All Starbucks to close: Dunkin Donuts Cashes In

[Kevy Baby]

For those who haven't heard, almost all Starbucks stores across the country will be closing for three hours today:

Seattle-based coffee giant Starbucks plans to temporarily close all of its 7,100 U.S. stores for three hours of employee training on Tuesday.

Starbucks said the in-store training program will begin at 5:30 p.m. and is designed to foster enthusiasm in its 135,000 U.S. employees and improve the quality of drinks made by baristas.

Dunkin Donuts decided to cash in on the opportunity:
Free lattes at local Dunkin Donuts when Starbucks is closed today

Anyone who thought the local rivalry between Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks was a friendly one has not seen the latest salvo in their coffee smackdown.

When Starbucks shuts down all of its nearly 7,100 national stores this evening for employee retraining (some of the contracted Starbucks are on a different training schedule), Dunkin Donuts will hand out free small hot lattes in all of its 450 Chicagoland stores.

Story here.

[NirvanaMan]

That's just good marketing. Love it.

I think coffee tastes like dirty water and can't imagine why people would freely drink it, much less pay $4 for one, but for those who enjoy the stuff, DD is supposed to have great tasting coffee. I believe it is a lot less $$$ than starbucks too. Although I don't think there are any DDs out on the west coast, are there?

[Sohrshah]

I haven't seen any Dunkin' Donuts on the west Coast yet. They do have good coffee, but they are not selling you the atmosphere and "Coffee Shop" feeling that Starbucks does. For coffee lovers, a "Box of Joe" is a great thing....

[Alex]

After years of hearing about how good DD coffee is, Lani insisted we stop there the first time we were in DD country. She detected nothing special in it.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Wow, I didn't realize Dunkin was 100% gone from SoCal, but that seems to be the case. They used to be pretty common, though nothing like they've become in the eastern half of the county.

[BarTopDancer]

McDonald's supposed to be doing the same thing. Great way to get people exposed to a new coffee.

They need to bring Tim Horton's out here.

[cirquelover]

We still have a few DD here in Oregon but they are getting harder to find. My husband and son still love to stop for the filled donut holes. I don't know if Gary has ever tried their coffee though. He's more of a Starbucks or Human Bean kind of guy. Personally the smell turns my stomach.

[Alex]

I miss Winchells though like converted banks it is fun to be able to see old buildings that you can tell used to be a Winchells.

[Snowflake]

I'm not a huge coffee drinker. My favorite is actually the poor man's mocha from NA and €'s - quelle yummers

[Ghoulish Delight]

We still have a few Winchells down here.