Thank You, Dunkin' Donuts

After just two weeks, my personal crusade against the grammatical inconsistencies of Dunkin' Donuts has come to a peaceful resolution.

On Monday, November 16th, I saw this sign hanging at a nearby Dunkin' Donuts. I wrote them a complaint letter via their website feedback form, and wrote more about the situation, here.

Within a few short hours, I was contacted via Twitter and this blog by Dunkin' Donuts. Within less than 12 hours of my original complaint, the sign had been removed. My blog post, here, explains more.

Two days ago, I received a package postmarked November 19th from Dunkin' Donuts headquarters. Not only did they send me a written apology, but they also included 2 pounds of delicious Dunkin' Donuts coffee grounds.

So this post is simply to say, thank you. You made good, Dunkin' Donuts.

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Two Words That Start With Z

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The Power of Twitter

Last night I wrote this blog post about a grammar error I spotted on a sign at a local Dunkin' Donuts restaurant. It included a picture of the offending advertisement and a copy of the feedback note I sent using the form on the Dunkin' Donuts website. I tweeted the post to my 900 or so followers.


I noticed this morning more than a dozen visitors to my blog from Canton, Massachusetts. I had a hunch about this, and after a quick visit back to dunkindonuts.com, my suspicions were confirmed - this very blog was being visited by folks working in the corporate offices of Dunkin' Donuts.

How's that for the power of Twitter?

Soon after, I was contacted by Dunkin' Donuts. Out of their 38,000 followers and millions of other Twitter users, my voice had been heard and addressed directly. How cool is that?


It's nice to see a company that is willing to speak directly to their consumers; a quick look at @dunkindonuts reveals most posts to be replies to other users. They are not using Twitter to market, but to connect - and that's what it's really about.

It's also nice to see a company take responsibility for their actions. The sign issue is on the smallest of scales, but it renews my faith in consumerism just a little bit. Even moreso, it reminds me how powerful one voice can be when heard by the right people.

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Grammar Enthusiasts VS. Dunkin' Donuts

When did society decide to stop following even the most basic rules of grammar and punctuation? Take this sign, for example. I passed two Dunkin' Donuts restaurants on the way home from work today and both had these taped to the windows. Presumably they were professionally made and distributed to the franchises by the corporation. How did the glaring grammatical error go unnoticed?

Maybe I'm being extreme, but this isn't the first time I've caught a problem with a sign at Dunkin' Donuts.

So I wrote a letter. You can read it in its entirely down below. Wouldn't it be cool if you wrote a similar letter to Dunkin' Donuts (or copied and pasted mine) stressing the importance of grammar in promotional documents? The corporation can be contacted here. If you do, leave me a note in the comments. You never know - maybe Dunkin' Donuts will be compelled to send monetary compensation!

I am writing to alert you of a serious problem that I noticed while visiting one of your Dunkin' Donuts locations. Taped to the front window of your restaurant was an advertisement for an upcoming promotional offer. It stated “Were opening at 3am on Black Friday.” From a marketing standpoint, this seems like a great idea, however it was not the strategy that alarmed me – it was the blatant grammatical error. The spelling difference between “were” and “we're” are subtle, but the meanings of these words are quite different. It is alarming to me that such a well-known restaurant chain would make such a silly error on a sign that is undoubtedly hanging in every franchise window. I am skeptical of ingesting food and drink from a restaurant that cannot catch simple mistakes that are easily detectable by the average 4^th grade student.

UPDATE: (11/17/09) - Dunkin' Donuts contacted me about 12 hours after this was posted. Read about it here.

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Spelling, Grammar, and Punctuation Examples

A recent conversation on Twitter with @WendyDrexler got me thinking about all the resources I have saved for teaching grammar. One of my biggest pet peeves is seeing incorrect spelling or grammar in a professional setting - stores, signs, public places, etc. I use the word professional loosely. Look at the pictures, and you'll see why.

Last year on my way to work one morning I nearly drove into a gas pump trying to snap a picture of this atrocity. Once at school, I shared it with my home room, and we immediately wrote and faxed an angry email to the Dunkin' Donuts location. Their reply never came, but the next day the sign was corrected, thus proving the silent effectiveness of grammar vigilance.

This sign is posted for a water ride at the former Six Flags location in Darien, NY. I'm supposed to put my full trust on a roller coaster that's traveling upside down at 60 miles per hour, but they can't handle catching a simple grammatical error? Now you know why I won't ride on roller coasters.

I have nothing to say about this one, other than it was posted outside a stand at a flea market. 'Nuff said.

This stand has become a staple at the annual "America's Fair" in Hamburg, NY, and its sign actually serves as a great example for students. Technically it could be correct IF it is owned by two people named Jared. If students can figure that out, you can rightfully assume they understand possessive nouns. If this isn't true, however, two things can be assumed about Jared. He didn't pay much attention to grammar lessons in school, and he's also a genius for figuring out how to make twinkies more delicious.

This is a tough one - Should it be owner's expense or owners' expense? For this sign to be correct, the creator would have to know the specifics behind the deed of the vehicle. This is posted at the side entrance of my school. Hooray for teachable moments.

Canadians and New Yorkers alike love their coffee from this regional chain named after the former hockey great. But despite his fatal car accident in 1974 and the selling of the franchise by his family, it's still named after him. Especially since he's been dead for 35 years, I don't expect to walk in and see a stack of Tims, so the sign should read Tim Horton's.

For some reason people find the need to make the word taco possessive (A Google search for "taco's" yields almost 250,000 hits). I have pictures of three other taco signs, and I always told myself if I found one more I would create whoistaco.com to host my collection. I'm just crazy enough to do it.

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