One of America’s top caffeine dealers, Dunkin’ Donuts, has been debating making it all about the coffee for a while. We’ve previously made the case for ten donuts that deserved to survive the great donut purge the company was considering. And it turns out… the donuts have survived! The sandwiches? Not so much.
Boston.com reports that Dunky’s is shedding 10% of their menu, effective as of today in Boston-area stores and rolling out to the rest of the country over the next week, and it’s all on the sandwich side. The items leaving the menu are:
- the Turkey Cheddar Bacon sandwich, although hopefully they keep that special sauce.
- the Ham & Cheddar sandwich
- the Tuna Salad sandwich
- the Chicken Salad sandwich
- The Big N’ Toasted breakfast sandwich, which it introduced with great fanfare just a few years ago complete with athlete endorsements. What will Big Papi eat from Dunky’s now?
- the Angus Steak & Egg breakfast sandwich, which you might remember got them sued
- Strawberry Banana and Tropical Mango smoothies
- Peach, Caramel, and Mocha unsweetened flavor shots for your coffee. Don’t worry, the Slurp-excuse us, the Coolatta still has these flavor swirls.
- Some muffin, bagel, and cream cheese options, although the company seems to be fiddling with those.
- all Flatbreads
You might notice that the carnage is largely kept to the lunch menu, and that makes a degree of sense. Dunkin’ has been trying to figure out its place beyond the Boston metro area — which it holds in a sugary, caffeinated grip — for awhile, but the lunch food experiment didn’t quite make sense. It’s not Subway and Jimmy Johns that Dunkin’ is really competing with, after all. It’s the coffee that they’re most known for and it appears it’s the coffee on which the company will be focused going forward as it battles with Starbucks and McDonalds for your daily coffee dollar.
Also, the lack of a donut purge would seem to indicate the idea that just calling it “Dunkin'” going forward is also off the table, at least for now. Which is good, because come on, if your company’s name is a verb, you at least need something from them to actually perform that verb with. A stirrer just is not going to cut it.
(via Boston.com)
