Dunkin' Donuts

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Dunkin' Donuts

Dunkin' Donuts is to coffee (see entry under 1990s—The Way We Lived in volume 5) and doughnuts what McDonald's (see entry under 1940s—Food and Drink in volume 3) is to hamburgers (see entry under 1950s—Food and Drink in volume 3) and French fries (see entry under 1950s—Food and Drink in volume 3): the shining example of a successful fast food (see entry under 1920s—Food and Drink in volume 2) concept. With stores throughout the nation and throughout the world, Dunkin' Donuts is the most popular doughnut shop nationally and globally. Each day, all its franchises (stores sold to individual business owners around the country) combined reportedly sell approximately 1.8 million cups of coffee. Dunkin' Donuts franchise owners must agree to sell Dunkin' Donuts products according to the Dunkin' Donuts company rules.

The history of Dunkin' Donuts dates to 1946, when a young businessman named William Rosenberg (1917–) opened Industrial Luncheon Services, which provided food and snacks to Boston-area factory workers. The company's success, plus the realization that 40 percent of its business came from coffee and doughnuts, inspired Rosenberg to open a coffee and doughnut shop in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 1948. He called it the Open Kettle. Two years later, he changed the name to Dunkin' Donuts and eventually opened five additional shops. Rosenberg originally charged five cents for each doughnut and ten cents per cup of coffee.

In 1955, Rosenberg signed his initial franchise agreement, allowing others to operate Dunkin' Donuts stores. The one hundredth such operation opened in 1963. The first overseas store, located in Japan, opened in 1970. Among the other Dunkin' Donut milestones are the one thousandth store opening in the United States (1979); the largest store, with 130 seats, opening in Bangkok, Thailand (1988); the two thousandth U.S. store (1990); the three thousandth U.S. store (1992); and the one thousandth international store (1995). In 1990, Allied Domecq PCL, a British conglomerate, purchased the company from the Rosenberg family. The decade also brought many additions to the Dunkin' Donuts menu, including flavored coffees, bagels, low-fat muffins, and a summertime beverage known as Coolata.

As of 2002, Dunkin' Donuts offered fifty-two varieties of doughnuts, selling approximately 6.4 million of them each day. Sales came from over five thousand Dunkin' Donuts outlets, in forty countries, making it the largest coffee, doughnut, and bagel franchise in the world.

—Rob Edelman