Krispy Kreme to close small store in Raleigh's City Plaza

By: RICHARD CRAVER | Winston-Salem Journal
Published: January 29, 2011

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. is ending a smaller-shop experiment in downtown Raleigh, citing slow traffic flow at its City Plaza store as the reason.

The store on Fayetteville Street will close Sunday, spokesman Brian Little said Friday.

When it opened in October 2009, there was hope that it would serve as a customer magnet to the $14.8 million retail center.

"We were happy to have been involved with the City Plaza project," Little said.

"We had hoped that, while very close to our Person Street store, there would be sufficient volume to justify the location. It turned out that there simply was not enough pedestrian traffic for us in the area to justify keeping this unique shop in operation."

Little said that the City Plaza store was a 900-square-foot version of its shops.

"There are no other shops exactly like it in our company-store system," Little said.

"I'm sure we would test this particular type of smaller shop again in the future if the right situation presented itself. We are absolutely committed to our smaller-store concept. It is the foundation of our domestic growth."

Krispy Kreme's lease on the City Plaza store runs through Oct. 31, 2014.

"We expect that they will fully meet their corporate obligations under this lease, and we are in discussion with them about this, said Gil Hearn, the asset manager for The Simpson Organization of Atlanta, which manages the property.

Hearn said that the three other retail tenants at City Plaza "have been extremely successful."

"As a North Carolina-based company and a good corporate citizen, Krispy Kreme should clearly recognize the importance of maintaining its brand and presence not only on Fayetteville Street but in the highly visible City Plaza, the new center of downtown Raleigh that serves downtown tourists, workers and residents," Hearn said.

Little said that the 11 employees at the City Plaza store have been offered the opportunity to transfer to other stores in the Triangle.

"Krispy Kreme remains very committed to its growth plans for the Triangle market," Little said. "Once we open our Fuquay-Varina shop in mid-to-late April, we will have five locations there."

rcraver@wsjournal.com

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