Fast Food Watch: Dunkin' Donuts to Open 1,400 Stores in China

Those of us here at the Fast Food Watch desk have been high-fiving so much since this bit of news came out that our palms are bright red: Dunkin' Donuts plans to open 1,400 stores in China. Thank you. Oh Heaven, thank you. 

The coffee and doughnut chain that is a US East Coast place of worship institution is partnering with a company called Golden Cup Pte. Ltd. for the rollout, which will begin in the fourth quarter of this year. Which is far too late, in our opinion. 

Dunkin' Donuts currently operates 16 stores in China in the southern half of the country. KFC runs about 4,600 outlets in China, with McDonald's having about 2,300, so 16 to 1,400 is fairly ambitious. 

As this publication happens to remember, this isn't Dunkin' Donuts' first foray into the China market. There were once 10 outlets in Beijing in the late 1990s. However, poor consumer education and failure to create a market for the product next to its sister company, Baskin Robbins, both owned by Allied Domecq, led to their closure. Northern Chinese consumers found the product to be far too sweet, so when the company re-entered the China market a few years ago, they bowed in Shanghai, where palates skew sweeter. There used to be a Carl's Jr. here too.

I'll have a chocolate glazed and a large iced tea, lemon, no sugar, to go. 

Photo: Adventure for Two