were logistics, you know, and operationally, you know, a just in time supply chain, that's not going to happen when Krispy Kreme relies on these daily fresh deliveries.

and, you know, there are actually over 13,000 locations for McDonald's, and Krispy Cream only has 1,300. So that's a huge issue right there. And scaling that without compromising quality is really near impossible. So there's this idea of like, what is the expectation of the customer? I'm used to going to Krispy Cream and expecting, like, that hot out of the oven. and that experience I wasn't getting at McDonald's. Now, when I go to McDonald's, though, you know, for breakfast, I'm expecting something else.

And so maybe because of that, they could have tried to, you know, institute a new product that was a little different, that was maybe less fresh. But they didn't do that. You know, they didn't rebrand it and try to, you know, try to direct traffic back to Krispy Cream. Like if you want the hot ones, you know, the OGs, here are the Krispy Cream locations. near you, right? Right. Otherwise, this is just a taste of what you can get, and it's going to be so much better at Krispy Kreme. But, you know, again, that's not what McDonald's won't either. So I think that really that was probably the largest challenge for them, and that misalignment

kind of led to the downfall because I think that that kind of waterfalled and cascaded through the entire operations and the technology and the supply chain, et cetera, et So to me, that's where the, you know, why it failed. And we can talk about some of the other partnerships that people have had, including Duncan, that have actually succeeded in certain things. But there's had to be a change of strategy to their ultimate product. Do you think the motivations were good? Like they were trying to bring that fresh, hot, crispy cream experience to areas,

the neighborhoods or, you know, communities that didn't have a crispy cream location or just widen the foot. brand? And was it, you know, was, were they aiming for the right things? Absolutely. Well, look, I think again, the intentions were there, right? And I think in general, you know, you know, Melissa, to your point, expansion is great. These partnerships are great, especially when you're trying to turn a company around or expand your brand. But, you know, one of the things, I think Melissa made a really good point of like, when I walk into a McDonald's, I'm not thinking about a donut. I'm thinking about, you know, an egg McMuffin for breakfast or even an apple pie, right? Apple pie. If I want something. something sweet. And so the donut is not top of mind. Again, great intentions, but that mismatch that

Melissa spoke of, I think, is absolutely there. The other thing I thought about is, you know, exactly to your point with, you know, the number of stores, right? Just in comparison, how are they competing or they're creating some competition with their franchise locations, right? And so if I'm in McDonald's, maybe there's a crispy cream up the road, which one am I going to go to? And so I'm just thinking about like how did they communicate that and did they do it really well with their franchise owners as well as the McDonald's frontline workers? A lot of things I think, again, good intentions, but probably just wasn't hashed out as well as it could have been. Yeah, Kadir, I think you make a great point. If McDonald's didn't have, you know, a dessert option or a breakfast option that was,

I guess, beat into consumers' heads. Like, McDonald's has always had these things. Then you naturally look for a partner and say, we're missing out, you know, we're leaving something on the table. But But what did they solve for by bringing Krispy Kreme into the equation? That's exactly right. Yeah. Absolutely. And I think, Aaron, we've talked about how branding, marketing, viral marketing is really important these days. And McDonald's has done a good job with that, right?

They have the McRib. They have the sham rung. They have those kinds of things. So there is a place in this world where they could have said, for a very short time, we're having this partnership with Krispy creams. Come check them out and you'll get a coupon for a free donut at an actual Krispy Kreme shop or something. You know what I mean? Something like that.

You know, kind of promoting it with their coffee because, you know, McDonald's kind of went all in on their coffee as well. So they could have done something that like, you know, I always want a sausage McMuffin. Don't get me wrong. But like, like, you could say something like, hey, you know, for, you know, an extra dollar, you can get two donuts. with your sausage McMuffin and check it out. You know, something like that. Just to see, again, from a technology and data perspective, I think in today's world, the data will tell you,

like how many people are actually interested. Because I think that was an issue. I think what Krispy Kreme that from a business perspective saw was this mass ability to distribute across all these franchises for McDonald's. But they didn't really maybe look at, you know, testing it out and seeing what is to your point. Like what is the actual volume of people that are actually looking for donuts when you go in there? Because, you know, the sweet breakfast options they have, well, they have pancakes.

