Donuts
So my friend and I visited a donut shop for breakfast this morning, before class, and it made me realize how difficult of a business a donut shop is. They probably open around 5:30 or so, to serve the early-risers, which means that they themselves have to start work before 5.
And I don’t think that the profit margins are that large either; a donut is about $0.85, and subtracting the cost of materials and overhead, there’s probabably a $0.25 or less margin of profit on it. Which means that they have to sell a lot of donuts in order to keep their business running, which I guess they somehow do. This particular one, Lov N’ Donuts, has been in business for over a year, which generally marks the make-or-break point for small businesses.
I think that the greatest profits are probably made from thoughtful people who buy drinks from them; Yasamin bought an ice tea Snapple for double what she could have at Costco or somewhere else.
Yet donuts, I think, form an essential part of the American psyche. Besides being unhealthy in every way possible and a definite precursor to developing Type II diabetes, donuts are a form of quick and cheap fulfillment. Quintessentially American.