As I had said before I am going to start working on the blog again. While I was in Connecticut I read the news paper the Hartford Courant and discovered that Dunkin Donuts in Canton was going to be rebuilding at first this didn’t shock me until I researched it further with an trip to the store. When I got to the stores actual location the over all appearance was great. The only item that actually shocked me were there hours of operation. It is DD policy that all stores that are not open 24/7 need to be open 5AM to 10PM. Atleast that is what I was told by my General Manager when I worked for them. This store how ever is only open 6AM to 8PM why is it then that DD would want to rebuild for them? Don’t get me wrong this is probably one of the better DD that I have been into, but if the corporation sets standards as to how long there stores are to be open then when they have one that is not following those times should they not reconsider whether or not to keep them open? This how ever should not be taken as me saying to shut the store down as people need jobs and if they can provide them great! But by providing them they should also be providing to the needs of what DD says is there policies.

On December 22,2011 I went to the Cobleskill Dunkin Donuts. The customer service at this store was terrible!  It was decided that going into the store may be quicker than going through the drive thru to get my order well that was wrong as either way that we went to get into the store to order your coffee or food in this case it was an coolatta that I ordered it was apparent that  you were going to be there for at least 5 minutes, as I was waiting for my drink to come it was   a good time to get a look around. What I saw that day shocked me especially since I talked to the manager a week ago and he told me that he was training the manager they just hired for there Schoharie store,it came to my mind that if they are training this new person to run a store that is busy then why  would they put  them in an store that was disgusting looking? This is training then the topic of the day must have been how not to let the store you will be running look. Not only was the garbage full but the floor looked like it had a tornado run over it, there was coffee stains on all the tables as well as the counters. When finally I got my drink that was ordered I walked out and when I took a sip of my drink it was like drinking flavored water. An coolatta for those of you that have not had one is supposed to be thick and creamy not watery and disgusting. So my over all opinion and rating of this store would have to be an 4/10. This is a store that will be re reviewed in February 2012

 

 

 

I would like to take this time to again say that I am working on the blog and the content and posts will begin to go up I have a couple of more stores to visit then I will put together the posts about them and bring them to you. Sorry about the delay I have been tied up with working overnight.

It has became time that I take this blog in an new direction, what that means is that I will no longer just be writing about how I feel about the one store that i worked in but I will be working on visiting as many of the Dunkin Donuts as I can first in NY then more in time. As I go to these Dunkin Donuts I will be looking at there customer service and the cleanliness of the store as well as the quality of the food. Dunkin Donuts takes pride in there stores and the quality of there coffee as they say, “They are one of the leaders in Coffee”  so I am going to put that to the test and see what they really can do and what they really know and how they work. I hope there ready for it because I will leave basically no stone unturned when I go in.

First Review: Cobleskill Dunkin Donuts

Ok this just came to my attention the other day when I was shopping at my local Stewarts shop. While there I was talking to the cashier who just happened to be one of the Shift Leaders at the Dunkin that I worked at. As you all know Hurrican Irene devestated the Upstate NY area, and closed many roads and caused alot of damage and people to be with out vehicles let alone places to live. Well during the storm and days after that the Franchisee made the decision that he was not going to close the store and that all employees were required to attend work regardless of there situation, he has employees that lost it all cars houses money everything and he expected them to still show up to work. This of course came as a shock to me as  they talk about being safe and not doing anything to endanger your life to get to work. The manager of the store that I used to work in was effected by the storm she was told to find a way to get in our not to bother coming back, she told them that she was going to have to quit then. They fired atleast 10 employees during hurricane Irene and the days that followed Irene while NY was in a state of emergency. To me a company wouldnt do that, why they did it is beyond me. Everything was shut down the interstate was shut down they couldnt get donuts why would DD stay open if they cant get donuts? Know one new how long the roads were going to be closed for, what would happen if the DCP (weekly delivery of EVERYTHING except donuts) could get through they come out of Massachussettes so whose to say that they could even get through to deliver the cups and coffee beans and frozen bagels and food as well as milk and just everything that a store needs to be run effectively. Hurricane Irene was a disaster it was one of the worse floods and natural disasters that I my self have every seen, and while all this was happening and people and emergency services were trying to get people back to normal DD was forcing there employees to choose get your life back together or seek other employment? Personally im glad  I got out of the DD  I worked at when I did, my road was basically non existant. Either way when you go into DD and buy a coffee just know your supporting a company that doesnt care about there employees.

