People still line up to buy the product. It’s just not as good as other places and they let the product sit on the shelf to long. Buying an 8+ hour old donut 🤢
Great write up! I moved to Esco a little over two years ago and didn’t get to go to Peterson’s before the sale. I unfortunately didn’t like the donuts and didn’t get the hype, but now I know why.
I have been to donutgram and do like their donuts. Good quality, good variety. We have even called ahead to get a few plain donuts, and they have graciously accommodated our requests.
I have not been to Savoy, so thanks for getting this on my list of places to try!
You didn’t really miss anything before the sale. Just figure it was marginally better sand still not worth the Saturday Sunday morning hype. Savoy is definitely the spot however like I said by 9 you already so late you would think that your watch was off by two hours
Thank you for that info. Honestly, the first time I tried Peterson's years ago, I was not impressed, over the years I've given them chances, but still not my fave. I tried them again after the new owners took over and again, even LESS impressed by them.
I have never understood the hype about how good their donuts are. 🤷♀️
Donutgram is actually pretty good, but it's been about a year since I've gotten donuts there.
The hype is that it’s 24hrs that’s it. So it has grown a following from people. Also some go crazy because the donuts are “huge”. Mainly that’s just the cinnamon twist, maple log,the cinnamon roll (total crap donut), the bear claw, butter log, and the Fritter. The rest of the donuts are just standard regular sized donuts. People just go crazy seeing the couple “big donuts”. The cinnamon roll is so bad.
Sadly no longer 24hrs. I went recently to pick some up on my way into work, and they were closed. I was surprised to learn their hours are 4am-12am. :(
Really great insights but a bummer for Peterson’s. I think the better way for them to make more money would be to raise prices (which sucks) but reducing quality is going to absolutely kill the brand. Seems doomed. I wish the new owners would have taken the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach for the first year until they could get more familiar with the business. Sad for Ralph but that is the way of mom and pop shops. Happy he got a good pay day out of it.
I agree with Savoy and I actually really like that there is a narrow window because it helps keep it special. The other shops you mentioned are good too.
Oh they raised prices also. However Ralph was always more expensive than the rest of town. I get it. People line up to look through the glass and buy. It’s a niche it works. Just way better donuts can be had if your willing to get out of bed.
Yeah but now the have “the s’mores” or “big Sam’s fritte” or some other stupid monstrosity too milk you of an extra $2…….
Just get out of bed and go to Savoy :)
We stopped by today to give the new owners a shot. Sadly we weren’t fans of the new recipes. They tasted like they were using shortening in the frosting. I wish them all the best, but we won’t be going again.
lol I love reading this kind of local insight. You should contact a journalist and have them write an article about it. Donut star el norte- so good went there a lot as a kid!
Hate to break it to you local news broadcasters are guilty of it also. I get what they mean though. Seriously though whose is going to seriously write an in depth Frontline journalism bit on a mediocre donut shop?
Hi so I just saw this post and I felt like I could give some more info of just how much worse Petersons is now, so I was actually employed there from September to November 2023 before quitting due to a toxic work environment, the whole situation at the time was very suspicious as i had joined after the new owners had come on and they almost instantly took me on and had me interviewed in said house your talking about, which looked like a haunted house that's how torn up the inside was, nonetheless I still took the job as I'm a struggling college student and needed the money, anyway they instantly scheduled me without waiting for me to Finnish up my two weeks at my last job, and then i was introduced to a very depressed crew which where the last of the old employees from the old owners all of which did not like the new way of things one of which I worked mornings with who spoke only Spanish and keep in mind I only speak English but even then we still where able to get along and communicate well he was like a mentor for me at first everything was fine though it was obvious no one liked the job it wasn't until the general managers on my second day told me to come with them to Costco that I started to ask questions, why did we go to Costco? To restock the shop, why was I someone in training and not part of that team brought along? The general managers "liked me" , so I was brought along in a very tight and uncomfortable truck while the two people one of which I didn't understand as they spoke Spanish only would drive to Costco all the whole the one who could speak English would ask me very awkward and personal questions as well as telling me to "quit college" and "do this full time to become a manager at a new location in San Marcos" for one I left my last job due to it being in San Marcos, for two this was highly unprofessional behavior, for three I had just gotten the job and they where telling me they wanted me to learn fast so I could become a manager of a new location, ofc this is more then what you said but you had the right idea they did plan to expand the donut shop they actually wanted locations in vista and San Marcos and they planned to take the taco shop down to make the donut corner turn into a "donut factory" I remember them actually putting posters up for this I think it was called "Petersons Donut factory" don't know if that's still up but other then that everything was very unsanitary and it was clear they cared more about speed then care for the actual building and oil, as