But like the sweet options are like that Danish wrapped in plastic. Like nobody. Right. You know what I mean? So I would think that they would, you know, it would be, they'd have to push it pretty hard. You know, maybe they needed to, you know, all. look at the data of where are the biggest hubs, you know, so where are the franchises for Krispy Kreme that are close by so that we could get fresh donuts, you know, without a lot of

expenditure, you know, in infrastructure. But I do think that was probably a big problem, there's a big problem for them. Yeah. Krispy Kreme wanted to get to 100,000 points of access, what they're calling. And they were going from 17,000 to 100,000. So how do you get there? You can't open franchises and retail locations on every corner, right? McDonald's, I think maybe it was an awareness play for them to say, we're going to, you know, we're here, we're growing. We're going to be everywhere you are. Why wouldn't we partner with McDonald's? Right.

I think, though, you know, when you think about it, maybe what one of the things, one of the fixes that they could do is thinking about doubling down on that hot now experience, right? So instead of going into a partnership with, for example, McDonald's, think about expanding those donut theater experiences, the stores, the ones that have a lot of traffic and volume in people coming in and out, you know, having kind of that viral marketing, limited edition flavors, experimental perks, like a create your own glazed donut bar or something. Kids would love that, right, with sprinkles, things like that. I don't know if they have a subscription model. but like I remember there were certain days that you could go and you would get a baker's dozen,

you know, you give the extra for free. But like a hot now club, right? Like you pay $10 a month and you get a free donut every day or something like that. And even like partnering with local coffee roasters and things like that. Think about like Dunkin' Donuts, McDonald's even. They're all kind of going all in on the coffee side of it because that's a huge component. and I'm sure they make a lot of money on that. Yeah.

So what about partnering with like a local coffee roaster in the neighborhood or the city that's well known, right? And, you know, kind of creating that, you know, even though it's this huge franchise and a big company, but kind of creating that small business feel, which I think a lot of customers in today's world, especially after COVID, have really kind of. gone back to the mom and pop places and wanting to participate in that. And you know what I mean? And so again, I think there are some other options for them outside of expanding through the national chain. I mean, obviously a feel of McDonald's, which I don't think really aligned with kind of what we want from Krispy Kreme. Yeah. And I love that. I mean, I think this is a real opportunity, you know, speaking about just going local and really doubling down. down on that to listen to their frontline workers and their franchise owner operators, right?

They know those communities best. And so hopefully, you know, I imagine that they do have some sort of franchise advisory board or however they're collecting kind of this, you know, information from the ground up, but keeping it this continuous feedback loop. What is working? What's not working? Melissa, to your point, who are those local coffee shops or other businesses that we should be partnering with? Because that's where you're building your loyalty and your brand is with those customers on the ground. So I love that. Let's get them going more local.

And I think that's a really good start to turning this around. Yeah. And I wonder, Aaron, like from a marketing perspective, if they could do something like that. I know crumble cookies, for example, did that with the rotating flavors and Instagramable stores and things like that that that helped to lead to like 2,000 percent growth for them. So, you know, you know, over the course of three years. but like what do you think Krispy Kreme could do to kind of refresh? I don't even know.

Refresh the brand. I don't know what they could do to kind of get out of this kind of middle space that I think they went in and kind of died at. Well, it's interesting because they're, Melissa, because they're a little stuck. Like it's crispy cream, especially if you go to the store and you watch the donuts on the line. It's a nostalgia play, right? You get the paper hat sometimes. And then if you feel like you're at a corner counter type of thing, McDonald's is that too for some you know a lot of consumers they've grown up with it or it's

