MARCH 2008: AROUND THE STATE
Who do voodoo like they do? Gotta be Voodoo Doughnut
Voodoo owners
Kenneth Pogson and Tres Shannon
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PORTLAND Five
years ago two Portlanders opened a doughnut shop with little
more than a few off-color creations and a lot of ambition. Now,
as Voodoo Doughnut approaches its wood anniversary, owners
Kenneth Pogson and Tres Shannon have seen their downtown
Portland doughnut shop amass international headlines and TV
spots watched by millions. Almost immediately after opening in
the spring of 2003, Voodoo Doughnut became a city icon and as
much a must-do tourist stop as Powell’s or the Pittock.
We recently pulled the duo away from the deep fryer to get
their once and future reflections.
How do
you keep up with demand in that tiny hole in the
wall?
Shannon: We are in the process of establishing a second
location right now. We’re still being a little vague
about it because the deal’s not been finalized.
It’ll be in one of the four quadrants in Portland. We
really need a second location. We’re turning business
away right now.
Pogson: If you go back to our original notes, it’s
pretty much the plan we laid out. Opening day, we looked at
each other and said that by five years we should have another
place. And we’re coming up on it. Now the franchise
people are bugging us. They want to give us millions of dollars
to make it like Starbucks, but we don’t want to do that.
We don’t want to cash it in yet. We’re still having
a good time.
Who’s your customer?
Pogson: Everybody. Where we’re situated, we’ve got
the bank tower nearby, and there are 5,000 people in that
everday. And there aren’t any other doughnut shops
around. Different times of the day we have different crowds:
business in the morning, family and travelers in the afternoon
and partiers at night. There’s still a lot of crossover.
Saturdays and Sundays, 50% of business is tourists.
How many
doughnuts do you sell a day?
Pogson: On an incredible day we can sell between 15,000 and
20,000 doughnuts.
How’s the
commodity market treating you?
Pogson: Soy and palm, which are the oils we use, have about
doubled in the last year. The eggs and the milk and the flour
have skyrocketed as well. But it’s a doughnut. It
doesn’t cost that much to make. Plus, in my eyes,
we’re still a vice industry, and when times are bad vice
industries always do fine.
What’s the Magic
8 Ball say?
Shannon: Worldwide doughnut
domination.
EVAN CAEL
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