Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Let's go Pez truckin'.

Dunkin' Donuts, the evil chain that lures me in time and again with their wonderful coffee ("And while you're here, why not have a delicious doughnut?"), showed once again that they're tops in allying themselves with strange partners to deliver irresistible products. 

Dunkin' paired with Just Born, the company that makes Peeps, three years ago when it produced the Peeps doughnut. It has partnered with Nabisco to make hideously sweet Oreos doughnuts

But Pez?

No, they haven't come up with a doughnut that dispenses tasty Pez candies when you break it in half. It's actually a Pez dispenser in the shape of a Dunkin' Donuts delivery truck. 



Let's face it: These people are geniuses.

I have to hand it to them for partnering with small as well as large. Nabisco, or rather its parent company, the lousily named Mondelēz, is gigantic (2016 revenues: $26 billion), while Just Born is much smaller (looks like $170 million annual revenues) and privately owned. Pez is even smaller, still owned by the family that founded it in 1927. Its sales are about $82 million, presumably including trucks at Dunkin' Donuts.

You can bet this little item will make a showing at Pezmania, the world's largest gathering of Pez collectors, in Cleveland this July. And at the Burlingame Museum of Pez Memorabilia in California. And of course at the home office, the Pez Visitor Center at the Pez factory in Orange, Connecticut. Pez, that magical combination of candy and toy, seems to inspire people the way Coca-Cola does.

What I want to know is, why doesn't Dunkin' Donuts have a museum and visitor center at their home office in Canton, Massachusetts? From what I can see on the map, they don't even have a store in the office building, although there is one right down the block. Canton's only about four hours' drive from here; if they put in a Donut Hall of Fame or something I'd go visit. Wouldn't you? Of course you would.

No comments: