Tucson has once again lost Krispy Kreme.
On Sunday, with no fanfare or warning, the two Tucson Krispy Kreme doughnut stores - one across from Park Place, the other in Marana's Interstate 10-Cortaro Road corridor - closed.
By Tuesday night, the red, green and white sign shaped like the paper hats the store gave away with abandon was off the building at 8260 N. Cortaro Road.
Franchise owner Dan Brinton (Doughnut Dan to his Facebook fans) could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
A company official said the Tucson stores were closed because they did not make money, in large part because of the rising cost of gas to truck doughnuts from the Mesa factory store.
"We werenšt making enough money to keep them open," said Ryan Guagliardo, general manager of the Mesa store.
The Tucson stores employed six people, he said.
Brinton was the second franchisee to take a stab at the Tucson market. Nebraska-based Rigel Corp. was the first, opening two stores in 2002 and a handful of stores in the Phoenix area. Rigel filed bankruptcy and abruptly shut down its Arizona operations four years later, leaving racks of doughnuts parked behind its Tucson Mall location.
Brinton galloped in three years later, opening first in Marana in June 2009, then on Oracle Road in Oro Valley that fall. By year's end, he had opened the Park Place-area store.
The Oro Valley store closed last year, and a Dunkin' Donuts is expected to take over the space.
Just last month, Brinton celebrated his third anniversary in Arizona by offering customers a $20 "365" card, good for a free doughnut and coffee every day until May 2012. The cards will be honored at Brinton's six Phoenix-area stores, which Guagliardo said are still open. He said there are plans to open another four stores in the west Valley, including in Surprise and Buckeye, in the next year.
Contact reporter Cathalena E. Burch at cburch@azstarnet.com or 573-4642.
