Why is a 90-year-old Texas doughnut chain trying to take on North Carolina?
Seriously.
Shipley Do-Nuts was born in Houston in 1936. Now it has more than 390 locations across 13 states, and it is moving deeper into North Carolina with two planned stores in the Raleigh area. The first is targeted for 2027, with another expected in 2028.
Shipley Do-Nuts opens third shop in BR near LSU, open 24 hours https://t.co/FMePrh1P6K pic.twitter.com/qFgCJs2uxS
— WAFB (@WAFB) August 29, 2022
That sounds like a tiny restaurant-development story. I think it is much bigger.
Because Shipley isn't just opening another doughnut shop. It is taking a very specific piece of Texas breakfast culture and asking people in another part of the country to make room for it.
And here's the funny part. North Carolina already has a famous doughnut company.
Krispy Kreme was born there. So Shipley is walking into Raleigh with a simple proposition: Texas has a doughnut you should try.
That is a pretty bold thing to say in the home state of Krispy Kreme. But it also tells us something important about how regional restaurant brands become national ones.
They don't necessarily win by being bigger. They win by being different.