Anticipation, Disappointment, Redemption, Frustration

I apologize for the delay in posting this blog. It has been awhile since my last post. I made the decision to transfer this blog from the Chile Today Hot Tamale website (as I rarely discussed anything to do with the business) to the website my son and I own, MrBatten.com. As it happens, we needed to do a little work on the MrBatten website, and I was not competent to the task. Fortunately my son, Jason, did the hard work.

(Arthur C.) Clarke’s Third Law states that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Jason is, therefore, a magician.

Anticipation

I return to my last post, the one written in eager anticipation of the opening of a Dunkin’ Donuts in my home town of Madison, GA. My last post was written before its opening, and I was aggravated by the fact that the opening was postponed time and time again. I really needed a Bavarian Cream doughnut in the worst way, and these postponed openings were getting to me.

Disappointment

The store finally opened one Saturday morning, before dawn. I was there. Yes, I was crazy enough to set an alarm for a Saturday morning just to get my hands on a Bavarian Cream doughnut. And when I finally got to the counter (it was quite crowded) I discovered that this particular store had decided not to make the wonderful Bavarian Cream doughnut. I was crushed.

I made my displeasure known, in a civil manner, of course. I complained roundly to one and all about the audacity of a business not providing its finest product to an eager customer base. I knew that my complaints would fall on deaf ears: they always do. But I did register my gripe, and then tried to let go of my pain. But it is difficult to let it go when you drive past the store twice every weekday. I was losing what little serenity I possessed.

Redemption

Friday night I suffered an attack of ICD (ice cream deprivation). Surely you know the feeling one gets when nothing but ice cream will do, and there is none in the house. I convinced Kathy to go with me to Dunkin’ Donuts, as there is a Baskin-Robbins ice cream bar there. We ordered our ice cream, and, glutton for punishment that I am, I drifted over to the doughnut side of the business to look wistfully and the slot where the Bavarian Cream doughnuts should be. And what did I see? BAVARIAN CREAM DOUGHNUTS! My complaints had paid off. Or perhaps my complaints, along with the complaints of hundreds of other customers, had carried the day. I do not know why they suddenly appeared, but I do know that they made me a happy man. I bought all that they had left (a mere six), and had them completely polished off by breakfast time the next morning.

Frustration

This morning, on the way to work, I stopped by good old Dunkin’ Donuts. I decided that the faculty at the school really needed a box of Bavarian Cream doughnuts, and I was just the man to provide said box. I strolled into the store, and was gratified to see the display racks filled to the brim with freshly made doughnuts. There was one little problem, though. Not a single display rack was labeled. Row upon row of beautiful, fresh doughnuts, with no way to identify which was which. The young fellow who waited on me was a bit puzzled that the labels were gone, but he figured he could pick out the Bavarian Creams from the dozen or so other varieties of doughnuts that appear to be identical from the outside. And so I purchased a dozen, threw them in the pickup, and headed for work, so that I could sample this magnificent gift to the faculty.

As it happens, the young fellow sold me a dozen Vanilla Cream doughnuts.

I do not know why the store had to take down the labels. I do not know why the store had to fill the racks with unidentified doughnuts. And I still don’t know why, on opening day, they did not carry Bavarian Cream doughnuts.

And so, I am frustrated.

There may be a reader or two out there thinking about starting a business. Trust me on this one: the way my local Dunkin’ opened is not the way you should open. Eager anticipation followed by bitter disappointment is not a good business model.