Dunkin Donuts Is Dropping The Donuts (In Name Only)
Before people were losing their shit over if “GIF” is pronounced like the peanut butter or the wrong way (FIGHT ME!), there was the spat over “doughnut” vs. “donut.” Naturally, the Massholes who founded Dunkin Donuts were all about the latter and were so successful at being pains in the ass about it (I’m not sure if they were actually pains in the ass about it, but as a Bostonian, I think we can safely assume), the “donut” spelling was even made official in the dictionary. Well, it was announced Tuesday the Dunkin Donuts crew is getting rid of the carb-heavy part of its name and will now just be known as Dunkin. Cue the outrage!
Business Insider says even though there has been backlash when Dunkin was testing the Donut-less name on a few stores, they’re going through with it and making all stores just “Dunkin” going forward. People here lost their shit when Dunkin changed the rules on how many times the Patriots had to win this year before they’ll discount coffee, so I’m sure cars are going to get flipped over this. It’s a sad moment in history because the corporate story goes that Dunkin Donuts and Mister Donut were chains founded in the 50s by brothers-in-law and upended how everyone spelled their breakfast pastry by name. Until then, we were wasting time with extra consonants and going with “doughnut.” Grammar Girl, a grammar blog and also what my boyfriend uses to correct me when I forget how to spell something stupid like “pizza,” says you can thank Dunkin for why more people spell it donut these days to the point where Merriam-Webster added that spelling to the dictionary.
The story around these parts (aka what I heard two women from Southie next to me on the subway say three minutes ago) is that more people are going to Dunkin for the coffee and not for the donuts, so they’re just following suit to give an accurate look at how customers are spending their money. If they’re really looking to give an accurate depiction of stores with the name, it should be called “Dunkin Don’t Give A FACK If You Asked For Skim Milk, You’ll Drink It Will Cream Like I Made It.”
Pic: Flickr/Mark Wallace