For students looking for a flavored coffee or a coolatta fix, Dunkin’ Donuts has returned to Main Campus.
The new 24-hour location, which opened March 21, now sits beside the Edge at Avenue North at 1420 Cecil B. Moore Ave.
Formerly, Dunkin’ Donuts sat beside other shops at the 1900 block of Liacouras Walk. It closed its doors in 2005 following a dispute between the franchise owner and corporate management.
A full-service PNC Bank branch, which opened this semester, took its place.Though the new Dunkin’ Donuts has been open only a few weeks, manager Delilah Allmand said business has been booming.
“Business has been great,” Allmand said amid the whirring of blenders, adding that she had seen her share of Temple students at the new location.
But students looking to use Diamond Dollars for their purchases will be out of luck. Some students, like Kaitlin McCoale, feel inconvenienced by this.
“I would prefer Dunkin’ Donuts, if they accepted Diamond Dollars,” said the freshman psychology major. Since the new location is considered an off-campus vendor, Diamond Dollars are not accepted.
“We have discussed expanding the policy,”
said Scott Brannan, the assistant director of the Diamond Dollars Office. “We’re not sure how quickly that discussion will advance, but we are looking into that.”
For now, the office has no definitive plan to allow the acceptance of Diamond Dollars at any of the stores located in the Avenue North shopping center, including Dunkin’ Donuts location.
Yet vendors in and near Avenue North have requested to accept Diamond Dollars. The return of Dunkin’ Donuts means that there are now three major coffee vendors on Main Campus: Starbucks in the TECH Center,
7-Eleven and Dunkin’ Donuts. But despite Dunkin’ Donuts’ location change, it is business as usual for competing vendors.
Across the street, the cafe inside the Barnes & Noble bookstore serves Starbucks products. Paul Cyphers, the store manager, said he is not worried about any new competition.
“You also see it downtown. There are Dunkin’ Donuts and a lot of coffee locations, including Starbucks, right next to each other and they all seem to survive,” he said. In spite of the assortment of coffee shops on campus, sophomore advertising major Colleen
Euvanco said she is loyal to Starbucks.
“It’s quality,” she said. “It’s made the way I like it.” George Heckert, a senior psychology major, agreed that he would pick Starbucks over Dunkin’ Donuts and 7-Eleven.
“I am pretentious and I like the atmosphere,” Heckert said, adding that his coffee addiction started at Starbucks.
Senior journalism major Lindsey Stewart said she was not aware that the new Dunkin’ Donuts had opened, but is glad to hear the news. Stewart, who transferred to Temple after the Dunkin’ Donuts location on Liacouras Walk had closed, said she was disappointed when she saw the vacant store.
“I always saw the sign there, but there was nothing in it and I was really depressed because I wanted there to be one,” she said. But now that there is a Dunkin’ Donuts close to campus, Stewart said she plans to frequent the store every day.
The fact that the store does not accept Diamond Dollars is not a deterrent, she said. Dunkin’ Donuts has not been open long enough to impact other businesses in the area, but Cyphers said the product lines at Dunkin’ Donuts, Starbucks and 7-Eleven are different enough to enable them to co-exist.
Carolyn Steeves can be reached at csteeves@temple.edu.
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