you know it's as old as it is and people have you know it's in their DNA the two didn't exactly merge because McDonald's tries I guess harder to stay topical and reinvent and and relevant to the moment I don't know that Krispy Cream is doing that but you see a lot of brands that are even nostalgia brands that are bringing on like you know celebrities that maybe just are naturally drawn to them or obviously, you know, but there's a, an economic model to it, but you've got your, you got Sydney Sweeney with a Baskin-Robbins flavor. You have T-Pain, Jack-in-the-box meals. You have Salina Gomez orio. So, yeah, we, we know that these limited time, you know, get them while they're here type of offers, boost sales. It's just a matter of, you know, can Krispy Kreme rely on

that as a strategy and go all in on, on that? Or is there a lot more rethinking to do at this point? Yeah. I mean, I think that they. they also need to figure out how, like I said, to use the data and technology to kind of modernize and transform their operations. Because like I said, I think what we're finding today is that people want things from a convenience perspective. Like I was kind of yelling at my daughter the other day because she was like, oh, I'm going to go home and get Chipotle. And I was like, it's literally you could probably see that from your house. So I hope you're going to walk over and get it.

And she's like, because I heard her say DoorDash. And I was just like, I'm going to kill you, right? You know what I mean? But like people are of that mindset. So like I think that like, you know, that is the problem that Krispy Cream has is they don't have as many stores and access to them. And so like if they're going to do something where they're going to put their donuts in grocery stores or convenient stores or.

other than a hub, let's say a franchise hub. They've got to come up with new ways in which to either market that or set that expectation for people. So like if I go into my grocery store and there's a box of crispy creams, I know it's probably, you know, do they have a little sticker on there that says what time it was baked at so that I know that, okay, at least it was today, right? You know, it's not hot and fresh, but it's close, right? Do they use, start using like, you know, you've seen these in airports and other places like those smart vending machines that have like food in them that have like cake, cake boss has one, you know, crumbled cookies has vending machines, you know, and so is there some way to like keep those donuts warm in there?

Do you use like ghost kitchens? So you kind of have places where you supply the fresh donuts so that Uber, DoorDash, and those people can grab them, and it's not necessarily from a franchise, right? It's from a kitchen. Or do you do something that, like, Domino's did with frozen dough, fresh finish? That's what they could have done at McDonald's, right? Where they part the donuts or, I don't know, they're fried. Locally, like Domino's pizza did with a crust for some of their,

for some of their things, pizzas, and finish it. in the actual place. So finish it in the grocery store or finish it wherever. That might work too. But again, there's some technology involved in that and there's some investment. And I guess the question is, you know, when you're going through this strategy that the business strategy they are going through, they're going through looking for growth. And this is a very small margin business. So I mean, I'm assuming that the investment in infrastructure is like shouldered then also partially. on the franchise owners, which I'm not going to want. Well, I hate to say it, but going back to that partnership, I think it would have worked

if it was Dunkin' Donuts. And I think that because it's, I think the experience is part of the Krispy Cream ethos, right? It's baked into their, well, baked, baked into their brand. But if you, I think, you know, I don't know that McDonald's would have wanted to boost their competitor, but I think at least, at least for a while, there would have been some market interest in in-store Dunkin Donuts experience in a McDonald's just because the brand promise is different from what a Krispy Cream is right and it's you know you're not expecting that fresh hot melting donut right you're kind of a pre-made donut right

yeah yeah just like the small donut holes and things like that that Duncan is very well known for yeah those are some of those kinds of think like grab-and-go bags of the Dunk and Donut bites or whatever they're called yeah yeah They're two strong brands. They seem more aligned in some abstract way. I think that that would have done a lot better. And I don't know if the Krispy Cream one was doomed from the start. There were enough people that signed off on it to, you know, let it go as far as it had.

Yep. But I wouldn't shoot it down. If they said we're coming about, we're doing this again with Duncan. Again, I don't know that they want to build up their competitor. Right. Because once it's over, Duncan's got, you know, all that mileage from, from the, the partnership, but they'd sell a lot of donuts that way, I think. Yeah.

What do you think the franchise owners, Kadira, really what their feeling was when something with a partnership happened with Krispy Kreme and McDonald's? Don't you feel like they felt a little betrayed there? Well, you know, I don't know if it's betrayed. I think it comes down to, possibly, right? But I think it does come down to, you know, how well corporate office communicated what was about to happen. And again, how do you ensure, right?

