KATY, TX (Covering Katy News) - The Hot Now neon light is permanently off at the Katy Krispy Kreme location after the donut shop quietly closed earlier this month.
The big Krispy Kreme sign above the front door at 1815 South Mason Road is gone, as is the Hot Now neon light, which hung in the front window, signaling that freshly made donuts were available. The only signage remaining is a small “closed permanently” message next to the front door and on the drive-thru window.
Paper covers all of the windows. The front door still lists the Christmas and New Years’ hours, but the store closed before those holidays.
The shutdown comes after two stores in Dallas and two in Houston turned off the lights earlier this year as part of a new distribution system.
The company has moved from stores that only make doughnuts in-house and sell them fresh, to a hub and spoke model, where Krispy Kreme makes donuts in one location and distributes them to grocery stores and convenience stores.
Krispy Kreme is trying new things, even teaming up with McDonald’s to test market sales of their donuts at a limited number of locations in Kentucky and North Carolina.
Covering Katy photo
This sign is at the front door of the South Mason Road Krispy Kreme location and an identical message is on the drive-thru window.
“We’ve been addressing this issue of not being as available to people over the last few years by taking control of the network to buy out the franchisees in all the major urban centers across America,” Krispy Kreme COO Josh Charlesworth told investors during a recent conference.
Covering Katy has reached out to Krispy Kreme for additional details about its new plans. We will update this story if corporate executives respond.
Hurts Donut also left Katy in October 2020. They moved from Spring Green Boulevard to the ritzy Memorial Drive in Houston, near the Rice Military neighborhood.
Still, there are donut chains that believe in the Katy market. As Covering Katy reported, Tim Horton’s opened on September 9, at Clay Road near North Mason Road, just off the Grand Parkway. VooDoo Donut opened in November at 1301 North Fry Road between the Katy Freeway and Park Row. VooDoo also recently opened a store in Cypress.
Fans of hot donuts don’t have to worry; it’s not a donut desert along South Mason Road near Highland Knolls Drive. The Shipley Do-Nut store on South Mason Road, a short distance north of the former Krispy Kreme location, remains in business and keeps making hot donuts and kolaches.