This isn’t a limited-time offer – the free morning donut service has no specified end date!
Usually when you hear someone say “The best things in life are free,” they’re talking about love, friendship, or the peaceful tranquility of self-realization and confidence…or maybe a really, really good nap. All fine things, to be sure, but we’d argue that any list of the best things in life is immediately invalidated if it fails to include donuts, and those aren’t free, are they?
Except, donuts now are free, in a sense, in Japan. That’s because Krispy Kreme Japan has announced that at all of its branches across Japan, if you purchase a drink before 11 a.m., you get a free donut. Here’s the really crazy thing: this isn’t a limited-time promotion. Free donuts with a purchase of a drink in the morning is simply going to be Krispy Kreme Japan’s policy nationwide for the indefinite future.
The free donuts are limited to Krispy Kreme’s Original Glazed flavor, but seeing as how that’s their signature offering, it seems like a pretty safe bet that anyone who loves Krispy Kreme at least likes the Original Glazed a whole lot.
Price-wise, this is a very attractive deal. The Original Glazed is priced at 216 yen US$1.40) for takeout, and a small-size house blend coffee is 345. So by ordering the coffee and getting the donut for free, you’re saving almost 40 percent compared to the previous price for the pair. Honestly, with prices rising in Japan, it’s hard to get even a canned coffee and pre-package pastry at a convenience store for 345 yen total these days, making Krispy Kreme’s offer a bargain for a freshly baked treat and freshly brewed beverage.
Krispy Kreme is calling the offer the Good Morning Original Glazed, or “Asaorigure” (“Morning Original Glazed”) in Japanese.
But why is Krispy Kreme being so generous? According to the company, it’s because the free-donuts-in-the-morning service has been incredibly popular at the three branches (one each in Tokyo, Kawasaki, and Sapporo) where it launched last year. It’s been an especially big hit with office workers, Krispy Kreme says, and so the chain wants to bring that same sweet happiness to the rest of their fans.
Taking a more business-oriented perspective, Krispy Kreme is originally an American company, and has no doubt observed that while donuts are strongly associated with breakfast in the U.S., in Japan not many people eat them before noon. Within Japanese snack culture, donuts often slotted into the same category with the cakes, cookies, and other sweets eaten with tea or coffee, something that foodies traditionally enjoy at 3 p.m. or later.
In other words, odds are Krispy Kreme Japan’s branches are at their quietest in the morning, especially on weekday mornings when no one is going in to buy a box to take to a party at a friend’s house. But coffee is as popular a morning eye-opener in Japan as it is in America, so if Krispy Kreme can get people to choose their branches when picking up a cup on their way to work, and include a free sample of the joy of morning donuts, it could help drum up extra business, especially if customers see other donut flavors that catch their eye too and decide to tack them on to their coffee and free Original Glazed order.
Of course, that would mean that if Krispy Kreme does succeed in making routinely picking up donuts in the morning a thing in Japan, it would then no longer have any need to give them away for free. For now though, as donut consumers, in both the economic and gastronomic senses of the word, free donuts sounds like a sweet deal to us.
The Good Morning Original Glazed service is coming to all Krispy Kreme Japan branches that are open before 11 a.m. (with the sole exception of the Kobe Marui branch in Kobe, which opens at 10:30 on Sundays and holidays) with the gradual rollout of availability staring from April 8.
Source: PR Times, Krispy Kreme Japan
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Insert images: PR Times, SoraNews24
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