The selling, the expansion and the business growing and all those things thumbs up. But again, how do you ensure that the McDonald's up the street, you know, in addition to the grocery stores that we're at as well, aren't going to compete with the business in my store? And so I think how well they were able to communicate that plan, which I don't know if they were very effective at, is going to be the first thing. because if you don't have that, you don't have the buy-in, folks now aren't really interested. You've got, you know, half my heart's in it. But I still got these royalty fees. I've got all these other investments that I've got to make. So I've got bills I've got to pay.

Where's my ROI for being a part of this? And so I think, you know, there was probably just, again, that initial excitement, but then a lot of questions and pushback on how this was all going to work. So, you know, and then, again, I also think about those front line workers because they're the face. When that customer walks in, you know, how confident are they at, you know, selling the product, feeling good about the product? So I think there was just a lot of questions and some confusion that likely came up when this partnership really came to fruition. Well, Kadear, is it fair in a partnership like this to put that burden on a McDonald's employee? Like you're saying to sell Krispy Kreme all of a sudden? Like, was that a sustainable model?

Exactly. I don't think so. I mean, again, if I'm working at my, you know, my local McDonald's, what am I thinking about? Do you want fries with that? Can I push maybe, you know, we're also, we've got a promo going on on apple pies. I've been there when they've kind of like had a two for one, you know, or whatever that you might be pushing during breakfast time. And so that's what's front of mine. And again, without a very strong, you know, operations and communication plan to push this down to those frontline workers,

whether it's at your local crispy cream location or in the McDonald's where this extra work is having to happen. it's tough. Again, you've got to have those folks completely bought in, completely trained on what they need to do to push this new product that's really not at the heart of what McDonald's does. Yeah. True. And I think that like, you know, I know this is your specialty. It's something that I really focus on in operations as well and customer experience is change management. Yeah. And the communication. And what you've said is spot on. It's like you can't expect that there's going to be. consistent unless it's all put together in a place. It's consistently you're holding all of the McDonald franchises to this and say, hey, this is the goal. We want you to try to sell, you know, two dozen donuts a day. You know, I'm just making that up. That's, that's hardly anything. But, you know, like whatever the goals are and have some incentives for the employees, right? You know,

maybe they wear like the little crispy cream hats for, you know, the morning shift or whatever. You know what I mean? and so I don't think that because of the way their partnerships work, that it was probably something that that franchise owner for the McDonald's really felt like that strongly about because I don't know that you're making that much money up with a domit, right? You know what I mean? Yeah. And so what it, you know, what's in it for me, right? And then the way it's communicated is a challenge here.

And I think that that could be said about a lot of the. different topics that we've had on this podcast is that the change management, the communication, the that is an issue in terms of the actual execution of these business strategies where the idea isn't wrong, right? It's a way to get mass growth, right? But it's the actual delivery and actual, you know, did they do enough discovery to figure out is this really what people would want? Like I mean, really, like is that really what they would want. And to your point, I, you know, I don't want to

praise all these other places, but like I feel like a lot of companies like Duncan, like, you know, crumble cookies, like Starbucks have all had to kind of reinvent themselves as the tastes of the consumer have continued

to change, right? Yeah. So, you know, I think that because Duncan's brand, I mean, not Duncan's, Krispy Cream's brand is so tied into the hot now, which I love, got to say, I love it. But that doesn't make it very, it just doesn't make for a good business strategy in terms of expanding it to like convenience stores and places like that where that's what the expectation is as the customer, you know, and now I'm going in 7-Eleven and there's a box of Krispy Cremes online. Yeah. Yeah. So what's the,

what's the corporate responsibility now? Because now you have shareholders, you have franchisees, you have the general public, you know, saying what I'm guessing McDonald's is going to be fine out of all this, but what, you know, if you're, if you're corporate, what do you do for your, your constituents now? Absolutely. And look, I mean, stakeholders, it's all the way around. It's everyone, you know, Aaron, to your point from those investors to those frontline workers. They're also, you know, a stakeholder and oftentimes a shareholder in the company. And this is exactly why I say that a company's social impact and CSR strategies have to be core to the business instead of waiting to play defense when trouble arises. It's not for most companies. It's not if something's going to happen. It's when,

