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Finally! Dunkin' Donuts in Shanghai opens this week


It took about 6 months longer than originally planned, but Dunkin’ Donuts will open its first store in Shanghai this week! The location: on Fuzhou Lu close to Hubei Lu, a five minute walk from People’s Square.

Yesterday I went over to take a look at the store and they almost finished their decoration. The store had a sign saying that it was not open yet, but because I could see fresh donuts on their shelves already and there were a lot of staff walking around in Dunkin’ Donuts outfits, I decided to walk in anyway. It turned out that the new staff were having a training and the donuts were there for that purpose. I asked if I could buy a donut and they said that was fine. There were no prices yet so I asked about them, but they told me I would get my donut for free! Well, that’s a nice service.

I was not allowed to take pictures inside (do I look like a spy or so?), but the store is very similar to a regular Dunkin’ Donuts store. The main difference is that the donut names were all in Chinese, there was not even an English description (yet). So if you don’t know your Chinese characters you’ll have to guess what’s inside.

Dunkin’ Donuts used to have stores in Beijing when I just started living there around the turn of the century, but they closed down soon after that. Likely because China was not ready for this product yet, but things have changed a lot over the past years. Looking at the success of Mr. Donut in Shanghai I am quite sure Dunkin’ can be a big hit as well. The location is not the best one, but I assume they want to start with a lower cost place before moving in full scale (more shops will likely open soon).

If you’re close to People’s Square, give Dunkin’ Donuts coffee and donuts a try. The store will officially open on Friday, October 31.

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  1. A fit guy like you better watch out. Donuts are a good way of packing on the pounds. 🙂

  2. Yeah, I know… Each donut I eat means that I will need to run an additional 20 minutes to burn off the calories. That means that after the trailwalker I can eat at least 60 extra donuts 🙂

  3. how was the taste? usually baked stuff are not as good in china as it is in europe or the US.

  4. Taste was pretty good, similar to Dunkin’ in the US (I only tried one donut so far though). I feel that nowadays good shops have the same quality as Europe or the US, look at Paul’s for example.

  5. My first experience at Paul’s, Ritz Carlton branch wasn’t good. Service was awful. Food was good though.

  6. Last time I ask them when they are supposed to open up, a waitress told me next week. Now, I just came back from there and I was told the the opening is on November 18th. Will they actual open or just continue teasing us with donuts?

  7. I just went over to Dunkin’ Donuts as well, and I got the same answer… ‘Maybe’ about three more weeks I was told. Why? They would not tell me. The store seemed pretty much finished, they were just finalizing the words on the glass front. My guess: there is a problem with the donut machines.