HK's Krispy Kreme Kraze

Krispy Kreme is a killer kompany. When I realized they were going to open downstairs from my office in Causeway Bay (just around the corner from Starbucks), I told myself and everyone else that I would not take a single bite of their doughnuts, least of all their original glazed doughnut, lest I slide down that slippery slope of sugar-addicted madness (there's 200 calories and 12g of fat in just one, little original glazed doughnut!). I was in the US when KK started their pre-opening launch activities, handing out half-dozen boxes filled with their version of happiness. BL, hailing from Sydney, had never even heard of KK and has never been known to have much of a sweet tooth. But it took only 1 original glazed doughnut to change all that. Now, he is an addict.


When I got back to Hong Kong, I had every intention of avoiding KK. But then, on BL's insistent prodding, I succombed. It started with just one bite from his doughnut. Before I knew it, I was sms-ing him the next day for an afternoon KK break. As soon as we walked in, we were each given a free original glazed doughnut, hot off the doughnut-making machine (which incidentally, is quite fun to watch). Then, Bono Wong, Director of Operations, started chatting with BL (they now each other) and before I could take in all the flavours in the display case, BL was being rung up for 2 dozen assortment of doughnuts and a couple of coffees to wash down our free doughnuts. As the old saying goes, there's no such thing as a free doughnut!

There's nothing new with Krispy Kreme. It's just a fluffy, round bit of fried, puffy dough with a very sugary coating. But there's no denying that KK's selling much more than that, just like Starbucks is not really selling coffee. MV, another American, has been treating her American expat friends to boxes of KK doughnuts and she says the reaction among recipients is the same -- they go krazily happy. A doughnut, like a cupcake from Magnolia, we concurred, is exactly that -- happy food. The simple pleasure of a hot, sugary doughnut with a hot cup of coffee evokes happy thoughts of a simple time circa 1950s, the Cleavers or the Brady Bunch or policemen on a coffee break. Somehow, the American Dream, the white picket fence, security, has come to be embodied in a Krispy Kreme doughnut.

But what about for all of Hong Kong's teenage girls in school uniforms, listening to the latest Canto-pop tunes off their iPod nano, who queue in line for their after-school doughnut while texting more friends to come join their happy gatherings? What is Krispy Kreme to them? Or the mother of two children, who stopped off at Krispy Kreme to pick up a doughnut for the next morning's breakfast before coming to dinner? Somehow, it's really simple -- Krispy Kreme has managed to bring a little joy to people's lives with just a simple, little doughnut. You just need to come down the Central escalator these next few days and witness the morning scene when Krispy Kreme employees pass out those free half-dozen boxes of doughnuts to understand what I'm talking about -- its happiness in a box -- everyone's face just lights up with a friendly smile.

Krispy Kreme = killer marketing. Next mid-Autumn festival...Krispy Kreme Moon-doughnuts?