The coffee-loving residents of Stow, Massachusetts got a different kind of jolt recently when both of the town’s beloved Dunkin’ Donuts shut down.
‘Yeah, it sucks,’ a town resident a WBZ News Radio reporter. ‘There’s nothing fun to do and Dunkin’ Donuts was the one place where everyone likes to go.’
There’s no denying the Bay State’s obsession with the down-market coffee and confection chain. They have even coined several nicknames for the donut shop – DuDos, Dunks, or Dunkies.
Last year, when Mass-native and current husband to Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck, broke up with Bond girl Ana de Armas, he drowned his sorrows in an iced coffee and a bag of donuts from Dunkies.
The franchise, which was founded in Quincy, Massachusetts in 1948, according to the company’s website, has far outstripped trendy coffee spots like Starbucks or any fancy Australian brew spot. In 2018, 47 percent of people surveyed in Boston said that they’d stopped by for a brew and a honey-glazed in the last 30 days.
There are 1,073 Dunkin’ Donuts locations in the state’s 351 towns, according to WBZ, which broke the story, but as of this year, the small northern Massachusetts town of Stow has none.
‘Those bastards,’ one resident angrily responded.
Massachusetts natives, like actor Ben Affleck, have a near-obsession with Dunkin’ Donuts
After his break up with Ana de Armas, Affleck drowned his sorrows in a bag of Dunkin’ Donuts
Ana de Armas, pictured here breaking Ben Affleck’s heart after she called an end to their relationship last year
Now the residents of Stow, population 7,174, have to trek up to 3 miles to enjoy the glutinous treats like the Boston Cream or the French cruller or little sugar-glazed balls of dough known as Munchins.
‘The town of Stow is a Dunkin’ desert,’ WBZ News Radio reporter Matt Shearer reported.
‘There is no more Dunkin’ Donuts in Stow,’ one townie told the reporter.
‘Those bastards,’ another resident responded.
Dunkin’ Donuts, like the one seen here, pulled up stakes in the northern Massachusetts town of Stow
Former U.S. Representative Joe Kennedy III, who represented the state’s 4th congressional district for eight years, expressed shock and outrage over the closure of both Dunkin’ Donuts in the town of Stow
Folks from around the Bay State rallied for the people of Stow, Massachusetts who lost two Dunkin’ Donuts in the last year
Former Massachusetts congressman Joe Kennedy III expressed shock on Facebook.
‘Who let this happen?’ he tweeted.
Dunkin’ Donuts, which shortened its name to just Dunkin’ in 2018, did not immediately respond to an email request for comment.
The ‘Good Will Hunting’ actor’s brother, Casey Affleck, spoofed the Bake Bean State’s love of the donut shop on Saturday Night Live.
This man said that he had to slog a mile and a half to the closest Dunkin’ Donuts in Maynard, which is actually three miles from Stow
This young man said that Stow residents had to travel out of state to get their Dunkin’ Donuts, before correcting himself. Actually, there are two shops in Maynard, the next town over
If these grease-stained walls could talk: A void has been left in this Stow, Massachusetts retail space were a Dunkin’ Donuts once proudly stood
A 2018 survey found that 47 percent of Bostonians had visited a Dunkin’s at least once a month
This Maynard resident lamented that his morning routine had been disrupted by a migration of Stow residents encroaching on his town’s two Dunkin’ Donuts
‘I come to Dunkin’ every day – grab a cruller, extra large, three Parliament, take a big dump, that’s kinda the routine,’ the younger Affleck said in the skit, sporting a Boston Bruins ball cap, plaid flannel shirt and a barn jacket.
‘You want to talk real customer, kid, that’s me. I’m like the mayor of Dunkin’,’ he said.
In Stow, however, there was little laughter and the mood was under-caffeinated.
‘Bummed out,’ one man said. ‘Cuz I’ve been traveling further away to go to Dunkin’ Donuts.’
His trek now for the breakfast treat? ‘Over a mile and half.’
‘These days you got to go to Hudson, Sudbury – you got to leave the state,’ a young Stower told the radio station. ‘Not the state. You got to leave Stow though. It’s terrible’
The pain of the town’s twin losses has bleed into neighboring towns which have seen a migration of Stow residents clogging lines for coffee in the morning.
There are two Dunks in Maynard, Massachusetts just three miles east of town.
‘Especially if people are coming from Stow. They’re going to come through here on their way to work and then I get held up for work,’ a Maynardite lamented.
Some Stow residents are so bummed that they’ve given up on the town.
‘Don’t live in Stow anymore,’ said one fed up resident.
Scenic Stow, Massachusetts has three golf courses, a municipal airport and a couple of horses
This is not the first food tragedy that’s befallen the town, which boasts three golf courses, a municipal airport and a couple of horses, according to WBZ News Radio.
The world has also robbed the quaint New England municipality of its rightful title to the home of the butternut squash.
‘If there were justice, the butternut squash would be known as the Stow Butternut Squash, since it was developed by Stow farmer Charles Leggett at his property on Gleasondale Road in the 1940s,’ according to the town’s website.