right? For most companies, right? And so I think not, you know, unlike the situation here, what I would say with any company that has, you know, kind of franchise operations kind of key to their business, they have to get local. This is a great opportunity for those franchise operators and owners to really have a stake in those local partnerships and local donations, local giving, volunteerism, and visibility. That is what's going to drive reputational halo. It's going to help to strengthen the brand. And we talked a little bit about, you know, what some of those partnerships, you know, might look like earlier, you know, whether it's the local coffee shops, whether it's, you know, the firehouse, whether it's teachers, you know, whether it's law enforcement or those

first responders. They know the community best. So we should be, you know, Krisby Cream should be talking to them and talking, you know, in this feedback loop, asking those franchise operators and frontline workers, what do they think that they should be doing in terms of giving back to the community? I always say it's completely fine to have this national, international, you know, corporate level CSR program. You absolutely should. You know, it helps those, the folks in the local communities kind of have their marching orders. But this is an opportunity if they want to rebuild that reputational halo, you know, definitely strengthen. with communities, strengthen with their stakeholders, get local, figure out how to invest in those

local communities, boost their local partnerships. This is absolutely doable. I love that idea around those kind of partnerships locally because I do think kind of investing in the community and having the community continue to build and be that voice for you is so important. And I love it. I mean, like, think about if the local fire station was like, this is the fuel for our firefighters and have crispy cream donuts every week. And then it's also a community thing. Like, you know, I remember when my son was really, really small, a toddler, he would go across the street to the fire station and eat their lunch off their place. So, you know, it would be a nice thing for, you know, Krispy Kreme to say, we'd be happy to host a monthly open house for you, you know, and the community and we'll, you know, and we can brand it and it could be fun things and like that. And I think that kind of engages them. Because like I said, like for me, like bringing the boxes, I was one of those people with six boxes to the swim meet. Like I was like the person. Everybody wanted one of those donuts, right? I was the mean.

mom too. I was always like telling our team like because the sugar high was really quick. And then I was like, you can only have after you've run, you've swam your race because you're going to get tired anyway. But I do think it's a great, great idea to do that because I do think that's the thing that it also makes you feel like you're investing in the franchise owners. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think, you know, Melissa, to your point, even with, you know, the stories that you just shared, you know, a lot of times when corporations are thinking about their social impact, we're doing good in the community, the piece that they fall short on, and I would just encourage Krispy Kreme, tell the story. Don't keep those stories and those good deeds to yourself, right? It is okay to do good in the community, but also to do well and be thinking about the business. So, you know, I know that they've got a social impact report, boost that up, you know, get out there on social media. What other ways can they be talking about the good that they are doing in the community? Again, it's all about boosting their reputation, boosting their reputation. This is a perfect way to check the box and do that. Yep. Getting our wrap up, but it gets me thinking as we're going into our fix,

if I'm remembering correctly, a lot of Hallmark stores when they were big had a personalization. So you'd go into Justine's Hallmark store or. That's right. And I wonder if these local franchises could be, you know, you go to Caroline's Krispy Cream, you know, and there's just a personal neighborhood touch to it. I wonder if that would do something to give it, give it a neighborhood distinctive feel so that when you're of course there's going to be brand standardization but when you go from one to the next you you you feel like you're in someone else's environment with a little bit of their their decor their personal taste I wonder if that would you know if that would help to bring in that that neighborhood you kind of kind of feel to it yeah I think it would help for like events like local events like you could have a book club night with donuts and coffee you know and I mean I think all of those kinds of things Aaron and there I think those are the kinds of things. I think those are the kinds of things that would make it feel like a special place that you would a destination that you would want to go to and then wouldn't sacrifice their brand of having those hot donuts right because you know i do think that's the thing that's going to keep them from being able to successfully

