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Yesterday I told you about WNEP 16’s unintentionally hilarious news report about an arson at a Dunkin Donuts in Shamokin, Pennsylvania. The sudden Dunkin Donuts closure is devastating news to Shamokin locals like Dutch Smith, who is now shit out of luck on a place to meet with his attorney. The news hit the small coal mining town hard:
“I go there every day. I get a chicken bacon croissant. I get coffee or a Powerade if I’m dehydrated. I sit there all the time. If I have any legal work that I need to do I go there, I meet with my attorneys there,” Dutch Smith said.
“Now I have to rely on myself to maybe go to a Turkey Hill or something where I don’t like their doughnuts. I’d rather the doughnuts at Dunkin Donuts. I’m kind of dealing with it, but I really miss Dunkin Donuts,” Alba Wehr said.
“I’m gonna miss that place if it don’t open up. A lot of my friends go in there and get that cold coffee, iced coffee I guess it’s called,” Edna Faust said.
In time, the Dunkin shall rise from the ashes like a great phoenix to caffeinate Shamokin’s ice coffee-deprived citizens. In the meantime, the people of Shamokin are learning to cope by taking their business elsewhere. Because this Dunkin Donuts fire is one of the more newsworthy things to happen in Northeastern PA since The Office went off-air, Scranton’s WNEP found a development in the story. They’re totally not milking it at all:
After “A Piece of Cake” owner Jill Smith heard about the fire, she sprang into action. This family-owned business is usually closed on Sundays and Mondays.
“Even though it’s a corporation, we still have community people who work there and have jobs. That’s when we stepped it up on Sunday, came in, got things ready and opened on Monday,” Smith said.
Smith and her family have a planned vacation this weekend, but will reopen Tuesday. They will open every Monday after that until Dunkin Donuts reopens. This week she’s seen a lot of new faces.
“People that have been displaced because where they sit at Dunkin right now is closed. We opened our doors so that they can still have their fix with coffee and goodies,” Smith said.
Another coffee shop that’s seeing a boom in business is “The Sweet Tooth Cafe” on Independence Street.
“A lot of people are missing their coffee. They’re going through withdrawal. You see Facebook and it’s this and that. I miss this, I’m not getting that. They need their fix,” Michael Kane said.
You know how the saying goes: When the community Dunkin Donuts burns down, it takes a village.
Soon your nightmare of coffee runs at Turkey Hill and family-owned businesses will be over, Shamokin.
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[H/T: Stacey Ritzen]