East Cambridge Business Association Meeting

By on 12 January, 2012 in Customers, HUB, Menu, Operations, Packaging

I was at the East Cambridge Business Association meeting the other day. They invited me because our new location, the HUB, is in East Cambridge.

I’ll admit, my mind was wandering a little. And I was looking at this pile of Dunkin. Thinking back to when I used to bring treats like this to meetings. And wondering what we would have to do to make this a pile of Clover Popovers and breakfast sandwiches instead. I don’t mean ECBA specifically, but for this type of meeting in general. What is keeping us from being the first choice for this kind of thing?

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11 Responses to East Cambridge Business Association Meeting

  1. Lauren 12 January, 2012 at 3:43 pm #

    1) Ubiquitous-ness. I almost definitely pass by a dunkin’ donuts on my way to wherever I’m going.
    2) Price. If I’m buying 2 dozen of something, $1 an item vs. $2 an item makes a difference.
    3) Speed/Convenience. I can be in and out of a Dunkin’ donuts with 2 dozen donuts in about 5 minutes. No calling ahead. I don’t think I’d come by for 2 dozen popovers without calling ahead. Also, I no longer stop by Clover HSQ for an “on the way to work” breakfast, since picking up a coffee and oatmeal or a popover shouldn’t take 10 minutes.

  2. CosetTheTable 12 January, 2012 at 3:44 pm #

    It has to be easy to carry away. Which means boxes, napkins, bags……

    For it to be big, it also has to be one-stop, and I’m not sure you can do the Dunkin “Joe To Go” volume with pour-over coffee…….

  3. todd s 12 January, 2012 at 3:51 pm #

    simplicity, consistency, “frugality”, and convenience.

  4. Sara Gaynes 12 January, 2012 at 4:34 pm #

    Hi there,

    I’m trying to reach you guys for a quick interview for the Boston Herald. Can someone reach out to me at sara.gaynes@bostonherald.com? Thanks!

    Sara

  5. ayr 12 January, 2012 at 4:41 pm #

    Thanks Lauren –

    We’re working on that Ubiquity thing, will be a while yet before we can match Dunkin : )

    I think you’re spot on about speed/ convenience. It’s something we should figure out. The trucks are fast. We had been slow at HSQ, but I think we’ve made huge improvements in the past 2 months. Give us a try again. I think you’ll find you’re out the door in less than 4 minutes for breakfast. We’ve been working really hard on this.

    But we don’t make huge batches of stuff. Wonder what the best solution for that is. The reason we don’t is that we don’t think the stale stuff tastes very good (Dunkin), and it requires a bunch of junk we don’t want to put in our food (preservatives, fats, sugars, etc.). But there has to be a solution, right?

  6. ayr 12 January, 2012 at 4:41 pm #

    Uhgg, we’re terrible on to go stuff, aren’t we. I’m going to have to start thinking hard about this.

  7. Sam 12 January, 2012 at 5:13 pm #

    Speed / no parking (especially with a bigger order). I work in Coolidge corner, and while I actually don’t mind heading into town to pick something up – if I have to find parking it makes it rough. It would be better if you could call in this type of thing – so I could send someone in while I circle the block..

  8. Jennifer @EsqEvents 13 January, 2012 at 10:53 am #

    for meetings its also a last minute timing thing: you can walk into dunkin donuts and grab 2 dozen donuts. you can’t walk into HSQ and grab a dozen popovers.

    also you need bags for the plates: I grab stuff for dinner sometimes (to take home) and its hard to get two or more plates on MBTA bus :-)

  9. Finn 13 January, 2012 at 2:45 pm #

    Being good on “to go” stuff shouldn’t be assumed to be a virtue.

  10. ayr 13 January, 2012 at 3:28 pm #

    Think we should have dozens of Popovers on hand? We could try that out…
    Got you on the bag thing, we’re working on that.

  11. ayr 13 January, 2012 at 3:29 pm #

    Sam – I’ve been getting requests to come to Coolidge. What do you think of that idea? I hear there are some recent vacancies.

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