THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 5, 1995 TAG: 9412310119
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT McCASKEY, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
The doughnuts were fresh, and the coffee was hot. Even at 5 in the morning there wasn't always a seat at the counter.
Since 1960, the Krispy Kreme at the corner of East Little Creek Road and Chesapeake Boulevard had been a 24-hour beacon to generations of Norfolk residents.
But at midnight Dec. 18, the familiar green, red and white lights went out. By the end of the following day, the sign was down, the interior gutted and the windows boarded up. To drive by now, one wouldn't know a Krispy Kreme had ever been there.
``They didn't tell nobody,'' said Eddie Stone, a customer for 25 years. ``On the last day, all there was was a small notice on the Coke machine.''
The closing came as a surprise and a mystery to a cadre of customers who would spend hours over doughnuts, coffee and conversation.
``Business wasn't off at all,'' said Wilbur Riggs, another regular. ``I heard a rumor that they weren't going to renew the lease because the landlord wanted too much money.''
The 35-year lease ended Dec. 31. Wood Britton, director of marketing at Krispy Kreme's home office in Winston-Salem, N.C., indicated that the company had tried to work something out to continue the operation, but an agreement could not be reached.
``We simply couldn't come to terms with the landlord,'' Britton said.
Steve Johnson, senior counsel and assistant secretary for Krispy Kreme, said that he heard a Revco has leased the site.
Bryant McGann, of the Norfolk law firm Vandeventer, Black, Meredith and Martin, is the attorney for the MWT Corporation, which owns the property. He confirmed that a Revco will open there in early January.
``What it boiled down to is that I think the property is too valuable for a Krispy Kreme,'' McGann said. ``They never really engaged us to discuss the matter.''
Johnson said he had no information on price or negotiations but that company is looking to open a new Norfolk location. The old store's employees have been relocated to sites in Hampton and Virginia Beach.
``The company was good to us and let us know we'd still have our jobs, but I do miss the old faces,'' said Joanne Wilson, who worked in Norfolk for six years before being sent to Hampton.
``We had customers who'd been going there since the store first opened,'' said James Brumsey Jr., who was moved to Virginia Beach. ``We're certainly going to miss those people.''
Stone and Riggs were among a myriad of faithful patrons who frequented the Norfolk store. According to Stone, the spot attracted people from all walks of life.
``It was like a Cheers place - you really got to know the faces,'' he said. ``There'd be plumbers, real estate people, electricians, if you needed your TV fixed you'd just ask someone. You didn't need a phone book.
``I got to know a lot of people up there. It was a great place to start the day. I'll miss it.''
A nearby business owner, who did not want to be identified, speculated on the closing.
``Several years ago I heard that Krispy Kreme wasn't happy with the neighborhood and wasn't going to renew the lease,'' the man said. ``It's terrible around here, the crime and everything. It's just a sign of the times for East Little Creek Road.''
Johnson said that had not heard anything concerning the nature of neighborhood.
Krispy Kreme was founded by Vernon Rudolph in Winston Salem in 1937. After his death in 1976, the company was sold to Beatrice Foods Inc. In 1982, a group of the corporation's franchisees bought the business. There are currently 105 stores throughout the Southeast, two in Hampton Roads.
Britton noted that the company is expanding and looking to fill the Norfolk vacuum as soon as possible.
``We are working to put a new Krispy Kreme in the Norfolk area,'' he said. ``Where we don't know, but we certainly want to get back into that market.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by RICHARD L. DUNSTON
The Krispy Kreme doughnut shop that had operated in Norfolk since
1960 is now barren and boarded up.
by CNB