Krispy Kreme returning to Phoenix, but with a twist

For the first time in two years, the Krispy Kreme experience is coming back to Phoenix.

On Thursday, Dan Brinton will open three "neighborhood stores" in Phoenix, including one in Paradise Valley Mall. Customers will have a chance to win a GPS navigation system and lots of other prizes including free doughnuts for a year.

Brinton believes these stores will do well despite Krispy Kreme's past failure in the Valley. The Mesa factory store will ship fresh doughnuts to the Phoenix stores at least three times a day, he said.

Brinton spoke with The Republic about his upcoming store:

How will these "neighborhood stores" differ from the Krispy Kreme stores customers are used to in suburban areas?

We will not be manufacturing at these stores. We'll deliver from our Mesa store, but you'll have the same doughnut experience. It'll be the same great doughnuts and coffee and beverage offerings.

What do you mean when you say "neighborhood" stores?

The old strategy was to build a 5,000-square-foot store on 40,000 square feet in a shopping area. The whole mentality was 'if you build it, they will come.' But part of what I was hearing from customers is, 'You're not convenient to where I live.' So we want to be in the community. Somewhere you can eat on the weekdays. More of a convenient item than a destination item.

Your first store was in east Mesa. Why the decision to open in Phoenix?

I think with the resurgence of downtown and the ASU campus I feel like it really signifies what we're trying to do by entrenching ourselves back in the community. I wanted to let people know I was here to stay and I think being downtown signifies that. The Indian School location was a Dunkin' Donuts for 40 years. So I felt like if their product could be there for 40 years then certainly that was a great doughnut market. So that was kind of a no-brainer for us to go in there.

The Paradise Valley Mall location is just a wonderful little spot on a hard corner going in front of a new Costco. That mall area is just booming. It's a great place.

Where to next?

I'm looking in Tempe, Glendale and Scottsdale. I'm trying to put 10 of these on the ground before summer hits.

Krispy Kreme's history in the Valley has not been the best. What will make your stores more successful?

The big advantage is that we're not doing any wholesale in this market. Our focus is retail. This was a great retail market before it went under and it definitely still is. There will be no wholesaling out to Fry's or QuikTrip Every bit of our focus is going to be on the customer that comes to us. We want them to have the full experience of what we do from a retail level.

No wholesale at all?

Having the freshest product possible is to our advantage. Having a third party is just not the strategy that would work for me. I do believe there's always going to be a spot for wholesale because they've been so entrenched in wholesale in other markets.

You're going to have not-for-profit nights?

A lot of folks in the restaurant industry do not-for-profit nights for schools and over time it's lost its luster. We want to take it to more of a community approach for neighborhood watch parties or the local PTA that's in that community or the local chapter of the Boy Scouts. Any community organization, we would love to spend the night with us and try to raise proceeds in the community.

Customers can win a GPS?

We consider our doughnuts a treasure, not just a doughnut. So we thought how could we take this idea and make it fun for the family. So we're giving away 20 handheld GPS units to the first 20 customers in line. And we've stashed prizes throughout the Valley - a dozen doughnuts for a year, travel packs, free coffee for a year and more.