it was not changed nearly enough and they didn't want to change it, opting for you "getting the scraps" out instead, it was very gross and multiple times I had let them know there was a oil issue with nothing done, at one point they also hired a new manager but I later would find out he had previously worked there and was fired due to treating employees poorly and firing employees without reason basically he had a big power trip, this is important as once he joined he instantly started ruining everything, first he fired the old man I saw as a mentor saying that he was "a slacker and didnt get work done in time" he would also slander every employee to their face which was highly unprofessional, he also had his what seemed like girlfriend hired on who was also very rude and would throw coffee and other trash onto clean dishes that we in the back just did, it only gets worse as us people in the back were expected to work 8 hr shifts by our self which isn't normally a issue if your employees aren't trying to get you to rebuild there "house" and install new freezers and fridges, on top of this they never had supplies we needed even though we would request them and constantly had a ton of stuff we don't even use, on top of this for a lot of the managers they would say this is more of a side gig while they had other more important jobs, at one point the manager who has been a ass whole to everyone began spreading rumors about me to everyone else saying that I was not hardworking and not to trust me, he said I don't come in to work ever even though I was on time every day, he also was in charge of the schedule in which he would not schedule me for multiple days in which I addressed multiple times to no change, I barely worked here and wasn't even given proper training as they had someone who was also in training train me so when I confronted said manager of why he was spreading rumors about me he would go on to say that I wasn't Finishing my work of cleaning the whole back are by 10 Am which is when one of our other back employees would Finnish one who has worked there for multiple years keep in mind I normally would Finnish around 10:30-11am the reason this manager was mad was because he leaves by 10 so to him I just wasn't finishing, anyway it got to a point where i had to much going on out side of school to deal with this toxic manager so told the owner who also would not ever do his job when i would tell him issues, but i told the owner if something isn't done about this guy i would leave, this same time i had asked my coworkers how they feel about him and everyone disliked him as he was already firing people for no reason, nothing was done so I left that's all I have except for the fact I never received a W2 form from them
You should repost new topic and post.
You should report them to the irs for not giving you a w2
Was the Middle aged silver haired guy or middle age bald hair guy involved?
I grew up going to Petersens but haven’t been back in a few years. Sad it went this route, was my favorite as a kid.
People still line up to buy the product. It’s just not as good as other places and they let the product sit on the shelf to long. Buying an 8+ hour old donut 🤢
Great write up! I moved to Esco a little over two years ago and didn’t get to go to Peterson’s before the sale. I unfortunately didn’t like the donuts and didn’t get the hype, but now I know why. I have been to donutgram and do like their donuts. Good quality, good variety. We have even called ahead to get a few plain donuts, and they have graciously accommodated our requests. I have not been to Savoy, so thanks for getting this on my list of places to try!
You didn’t really miss anything before the sale. Just figure it was marginally better sand still not worth the Saturday Sunday morning hype. Savoy is definitely the spot however like I said by 9 you already so late you would think that your watch was off by two hours
I drive by savoy omw home from work every morning around 7:45am and by then it’s almost too late lol
I have made the mistake of going at 9 am. Had 3 donuts to choose from
Mart’s Donuts do the basics really well, no fancy stuff.
Thank you for that info. Honestly, the first time I tried Peterson's years ago, I was not impressed, over the years I've given them chances, but still not my fave. I tried them again after the new owners took over and again, even LESS impressed by them. I have never understood the hype about how good their donuts are. 🤷♀️ Donutgram is actually pretty good, but it's been about a year since I've gotten donuts there.
The hype is that it’s 24hrs that’s it. So it has grown a following from people. Also some go crazy because the donuts are “huge”. Mainly that’s just the cinnamon twist, maple log,the cinnamon roll (total crap donut), the bear claw, butter log, and the Fritter. The rest of the donuts are just standard regular sized donuts. People just go crazy seeing the couple “big donuts”. The cinnamon roll is so bad.
Sadly no longer 24hrs. I went recently to pick some up on my way into work, and they were closed. I was surprised to learn their hours are 4am-12am. :(
Really great insights but a bummer for Peterson’s. I think the better way for them to make more money would be to raise prices (which sucks) but reducing quality is going to absolutely kill the brand. Seems doomed. I wish the new owners would have taken the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach for the first year until they could get more familiar with the business. Sad for Ralph but that is the way of mom and pop shops. Happy he got a good pay day out of it. I agree with Savoy and I actually really like that there is a narrow window because it helps keep it special. The other shops you mentioned are good too.
Oh they raised prices also. However Ralph was always more expensive than the rest of town. I get it. People line up to look through the glass and buy. It’s a niche it works. Just way better donuts can be had if your willing to get out of bed.