if they're going to you know stay on the hot now train to expand into other locations that are not franchises right yeah yeah well cadira if they had a decision matrix in place that, you know, put their values and standards and all those things together, would they have, would Krispy Kreme have entered into this partnership? Or do you think that they would have made a different call, regardless of how lucrative or how visible the opportunity was? Yeah, well, look, I am really big on listening to the people in and of the community first, and that includes their franchise owners and operators and frontline workers. And so, to your point, I absolutely wonder if they had pulled those folks in from the beginning,

and throughout the process, right, and not kind of taking this top-down decision, which happens a lot with large corporations. I wonder, to your point, if this would have happened, I don't think so. And or if it had gone through, I think that the way that they approached it would have been different and maybe a little bit more successful. So lesson learned, make sure that you're pulling those folks from the ground that are in and of the community in as soon as possible from the start and throughout the entire process. Yeah. Okay. So, okay, so we're going to fix Krispy Kreme by going more local back, back to community driven, making sure that we get buy-in at all levels when they take a big giant swing and make sure that it benefits those that are already bought in, meaning their consumers and following their purchase habits and where they want to experience. And their stockholders, obviously, there's responsibility there and their franchisees, right? You don't want to make their lives a lot harder. If we go back hyper-local and re-engage communities, Kadira, did we?

Do we fix Krispy Kreme? I think we can. Absolutely. Yeah, for sure. All right. What about you, Melissa? I think we can as well. I also want to lean into the tech side of it and data side of it.

I think that they need to do a lot more analysis of where their customers and clientele are so that they can grow those more franchises in those, you know, hubs of cities or wherever they might be so that they know that those are good investments for them for future growth. as well as I love, Kader, I love your ideas around how to engage the local community, the schools, the teachers, the, you know, the frontline response, you know, all first responders. I think that's a great way of getting out in the community and making sure that everybody knows that that's who owns those donors stores and that's how we're going to be successful. So I do think that's a great fix. Totally. Yeah, I love it. I'm going to throw one more in there if we're going to go into the operations side of things.

I've seen donut makers that make the mini donuts and they can be, they fit on a table. I don't think you need a warehouse size room necessarily to make donuts. Couldn't they do like a kiosk or a pop-up or something in a high traffic area where everyone who walks by, you can't pass by a crispy cream, you know, where you smell it. You can't pass by without buying, you know, keep it simple. Maybe do the originals only. Sell them until they sell out. But could they put those in high traffic?

high visibility areas, maybe share them with all the franchisees in the area so everyone gets a piece of it. But that gives you the community visibility and that halo effect that we're looking for. Could we do that operationally and run these little, you know, high visibility, social friendly kiosk where you just, you can't walk by without buying a donut. I love that. I wish they had those at airports. Yeah. Love that. And I mean, I think exactly, you know, Aaron, to your point, like what you're getting at, and really the entire conversation is like, They don't have to sacrifice this nostalgia, right? But I think they have to balance it.

They've got to challenge some of this legacy thinking. Who's in the room? Again, having these ideating and talking about all these pilots to challenge some of this legacy thinking to say, what are we solving for today? What does our customer look like today? And so when we talk about airports or kiosks and things like that, we can hold on to some of that nostalgia, but there need to be folks in the room that's also saying, but here's what we need to be thinking about today. Here's what that busy customer that still wants that hot, fresh donut looks like today. I think they should do them on college campuses. I love that.

Yeah. Right? Bring them to the people, right. Right. Yeah. Outside that eight o'clock's lecture hall. Yeah. Just maybe keep them out of McDonald's for a while.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think so. All right. Well, thanks, Melissa. Thank you, Kadeer. I hope we'll be hearing a lot more from you.

Tell everyone where they can find you. Absolutely. you can find me on LinkedIn. That's the best place. And again, looking forward to continuing to talk about all things impact. Fantastic. Well, that does it for this fresh and hot episode. If we fixed it, you're welcome. If you like what we're serving up, make sure to tell a dozen or so people about our show. Don't forget to subscribe and give us a like. And we'll be back next week with an all new one. See you next time. We hope you enjoyed this episode of We Fixed It. You're welcome. We go into every episode somewhat cold and nothing we say should be construed as legal advice

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