My Sweet Addiction

This opens with Haiku:

Drink every day; evening too.  Sweet spring never ending. That’s my Dunkin.

I love Dunkin Donuts.  Where I live we have six within four miles of home. However, I use the Broad Street Dunkin every day. Sometimes at the drive up, a voice asks, “Welcome! What can I get for you today?”  As usual, I say, “Yes, please, one medium coffee, cream and ….” Then the voice cuts me off and says, “and two Sweet & Low. Pull around please!”  At 4 am, my first coffee of the day, my buddy,  Meena, who’s originally from Egypt, is behind the counter. He doesn’t even let me get that far before he says “Pull around!” Sometimes he even gives me a free donut, and even though it may be a little stale, I always thank him profusely. I like going to a place where they know you and what you like. It reminds me of the Broad Street Diner a block away, where I have breakfast every morning around 6:30. As soon as I sit down, Julio, Dottie or Melanie will bring me my small orange juice and coffee without asking, then take my order. Cheers never had it so good, and it’s a lot cheaper than alcohol.

There are roughly 30 Dunkin outlets in the Mercer County area.  Three are in the Princeton area; and one at the Princeton Shopping Center on Harrison. That’s the closest one to center-city Princeton. However, there’s plenty of other coffee shops like Small World Coffee on Nassau. But that’s not Dunkin. There’s one on US 1 at the Carnegie Center also. This compares to four in Lawrenceville, and a whopping 15 practically within Trenton city limits. I don’t know about you, but they must be doing pretty well financially, ‘cause I’m always in line with other cars when I’m there, unless it’s the early morning hours. Three of these Dunkin's have Wi-Fi, and I can see that as a fast growing trend. Almost all open at 5 am unless they open 7/24. There’s no question I’d open a franchise, but the Dunkin website says I’d need $150,000 in liquid assets, and I just don’t have that laying around right now. Otherwise, I’d do it in a minute.

You can see I'm loyal. For the past two years, I've used my DD Perks Reward Card when buying stuff at Dunkin.  It’s easy to refill the card by logging on to Dunkin’s website, clicking Manage Cards, selecting the amount, and hitting Confirm. My credit card is charged automatically, and I’m good to go for another week or so for each $25 I put on. I’ve found that by using the DD card, I'm able to cut down on tips quite a bit.  However, I leave a dollar occasionally to compensate, which always gets another smile. After Janet started seeing the monthly Dunkin bills consistently, she asked me for her own Dunkin card, which was easy to get online.  She loves their Coffee Coolattas with low fat milk. Ugh! although I do like their regular Coolattas, especially with whip cream. The whipped cream is the best part for Janet.  Also, we can’t overspend our DD cards because they’re debit cards, which is a nice protection from my excesses. Plus, we always know our balance after each purchase, which is printed on the receipt.

Besides Dunkin coffee and other goodies, particularly their Everything bagels, I also love their receipts. And you should too! The receipt says “Go to www.telldunkin.com.”  You’d be doing yourself a favor if you did, especially if you like their donuts! An $.89 value, and tasty one at that, for free! (Before September 2012 - now you have to buy a coffee first.) Just take the online survey rating your recent experience there. It’s 21 simple questions. I’ve done this probably 50 times, and the donuts taste much better! It only takes two minutes per survey. For Frequency of Visits, I always answer seven times a week or more, but that doesn’t really matter. At the end of the survey you get a validation code. Just write it on the receipt, order your (coffee and) donut next time you go, hand in the receipt, and enjoy your favorite. I love Boston Crème, just like the Boston Crème pies I enjoyed as a kid. I’ve even handed out a dozen free donut receipts to my memoir classmates!

Finally, going to Dunkin has another advantage, especially at my age. Actually, any Senior,  55 or older, gets this benefit in addition to good taste and free donuts. All you have to do, at most Dunkin stores, is ask for the Senior Discount when you order. Immediately, 10% gets subtracted from your bill! I really like that benefit. For me, it offsets anything I may give in tips, plus some. For you, you may just find that you enjoy Dunkin that much more.

So what are you drinkin’? That expensive, bitter, Starbucks stuff? Dunkin is half that price. And I really enjoy their Donut Shop coffee taste. Fresh every day, Dunkin is my sweet addiction.