So i know that it has been sometime since I have posted anything on this blog but that is do to some personal reasons so here we go as you know why I started to write this blog  I am going to continue on with the reasons as to why I feel as though you should not shop at Dunkin Donuts.

There are several reasons why one should not shop at Dunkin Donuts, many of which were touched on in previous posts, but here we go. Quite possibly the biggest reason that you should not shop at Dunkin Donuts is that you really never know what your going to get, and they copy other stores. Ok the way that they copy other stores is simple, McDonalds came out with the frozen Strawberry and Lemonade, now all of a sudden a few weeks later DD has a Lemonade Coolatta and an Iced Tea Coolatta ( Known at the store as Frozen Lemonade and Frozen Iced Tea) that to me is just them taking someone elses idea and putting to there own use. The way that this company or corporation thinks that they can just walk around and throw things that other people are doing out onto there menu and try to change the name is ridiculous. Now I said that you never know what your going to get, they released 3 new frozen drinks this year there Frozen Iced Tea, Frozen Lemonade and Frozen Hot Chocolate.  You may or may not know this but when you order one of those drinks they are nothing more then there Coolatta Neutral base ( the non Coffee Coolatta Mix) and Flavor additives, that is what they are, NEVER let any DD employee tell you otherwise and if they do tell them there a liar. Out of the 3 new frozen drink products that they have released I have only tried one for fear that the other two would be just as disgusting as the Frozen Hot Chocolate. The Frozen Hot Chocolate tastes like pure sugar you cant even taste the chocolate in it and its got this gritty texture to it like someone ground up sand paper or fine shavings of glass and put it in with the mixer.

As for there newest publicity stunt becoming president of Dunkin Donuts I have yet to read further into that as until recently I was unaware of it. But I will be reviewing that contest and posting my opinion of it and talking with some employees that I know I can get information on it from about it and getting there perspective and what DD is doing this for out of them and posting it online.

Yesterday 08/25/11 I had the pleasure of visiting two DD stores one of which was the one I was employed at during my time as a DD employee the other was a store that is in the same network. Lets start with the one that I had worked in first, as I walked through the front door, my eyes were drawn to several different things, 1. was the cleanliness of the store which was basically non existant still, it looked as though a hurricane ripped through there, crumbs and garbage on the ground both inside and out side the store, the counters were stained with coffee. The floor behing the counter was stained with coffee and what appeared to be a ground in donut. As you approach the registers to see what wonderful baked goods and donuts they have you cant help but notice the empty spaces in the bakery cases as well as the flys that were floating around the donuts and landing on them, there was even a fly stuck in the frosting on a Boston Kreme donut. Personally I would not want to eat a store that looked like that but people were there shopping and the only thing that they could do and this is just barely was keep the lines down.  And get people in and out as fast as possible. The other store that I visited today so that a relative could get a Coolatta for themselves was over clean and organised really nothing was wrong until we recieved the Coolatta, to which was watery and not as thick as it should have or could have been. The only reason why I can think that it would be like that is they either just cleaned the machines for the first time in who knows how long, or they just added more mixer to the machine. Either way you should not be selling a product that is that runny just because its not good for business to be selling  as they say “America Runs on Dunkin” products that dont live up to the standards of that or even the standards that are layed out in DD’s manual of how to market and sell there products.

Over all I would say to avoid DD as much as you can if you do need a Coffee and your on the Go and cant find anywhere else to stop then you have no choice but make sure you get what you order before you leave and make sure that it smells and looks and tastes fresh.

