Melbourne bakery gets a surprise sales windfall as Victorians celebrate COVID-19 ‘doughnut days’

Melbourne bakery Goldeluck’s has seen a run on doughnuts, following two consecutive days of zero COVID-19 cases in Victoria, the first of which saw ‘doughnut day’ trending on Twitter.

Monday was Victoria’s first day of zero new COVID-19 cases since early-June, and no additional deaths were recorded.

Tuesday’s numbers were an exact repeat, bringing the 14-day rolling average of new daily cases down to 2.8.

The results were celebrated throughout the state, with Twitter commentators dubbing Monday ‘doughnut day’.

It wasn’t long before #DonutDay was trending on Twitter — albeit with Americanised spelling — and the treats quickly started selling out all over the city.

Everyone in Melbourne’s had the same idea!

Sold out donuts! 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/tsMpIoCT9V

— Sally Rugg (@sallyrugg) October 25, 2020

😬 pic.twitter.com/wbMGBipiDA

— Anthony Macali 📝 (@migga) October 26, 2020

Goldeluck’s founder Phillip Kuoch tells SmartCompany his three bakeries saw a sudden influx of sales on Monday. In fact, he even had to whip up a second “emergency batch” to meet demand.

In the end, Kouch estimates the business sold about 65% more doughnuts than it would on a usual Monday during lockdown.

“We thought it was going to be a ‘COVID-normal’ Monday,” Kuoch says.

“But, to our surprise, people began to flock in and yell ‘happy doughnut day’ to us.”

The customers weren’t only people passing by the stores with a hankering for a treat, he adds.

Businesses have been ordering celebratory doughnut deliveries to their remote team members too.

One business ordered a last-minute delivery to 20 employees yesterday. Today, another ordered 33 boxes to be delivered to staff throughout the city.

And, as Victoria clocks up yet another day of zero new cases and zero additional deaths, the orders and enquiries have just kept coming, Kuoch says.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

HAPPY #DONUTDAY MELBOURNE! 🎉🍩 We did this! We got it down to 0 cases. No matter where you stand on how we handled this second wave, we all played a part in getting it down all the way back to 0. 💛 We’re also not complaining that #donutday is trending on Twitter because we all needed another reason to eat doughnuts. 😅 Our stores at Patterson Lakes, Croydon and @eastland are all now open again! 🎉 See you in person again very soon!

A post shared by Goldeluck’s Doughnuts (@goldelucksdoughnuts) on Oct 25, 2020 at 6:07pm PDT

Both a windfall in doughnut sales and a relaxing of restrictions will undoubtedly be welcomed by Goldeluck’s.

Kuoch’s three physical stores in Patterson Lakes, Eastland and Croyden experienced a 50% drop in traffic almost overnight in March, when Aussies were first advised to stay at home.

Since then, the entrepreneur has started offering personalised gift boxes and ‘survival packs’ of break, milk and pastries.

He also launched his Donut Dash online store, an independent delivery offering without the extra fees that come with the likes of UberEats or Menulog.

But yesterday, it was all about in-store connection.

“There was an overwhelming sense of ‘we did it together’ yesterday,” Kuoch explains.

“No matter where you stand on how this second wave was handled, every single customer that came through our doors yesterday were really proud of themselves and of each other.”