Time to Stop Making the Donuts?

Looks as if Los Angeles-area Krispy Kremes are going to be stripped of their rights to use the name. Mama KK in North Carolina is yanking the license to all 28 So Cal stores. Something about money or something. At least one area entrepreneur is surely thrilled to hear this news.

Whether or not the orphaned KK’s can/will stay afloat as indie donut slingers is surely of the utmost concern to you, but alas remains to be seen. If they do, watch for that phenomenon where a former franchise pod rechristens itself with a trademark-skirting mutation of the national name, usually recycling the signage. Jons in Hollywood comes to mind. Obviously it was a hell of a lot cheaper just order the “J” from the Big Letter Store and swap out the “V” and keep the market. All those endless local variations on Tommy’s also come to mind: Tomy’s, Thomas’s, Tommie’s, Tommmy’s, Thoemiey’s, Johnny’s, and so on.

Note to operators contemplating shutting down: adding Chinese food to a donut-based menu can help a store stay afloat. Chinese food and donuts are a well established one-two culinary punch that everyone loves.

Since anagrams are all the rage around here today, here are some wacky ideas for K-R-I-S-P-Y K-R-E-M-E to scrabble their existing signage and reinvent their businesses, only springing for the odd punctuation mark:

Perm? Yes, Kirk! — Hair salon (change name to Kirk, if not already)
Kerry? Me Skip. — Ralph Nader ’08 local headquarters
Perk My Skier — Coffeehouse (Big Bear Mtn. location)

You get the idea. Have at it. Maybe throw in an extra letter or two or even add ‘Hot Doughnuts’ to the mix to strike comedy gold. I steered clear of all ‘sperm’-based anagrams. Though I fear you commenters may not.

UPDATE 1/6/05:

Good ol’ laobserved links news that Krispy Kreme Korporate caved and will keep it’s So Cal franchisees. We don’t want to say that our post yesterday had any influence on this reversal, but draw your own conclusions.