Next time I will have the critique and some information on the DD president campaign that they are running right now. As well as much more.

Until next time,Thanks for reading and have a great day!

All restaurants have some degree of dirt and grime in it, I can admit that but theres only so much that should be considered appropriate before it becomes a matter of public health. In this post I will give you the most important areas that you can see while at your local Dunkin Donuts to see if they care about the cleanliness  of there store and of the products that they sell the most of. Dunkin Donuts prides its self on the ability to move baked goods and donuts from there store as thats what they make the most money is by selling those products. The first thing that you should look for when you walk into Dunkin Donuts is to look down at the ground thats right I know this sounds stupid but you can tell the kind of manager or senior crew member thats working by the cleanliness of the floor you can almost be guaranteed that if the floor in the lobby is disgusting then the floors behind the counter where your food is prepped is most likely disgusting as well, now im not sure about you but when i order an donut i dont plan on getting one thats dirt  or dust flavored. The second thing that you need to look for when ordering food is the counter how clean is it? This can vary widely just because of the fact that you dont know if its just them being lazy and not cleaning or if an customer just spilled some coffee on the counter, either way you need to look again I would not want my food even though its in a bag to be sitting on an disgusting coffee stain that you dont know how long it may have been there for. The third and final thing that you need to look at absolutely and realy ask your self is do those bakery cases look clean? Now I am not going to lie they could have been clean when the day started but  theres just a few crumbs in there that are clearly from just one day  and then theres the chance that you find an bulk amount thats the store you want to avoid as if theres a bulk amount of stuff built up in the bakery cases then you know that they dont care about there store you should not buy items there. The reason that i say this is because if  they cant take care of the store front and keep the bakery cases cleaned out and the counters clean then whose to say that they can keep the back of the store clean where you cant see them cooking? Where you cant see them constructing the sandwitches that you order from them? Personally it would make me uncomfortable to purchase food from there.

Thanks for reading more to come later!

It has come to my attention that it is not just me that thinks Dunkin Donuts sucks and that some of there products if not all suck just based on price and quality of the merchandise. Well you see I went into there tonight to get an coffee again the coffee tasted nasty and watered down but while there an employee of theres goes to me “dont try the new Mtn.Dew Coolatta it sucks” I was like woah your not supposed to say that to prospective customers your supposed to suggestively sell the items as that is what we were trained to do was to push the new products and get people to buy them even if we thought they were terrible, thats right when you order something and ask the person oh is this any good dont expect an honest answer they will lie through there teeth just  to get the sale. Also while there at this store I found out that yet another person who was working the closing shift had quit do to the mangers inconsideration and rudeness. So she had an high school student there training this new person to close, and apparently this high school student who had no clue that she was giving me this information to be posted online, has been closing for the past week. She just admitted that the store has no respect for child labor laws and yet again no one has the guts to step up and say woah Dunkin Donuts you cant do that. Last week I sent an email to a local news channel to see if they could get any information into why they are able to break these labor laws and run the store the way that they are but yet they dont care there more wrapped up in actual news. In my opinion though a violation of Child Labor Laws is news and is something that should be addressed by the news and proper authorities so that when people who are in high school start working there before there parents sign the release letter that Dunkin has to cover themselves when they hire these students and young people that the parents and schools who issue working papers know what there potentially getting there children or students into and perhaps say sometihng about it so that they cant use them the way that they like to use people over there.  Just the way that I think is that when your manager you should work days and nights if you have the Assistant Managers and Shift managers to cover the day shifts why not close sometimes thats what your job is, the night shift starts at 2PM whose to say that the manager of the store couldnt work a night shift and still make it to the bank and everything on time and get what they need to get done, especially since a manager needs to work 9 hours there so for them the night shift would start at 1PM technically and they could then avoid violating child labor laws and all that good stuff.

Well its late ill have to check for spelling errors later as im falling asleep right now so ill do a final edit on this post tommorrow at some point in time.

