Prepared for its National Donut Day lines to snake well down into Maple Valley, today popular South Seattle bakery The Flour Box stationed rest stops throughout its eight-hour line for brioche donuts.
“I lined up at 3 a.m. to make sure I’d be able to get a box of strawberry marmite nacho cheese donuts, but, to my dismay, the line was already a mile from the shop,” said customer Theresa Frost. “Luckily, there was a rest station with showers, bathrooms, and menus from the bakery so I could re-evaluate all my life decisions up to that point and decide to get the oysters and pine tree flavored donut instead.”
Flour Box owner and baker Pamela Vuong said she knows weathering National Donut Day lines aren’t much different from running a marathon when lines for bakeries like hers are literally more than 26 miles long.
“We added Wi-Fi stations and Zoom meeting rooms to our rest stops as well so people can pretend to be at work or tell their kids why they won’t be able to pick them up from school,” said Vuong. “We’ve also baked brioche pillows people can sleep on at each stop while waiting in our lines. Honestly, we expect this line is only about to get longer because next week we’re coming out with our much-anticipated cocoa puff Domino’s Pizza apple sauce donut.”
Asked what kept them going along the arduous trek to the front-door finish line, 90 percent of customers—despite most being in their early thirties and having jobs and kids—confirmed they would absolutely drop all life commitments for the chance at tasting a new donut flavor on really any day of the year.
