Complaint Review: Dunkin' Donuts

In the good old days, the Library of Congress (LOC) in Washington, D.C.
used to have a full service cafeteria in the basement dining room off
the corridor. Like many institutions (hospitals, universities, etc) the
cafeterias have been replaced with corporate franchises. This happened
several years ago here. To save a little money meaning not having to
extend benefits or protections, these workers have been replaced by the
fast-food workers.

Instead of a full-service cafeteria all they have now is Dunkin Donuts
and Subway.

But it beats all to see all these younger LOC workers lining up as
willing commercial Dunkin Donuts patrons. I really dislike DD with a
passion. It goes back to a family friend (Chinese American lady) who
tried to open her own franchise back in the 90s in Renton, WA. She had a
background in nursing but wanted to try working in business. It was a
disaster,and it wasn't because she didn't try or didn't work her knickers off. (I
know because she would stay at our house). It was because of the rank
racism, it's institutional, with DD.

For some reason imho DD really thrives with a base of square, hunky-dory
types who are steeped in the dialectics of catholic white privilege.
There's a classism embedded with a woman who can't bother making coffee
for herself and who has the time to waste standing in line for 15
minutes to get some pumpkin donut balls (typically only two) at DD here
to start off her morning. It's actually a thinly disguised social scene
where we get to see them in their pretty shoes, Macy's dresses, plaid
shirts, khaki slacks and whatnot.

In Renton, you got the Irish blue collar Jack and Jill types who just
didn't like seeing anything run by anyone who didn't fit the stereotype
of their class. That meant the manager should not have been a
Chinese-American female (even if the negative stereotypes all but
encourage exploitation as sex-workers for overpaid).

Today imho DD still plays up to the stereotypes somehow with their
commercials or commercialism. For instance, the charcoal donut ad in
Thailand featuring a black-faced Thai "jez funning."

I don't believe they support their employees very well either, as
generally is the case with fast-foods, meaning their workers may not
receive deserve overtime, or vacation pay, or full-time benefits. If you
check the BBB you will notice, for instance, as of today they only have
a C+ rating due to failure to respond and they are not BBB accredited.
There are, in fact, numerous low-star reviews about Dunkin Donuts at the
Consumer Affairs website. In fact, I also find their coffee to not have
much taste, and their donuts like puff pastry.

Here the DD workers also are rude to LOC guests. I had a coupon for $.25
cents off coffee, and the worker said it wasn't good here. She didn't
even check with her manager until I insisted. Then she just stood there
and expected me to walk away after she said the coupon was no good. She
did not even ask that I might want to order coffee anyway. She just stood
there and did not say anything. When I tried to prompt her, saying,
"Aren't you going to ask what I might like?" She looked at me very huffy
and nonplussed and acted as if that was totally out of line. Then she
looked over my head and around at the other people in line (mostly LOC
workers) who also participated in gaming me by pretending I was asking a
very rude question.

Obviously, like at a Southern ball, she thinks all she has to say is
"Next?" With a willing line of dupes, I guess that is all she has to do,
is act like a matron doling punch servings out of the punch bowl.

The environment here is part-and-parcel with Dunkin Donuts and Subway,
this is why I mention it. If in past years, we had a cafeteria where
cafeteria workers assiduously milled around the open service islands,
cleaned the tables, and made small talk with the workers and guests,
that was part of the sense of a camaraderie. Everyone participated in
making it feel like a welcoming place. People had more choice and
independence. The food was more authentic. It had real class. People
also cared more about the food workers.

Today, it is more like a rank-and-file prep-school meetup. It blows me
away that the LOC workers can't see the writing on the wall. They think
they are the grand exception to all that is happening in the private
sector and everywhere else because they are part of the privileged jet
set. They are well-paid enough to not think about the big picture.
Rather than dwell on the jobless recovery and privatization of the
middle class job sectors, they can diddle away their time reminiscing
about the Great Depression and New Deal. Maybe they regard it as part of
sinecure that they only need to work 8 hours, somewhat leisurely, and
then go home. (Boy are they out of touch if they think it's just all
about learning some ball-room dancing and watching old-timer movies from
the early 20th century.)

The DD workers hate the $1.00 coffee machine outside in the nearby snack
room in the hallway. The DD worker saw me use this machine on a later
date (to avoid them of course) and she purposely plunked herself down
nearby in front of the machine to partially block people's way to
discourage them from buying coffee from the coffee machine.

I can't imagine what it takes to make the DD workers love their job like
that, except that they are completely brainwashed. They sure don't act
like they respect people, themselves, or anyone else. In fact, it sort
of reminds me of how MerryMaids employ corporate brainwashing to make the maids love
their exploitative jobs.

In closing, here's an example in the NY Daily News about an employee
harassing a customer (colored worker harassing a female patron of color
http://www.grubstreet.com/2016/06/dunkin-donuts-gets-backlash-over-workers-racism.html).

And here's the photo of the Thai blackfaced donut ad
(http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/dunkin-donuts-apologizes-racist-thai-campaign-article-1.1442463)
as if to insinuate that being black is just a joke, a flavor of the day.

Happy Dunkin!