On Tuesday 3/22/2011 I decided to again go into Dunkin Donuts, this time it was for two reasons well 1. I wanted an coolatta and 2. I wanted to wish a friend luck on her EMT basic test that she was going to be taking that week. While I was there I got another chance to look around  so to speak. While I was peering around in there on that same day my friend who had been working there told me that she was closing, it would have not even made this post because I really do not care who closes anymore I don’t work there anymore. But the reason that this is getting mentioned is that by allowing her to close that night Dunkin Donuts was breaking child labor laws, this person is 18 years old yes, but she is still enrolled in High School until June of this year. And unless something changed with the labor laws for students they are only allowed to work four hour shifts and they need to be out of work by 9PM on school nights. This girl how ever the manager was having her work a full 2-1030PM shift which is a full 8 hour shift. It just goes to show you that they don’t care about or have any respect for the laws of NYS and OSHA.

Something I learned on Thursday night 3/24/2011 well I went in there again I was exhausted and just had racked my brain on a EMT test so I needed a cup of coffee, well the person who was working that night started talking to me about how the health inspector came in and did an “investigation” and by all rights should have failed the inspection as the place was just as disgusting that day as it was when I had stopped working there, the only reason that I no that is by talking to the person who was closing and  can was there when the inspector came in. The only thing that the inspector said they could find was a problem was the fact that the Baking pans were dirty and unsanitary. Now  with that all in mind if the baking sheets and muffin pans were so disgusting that the Inspector would say something about it then whose to say that they should not have been shut down at least for that one day. As your bagels and muffins and croissants that are so fresh and available to you right at 5AM are baked the night before, the bagel twists that you get at 5AM that are sometimes still warm there baked at 4AM, now if the baking sheets and pans were so disgusting that the health inspector would say something about then why were they allowed to stay open as if the pans were unsanitary and dirty then everything that was baked should have been thrown out and the store closed for at least that day so they could clean up the pans and throw out all the dirty baked goods. But know they were allowed to stay open and were allowed to serve disgusting unsanitary food to people.

More to come later.

 

Since I had been fired from Dunkin Donuts, I really had not stepped foot into there store again because of how pissed I was over being fired. Well on Monday night I was bored so I went over there to see a friend that works there. While there I had found out that the manager is still pulling the same crap that she had pulled with me, this person is getting targeted because her child was sick and had to be brought into the doctors. This persons hours are now getting cut down to basically nothing  and shes is now beginning to look for a new job much like I tried to do hopefully she can get a new job before they decide to fire her. While she was out on this Medical Leave, she was  told by the General Manager that she would need a doctors note and that would have to be there by Friday other wise she could not collect her check, and that she would have to let her go unless she started to come back to work. Last I new as long as you had an note from the doctor they could not touch you or threaten to fire you, so my question is how is having a doctors not  calling in excessively?  After hearing all this I left, then I went back there again on Tuesday night. Unfortunately I did not get there on time to get into the store to look and see what they were doing to make the place better but I will get into there later with what I found on Monday night. Though I did not get the chance to  go into the store Tuesday I did get the chance to talk to a friend about how things are going there she told me that basically EVERYONE  who worked there when I worked there is quitting. The manager from what I have been told is turning into a” two faced lying bitch” or that is how my friend had described her. While talking to my informant she had also informed me that she has since let a Shift Leader go for no call no show well that is the same shift leader that was aloud to get away with it before. It has been said that the manager is talking to an employee about the store and what she was going to do with employees and how she is planning on screwing an whole bunch of people out of there jobs and out of there way of living because she is upset with the way her life is going since her boyfriend left her she is going to drag everybody down with her. With all that being said I will leave off with this for now, what would you do if your boss wanted to do that to you as well?  Just because shes upset with her life does that she mean she needs to bring it to work with her? NO you leave your emotions at the door when your manager suck it up and run the shop not drag a bag of emotion in with you and start to screw over everyone of your employees.