Dunk'D: Selling Ice Cream to Eskimos

I left you last detailing how Dunkin' Donuts completely upended my business plan when I received a last minute call informing me that I would have to substitute a Baskin-Robbins for Togo's in my new combo store, because my franchisor had suddenly figured out that not a single Togo's was profitable in New England.

Baskin-Robbins had already made one disastrous foray into New England.  My wife, Lindsay remembered visiting a new Baskin-Robbins once, never to return.  However, successful they may have been on the West Coast and New York it didn’t translate here where New Englanders love ice cream but have no shortage of established home scoopers.  Now the chain was controlled by Allied Domecq and come hell or high water they were going to make the brand work within their combo marketing strategy.

Grant Benson, Dave Harrington and their posse had just told me that I would be opening an ice cream store in Downtown Providence, where cold weather reigns for eight months a year, in a location far away from any schools and the afternoon crowd of teenagers but most importantly in a financial district that was devoid of anybody after 6:00.   In Marketing 101 the professor says on the first day of class: if you are merchandising a product make sure you have customers.  Knowing at least that much I hoped Baskin- Robbins would at least be a break-even traffic generator of some kind with the Dunkin’ Donuts component kicking in the revenue needed to pay the rent.

Nevertheless, in April of 2002 I was hustled off to Baskin-Robbins training, right in the middle of trying to get my arms around four lousy stores and a new one opening in a few weeks.  I spent a full 8 hrs + a day for a  week at the Ice Cream training store in Avon Massachusetts where I learned how to scoop cones (singles and doubles, the hard ones), properly place sprinkles and drip hot fudge just-so over a banana split.  A 51 year old might get annoyed at being treated like a teenager for five days and graded by the Master Scooper—but not me, I lapped it up and brought ice cream home every night to my three boys who were understandably excited about having an ice cream store in the family.

The grand opening of the combo Dunkin’ Donuts/Baskin Robbins store on Westminster Street was fabulous.  I invited a school to bus in about 100 elementary age kids, at my expense, to come in for the free cones.  They were joined by lots of nearby office workers who found out we were giving away free ice cream.  It was great fun, we all scooped, me, my wife and sons took turns at the scoop case.

When the last bus left that after that great opening day we had a predicable first week with a $500 gross.  That is not a lot of cones.  Usually a Dunkin’ Donuts opens with high sales on Opening Day and then slows immediately after in the dip of the well known ‘J-curve’.  Then the store would slowly regain the grand opening volume as awareness of the store permeated the target market.

Since our target market for Baskin-Robbins was non-existent past 3:00 pm our ‘j-curve’ turned out into a complete flat-line - think Grey’s Anatomy style.  When Dunkin’ Donuts finally permitted me to close this money hemorrhaging Baskin-Robbins unit two years later the typical weekly sales were $200…about 7 cones a day. You may have had more ice cream than that during your last midnight snack.

So ended the sad story of Dunk’d and Trombo’d in which Dunkin’ Donuts told me that my combo store – the key to my business plan – was not going to happen AFTER I had already bought the other four stores.  And the franchise agreement enabled them to do basically what ever they wanted to, no matter the monetary harm to the franchisee.  We will tell many more ghastly stories from my ice cream adventure in Dunk’D My Odyssey Through Franchisee Hell.   But almost from day one after signing the franchise agreement,  the ‘promise’ of franchisee stardom and wealth beyond my wildest imagination disappeared into a fog of nonchalance from the Dunkin’ Donuts corporate team.  ”Promises, what promises - read the Contract, Bub. We can do anything we want”.

It was only my promises that meant anything in this business relationship so I will end today’s blog with a slice of reality.  When I eventually got my day in court, the lawyer representing Dunkin’ Donuts told the jury in his opening statement:

“Yesterday my 17-year-old daughter asked me what this case was about, and I told her that It was about a man who was suing Dunkin' Donuts, claiming that Dunkin'Donuts didn't work hard enough…. -- And she asked, Well, why did Dunkin' Donuts have to help him at all?.....”

And after 30 more minutes of their lawyer detailing my supposed failures to live up to my promises to Dunkin’ Donuts, he ended solemnly with:

“The last thing I'd like you to remember is the basic rules that we as a community value. Keep your word, live up to your promises, pay your debts, take personal responsibility for the consequences of your own conduct.

{Ladies and gentlemen of the jury}  This case is your opportunity to apply those rules…perhaps for the first time ever to apply them to Mr. Barkan.”

In Dunk’D My Odyssey Through Franchisee Hell I will tell you all about the corporate mentality that thinks helping its franchisees is an odious concept – that the rules should apply to the franchisee and not them.  I’ll compare the mutual pile of un kept promises made by a small businessman from Vermont and one of the largest multi-national companies in the world and let you decide who didn’t live up to their obligations.

Go to www. Dunk-D.com to read the full opening statements of the trial.