Dunkin Donuts Moving On Starbucks

Dunkin' Donuts may open drive-through locations in at least four sites where Starbucks was planning to open coffee shops, Crain's reports.

Seattle-based Starbucks has pared back expansion plans and in July said it would close about 600 outlets, including 18 in the Chicago area.

Dunkin' Donuts' move shows that the coffee wars won't abate even as Starbucks retreats. Canton, Mass.-based Dunkin' Brands Inc. is accelerating the pace of store openings as it takes on Starbucks and Oak Brook-based McDonald's Corp. to grab a bigger share of the fast-food breakfast and coffee business.

In the Chicago area, Dunkin' Donuts has almost 500 stores and has been opening about 50 annually for the past few years, says Mike LaVigne, the company's head of retail development in the Midwest. "We want to accelerate that pace," he says. "Chicago has been a very good market for us."

Crain's identifies the four locations Dunkin' Donuts is negotiating to open: 3200 W. 111th St. in Chicago; Grand Avenue and Rollins Road in Gurnee; 1700 E. Euclid Ave. in Mount Prospect, and Skokie Boulevard and Gross Pointe Road in Skokie.

Comments

[johnnygoodwud]

i agree, i too like dunkin donut coffee, but dealing with most of the people that work there is a drag. most have no personality and only seem to want my $$$, to solve my problem i buy dunkin donut coffee in bulk from costco and just brew it at home. cheaper also.

[1manisland]

Dunkin Donuts sucks ! I used to swear that you would never catch me in a Starbucks . That was until 5 years ago, when I got sick and tired of the attitude I got from most of the people working in Dunkin Donuts. Lets face it, they are all foreigners that own them, and they act like they are doing you a favor by spending your money there. It got really tired giving your order 5 x to somebody who didn't understand English - and still after 5 x messed up the order. And that was at almost every store, you eventually dealt with that. Plus, I don't want somebody else puting cream and sugar into my coffee. They never make it the way you want.

Yeah sure ! Starbucks is high on the prices of a lot of items, but for Coffee, they blow DD away. And at least they buy you a free cup very often . See if DD will do that for you ?

[ChiTownGirl]

Our office sometimes buys donuts, etc., from DD on Washington between Wells/Franklin for our Saturday morning OT sessions; and the Manager there always screws up the order.

I found the DD on Madison between Wells/Franklin -- one block South -- to be much more efficient and well run.

And while I've been a Starbucks fan for many years, I've noticed an improvement in Starbucks' Customer Service after the recent 'retraining' session.

[gevan]

Looks more like a war between styrofoam and plasticized paper to me.