Doughnut Plant Reviews

Mostly management. I have never met a corporate team so oblivious in my life. They made me show up to work (at 6:30 am) during a blizzard and then when the driver took 2 hours to arrive due to dangerous road conditions (he had a video of the car literally swerving on the bridge from all of the ice on the road), and instead of asking the driver if he was okay, they yelled at him for not getting the doughnuts to us on time. When asked about the "certified barista program," they will give you all the necessary training, but fail to give you the test that promotes the $1 raise. This means that you are now trained and qualified to work the bar, but are not getting paid your promised wage. Upward mobility is nearly impossible, and when confronted, management will IGNORE you.

Middle and Upper Management are Starbucks-ifying the store atmosphere with a strange vengeance. I knew the Doughnut Plant as my favorite after school bakery in middle school and high school. I have dear memories of the days when one charming, reggae-blasting, gentleman ran the shop. Something happened in just four years... They hired a drill-sergeant store manager to create an actually unworkable environment. I've worked at neighborhood shops in Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn who, like the Doughnut Plant, are such a neighborhood institution that this kind of thing is a slap in the face to everyone who came everyday, partially for doughnuts and partially to keep up a conversation with the cute counter-girl or counter-boy they've gotten to know over the course of being a regular. These things don't happen anymore. The "full-time certified barista" position I was hired for doesn't exist and will most likely never exist if things don't change.