When it comes to chain stores causing us agita, people seem most inclined to freak out when a Starbucks opens in their previously Starbucks-free neighborhoods. That’s all well and good, but while you’ve been writing those thinkpieces about what that new Starbucks means, Dunkin’ Donuts has been quietly opening all over the city, to the point where there are now 125 Dunkin’ Donuts in Brooklyn as compared to just 27 Starbucks, per the State of the Chains report. Better turn your thinkpiece settings from “coffee” to “donuts.”
The State of the Chains report, which last year informed us that Brooklyn led the city in retail chain growth, didn’t have any particularly bad news like that for Brooklyn this year. With an increase in chain stores, 1,593 this year as compared to 1,540 last year, Brooklyn only had a 3.4% increase, good for third in the city behind Queens and the Bronx.
The one thing that stands out this year is that Dunkin’ Donuts rules the chain store landscape with an iron fist full of fake Cronuts. The 125 stores in Brooklyn is tops in the borough, and the donutery has the most locations in the city with 536. That’s a whole lotta Dunkin’. So, the question becomes, can Dunkin’ Donuts be stopped? The chain’s growth this year was 4%, going from 515 to 536 stores, which is slower than the 8% growth of locations in the city from 2012 to 2013. That being said, the fact that we’re running out of room in in the city for Dunkin’ Donuts locations means that you just might wake up to find one set up in your kitchen someday soon. They have to go somewhere, after all.
View Comments (1)
DD isn't seen as an issue because it's not perceived as driving gentrification.