Tacoma will welcome its first Krispy Kreme store with a 12-hour party that begins Monday evening and extends into Tuesday morning.
In celebrating the opening, the public is invited to attend The Dozen Hour Party at 4302 Tacoma Mall Blvd.
Beginning at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, June 23, attendees can enjoy the free event, which includes movie classics on a giant 40-foot theater screen, games, prizes and more.
The movie schedule is as follows:
– Fantasia, 9:30 p.m.;
– Grease, midnight; and
– The Wizard of Oz, 2 a.m.
To enhance the movie-going experience, popcorn, hot dogs, sodas and Krispy Kreme espresso beverages will be available.
There will also be family recreational activities, including box hockey, a doughnut walk and a game station from 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Loung chairs, coupons for a dozen doughnuts and Krispy Kreme Tacoma Mall grand opening t-shirts are prizes that can be won.
Krispy Kreme officials encourage those planning on attending the party to bring friends, family and even pets to celebrate the arrival of the maker of the popular confectionaries to Tacoma.
The party concludes – or just starts to get good, depending on how you feel about doughnuts – with the Krispy Kreme Tacoma Malls official grand opening at 5:30 a.m., on Tuesday, June 24.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony will precede the actual admission of the public. Gerard Centioli, president and CEO of KremeWorks, the Pacific Northwest Krispy Kreme area developer, and Jeri Knox, a concept partner of KremeWorks Washington, are some of the Krispy Kreme officials who will be present for the grand opening ceremony.
Tacoma and the Northwest have given us a terrific welcome, Centioli said in a statement. Were extremely pleased and honored to be part of this wonderful community and to be able to bring the Krispy Kreme tradition here.
Our Hot Doughnuts Now sign will be on in the mornings and evenings when our Original Glazed doughnuts are coming off the line, said Christi Sanchez, the stores general manager.
The Krispy Kreme store in Tacoma will be the companys fifth location in Washington state.
There are Krispy Kreme stores in Issaquah, Spokane, Burlington and Seattle.
FUN FACTS ABOUT KRISPY KREME
* A typical Krispy Kreme store produces more than 3,000 doughnuts per hour. Larger stores can produce up to 12,000 doughnuts per hour.
* Krispy Kreme produces enough doughnuts in about a week to make a line of doughnuts from New York to Los Angeles.
* Krispy Kreme uses enough chocolate each year to fill two Olympic-size swimming pools and a million pounds of sprinkles, which is equivalent to the weight of 145 elephants.
