Free Krispy Kreme for vaccines? No biggie for SC shop owner, reveling in the sweetness

When Glenn Reese returned to work from the bank on Thursday, a line of cars snaked around his Krispy Kreme doughnut shop in Spartanburg.

Were they the people getting a free doughnut by showing their COVID-19 vaccination card? Reese, who says he’s the longest-running Krispy Kreme franchisee in the world, thinks not.

He usually hangs out by the cash register, and he hasn’t seen many customers show their vaccine card and walk away with only the free doughnut. And he’s heard no one say they were enticed to get the vaccine just to get the freebie doughnut as a reward.

That’s why the former longtime South Carolina senator is wondering why there’s been so much chatter on social media about Krispy Kreme’s newest freebie promotion. Facebook, Twitter you name it — the internet in recent days is rife with criticism for the iconic Winston-Salem-based doughnut chain, criticism of the criticizers and praise for a simple day of sweetness.

Some on social media have taken the position that the company is encouraging people to make unhealthy choices. Then some said that those critics were fat-shaming. Some showed off their Krispy Kreme bags and delighted in a “hot now” yeasty glazed doughnut.

Others on social media just had some good, old fun with it, like Shannon Garrison, who tweeted, “The minute I got my second vaccination Krispy Kreme started calling everyday demanding I eat donuts. They eventually towed my car and said I couldn’t get it back until I caught up on my donut eating. (I was 8 days behind.)“

Reese, 79, is sort of unaware of it all.

“I don’t look at anything like that. I grew up talking on a real phone,” he said.

His wife, Janis, was keeping him up to date on the online brouhaha.

He said the free doughnut for a vaccine promotion is not political. In fact, it is a money-maker. Few people come in and just get one free doughnut. Most get the freebie and also buy a dozen or two dozen or even three.

He has it worked out in his mind that the people who buy two dozen are from Greer or Boiling Springs. Three dozen means Gaffney, and four to five dozen would be people from Springdale, N.C., or Union. The farther people drive, the more they buy, he figures.

That’s because Krispy Kreme has a specific business model. They only locate or approve stores in the middle of an area with 500,000 people, 30 miles apart. In other words, there’s no over-saturation. Chances are if you want a Krispy Kreme, you’ve got to drive for it.

Krispy Kreme’s Columbia-area store is in Cayce.

“I sell 1,500 to 2,000 a day. That ain’t nothing,” said Reese, who owns two stores in the Upstate.

His biggest seller? The original glazed. His favorite? Creme filled with chocolate on top.

Reese lost his state Senate seat last November after serving 30 years in the Legislature. His father, a former preacher, opened the family’s Krispy Kreme shop in an enviable Spartanburg location, close to downtown, to Wofford and Converse colleges and next door to Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium.

Reese took over the business when his father died in 1979. In the years since, he has built a new building across the street — and moved the original building behind the new one to use as a warehouse — and opened a second store in Anderson.

Krispy Kreme has been around since 1937 when Vernon Rudolph bought the doughnut recipe from an Italian chef in New Orleans, the story goes. He opened a factory in what’s now Old Salem, originally to supply grocery stores.

The company says the doughnut aromas were so tempting, people started asking for doughnuts at the factory. So workers cut a hole through the wall and started selling. There are now 360 stores in the United States.

After Rudolph died, the business was sold to Beatrice Foods, then bought back by a group of franchisees and sold again in 2016 for $1.35 billion to JAB Holding Co. of Luxembourg.

A Krispy Kreme spokesperson could not be reached for comment, but Chief Marketing Officer Dave Skena told the business website Insider, “Whatever little things brands can do to help make it past the pandemic are good things.”

The free doughnut promotion is a long-time staple for Krispy Kreme. There are freebie days for teachers and veterans and even for non-vaccinated people, who can get a free doughnut every Monday from March 29 to May 24.

Reese wonders about the timing of the vaccine freebie because March is his busiest month. The company doesn’t need to give away free doughnuts now to boost sales, he said.

The vaccine promotion runs through the end of the year and is good every day. Yes, someone could go in every day and get a free doughnut by presenting their vaccination card. Reese hasn’t seen that happening, though.

In fact, he may be the only person who eats a Krispy Kreme doughnut every day. He’s been known to pull a misshapen one off the icing conveyor.

“You’ve got to test the quality of your product,” he said.

And, anyway, he’s been vaccinated.