Dunkin Donuts: Streamlined Delight

Dunkin Donuts: The coffee/donut behemoth of the Northeastern seaboard. What's its appeal? Is it that it's so efficient? No, it's not, but it certainly attempts to create the image that it is. Let's take a look inside one to really prove my point. Seeing as how I visit this one just about every day, we'll analyze the Darien Dunkin Donuts on the Post Road. Upon entering the building, which has an exterior almost entirely consisting of windows, you are greeted by a (half) smiling employee ready to take your order. If you're like me and stop by this building every single morning, then the cashier will already have your order put into the register. Should you order food, then you walk in a straight line from the register to the pickup counter. The counter is striated horizontally, so as to suggest that you are moving so quickly that you create speed lines as you move towards the counter. As you wait for your food, you can turn to see the TV in the corner playing today's news. You are effectively multitasking, waiting for your food as well as getting caught up on your current events. When you receive your food, you turn around and walkout in yet another line, accentuated by an island table that also seems to be designed to make you feel fast, with its flowing, rounded edges that emanate a faint purple glow underneath them. You are out of the restaurant, leaving though the same place you came in. Between opening the door to get in and to get out, you spent a grand total of 8 minutes in that building. 8 Minutes that you could be using to drive to school, or work, or whatever it is you need to do. Wow.

Now, why does Dunkin focus so hard on making sure your process is as expedited as humanly possible? Because, you think, "America runs on Dunkin". RUNS - key word. (Almost) Everything about them is fast. This is the image they need because in this day and age, especially in this place in the world, time is money. Time spent somewhere you don't have to be is money wasted. The bigwigs at corporate DD know for a fact that if their integrity, being that they promise to be fast, is compromised, then they will lose a large portion of their business. They managed to be fast back when they were smaller, but now that they are the goliath of their industry, the constant flow of people from opening to closing (unless they're open for 24 hours, which is becoming increasingly common) has slowed them down. In attempts to cover that up, they made the design of their shops look "fast". You accomplish so little in that store, but the striated counter, the news, and the island table make you feel as though those 8 minutes were the fastest you've ever experienced. What seems like a quick, harmless trip through a coffee store is actually a veritable coffee-based ordeal, and Dunkin does a great job of covering it up.