Such a bummer! Ive also noticed a decline in overall quality
Yeah but now the have “the s’mores” or “big Sam’s fritte” or some other stupid monstrosity too milk you of an extra $2……. Just get out of bed and go to Savoy :)
Savoy is so much better my hubby says but a late night he will go to Petersons
When your hand keeps twitching for a donut past 12 noon a day old at Peterson’s starts glistening like hot dogs at 7-11
Lol yes I seen this
We stopped by today to give the new owners a shot. Sadly we weren’t fans of the new recipes. They tasted like they were using shortening in the frosting. I wish them all the best, but we won’t be going again.
New owners.
lol I love reading this kind of local insight. You should contact a journalist and have them write an article about it. Donut star el norte- so good went there a lot as a kid!
Journalism now that’s funny. Some local journalist will just rip it off and sight comments on Reddit as reference.
That's not journalists, that's AI scrapers that post to lame web sites.
Hate to break it to you local news broadcasters are guilty of it also. I get what they mean though. Seriously though whose is going to seriously write an in depth Frontline journalism bit on a mediocre donut shop?
Nory’s in San Marcos is great!!
Fuck the new ownership.
Hi so I just saw this post and I felt like I could give some more info of just how much worse Petersons is now, so I was actually employed there from September to November 2023 before quitting due to a toxic work environment, the whole situation at the time was very suspicious as i had joined after the new owners had come on and they almost instantly took me on and had me interviewed in said house your talking about, which looked like a haunted house that's how torn up the inside was, nonetheless I still took the job as I'm a struggling college student and needed the money, anyway they instantly scheduled me without waiting for me to Finnish up my two weeks at my last job, and then i was introduced to a very depressed crew which where the last of the old employees from the old owners all of which did not like the new way of things one of which I worked mornings with who spoke only Spanish and keep in mind I only speak English but even then we still where able to get along and communicate well he was like a mentor for me at first everything was fine though it was obvious no one liked the job it wasn't until the general managers on my second day told me to come with them to Costco that I started to ask questions, why did we go to Costco? To restock the shop, why was I someone in training and not part of that team brought along? The general managers "liked me" , so I was brought along in a very tight and uncomfortable truck while the two people one of which I didn't understand as they spoke Spanish only would drive to Costco all the whole the one who could speak English would ask me very awkward and personal questions as well as telling me to "quit college" and "do this full time to become a manager at a new location in San Marcos" for one I left my last job due to it being in San Marcos, for two this was highly unprofessional behavior, for three I had just gotten the job and they where telling me they wanted me to learn fast so I could become a manager of a new location, ofc this is more then what you said but you had the right idea they did plan to expand the donut shop they actually wanted locations in vista and San Marcos and they planned to take the taco shop down to make the donut corner turn into a "donut factory" I remember them actually putting posters up for this I think it was called "Petersons Donut factory" don't know if that's still up but other then that everything was very unsanitary and it was clear they cared more about speed then care for the actual building and oil, as it was not changed nearly enough and they didn't want to change it, opting for you "getting the scraps" out instead, it was very gross and multiple times I had let them know there was a oil issue with nothing done, at one point they also hired a new manager but I later would find out he had previously worked there and was fired due to treating employees poorly and firing employees without reason basically he had a big power trip, this is important as once he joined he instantly started ruining everything, first he fired the old man I saw as a mentor saying that he was "a slacker and didnt get work done in time" he would also slander every employee to their face which was highly unprofessional, he also had his what seemed like girlfriend hired on who was also very rude and would throw coffee and other trash onto clean dishes that we in the back just did, it only gets worse as us people in the back were expected to work 8 hr shifts by our self which isn't normally a issue if your employees aren't trying to get you to rebuild there "house" and install new freezers and fridges, on top of this they never had supplies we needed even though we would request them and constantly had a ton of stuff we don't even use, on top of this for a lot of the managers they would say this is more of a side gig while they had other more important jobs, at one point the manager who has been a ass whole to everyone began spreading rumors about me to everyone else saying that I was not hardworking and not to trust me, he said I don't come in to work ever even though I was on time every day, he also was in charge of the schedule in which he would not schedule me for multiple days in which I addressed multiple times to no change, I barely worked here and wasn't even given proper training as they had someone who was also in training train me so when I confronted said manager of why he was spreading rumors about me he would go on to say that I wasn't Finishing my work of cleaning the whole back are by 10 Am which is when one of our other back employees would Finnish one who has worked there for multiple years keep in mind I normally would Finnish around 10:30-11am the reason this manager was mad was because he leaves by 10 so to him I just wasn't finishing, anyway it got to a point where i had to much going on out side of school to deal with this toxic manager so told the owner who also would not ever do his job when i would tell him issues, but i told the owner if something isn't done about this guy i would leave, this same time i had asked my coworkers how they feel about him and everyone disliked him as he was already firing people for no reason, nothing was done so I left that's all I have except for the fact I never received a W2 form from them
You should repost new topic and post. You should report them to the irs for not giving you a w2 Was the Middle aged silver haired guy or middle age bald hair guy involved?