Thoughts of mango-glazed coconut doughnuts roused me this morning.
En route to the farmer’s market (family in tow), I chanced a detour to Mojo Monkey Donuts on West 7th in St. Paul.
Our beignets were delicious.
The line was amazing.
The wait…long.
The selection…nil by 10 am.
Why?
Great press? See the Star Tribune (and their free Vita.MN from November 3rd and the St. Paul Pioneer Press from October 12th
Traditional Word of Mouth? You know…your coworkers, neighbors, or friends asking “Hey! Have you tried one of these doughnuts yet?”
New Media?
The Heavy Table (an online magazine that’s passionate about food) referenced the Strib article on November 3rd.
Yelp.com has 23 reviews, but Mojo hasn’t yet replied…which they should since there are a lot of negative comments about slow and unfriendly service and lack of doughnut labels.
308 people (including me) like them on Facebook. Yesterday they posted that they sold a record 2000 doughnuts and were making more for today.
People (of course) were a-Twitter about the bacon bar.
Again, I ask “Why?”
I have to say it was the combination of all of the above — that integrated marketing approach you could say. However, the only reason that yesterday (and I’m sure today, as well) they sold a record number of doughnuts, had to be the Star Tribune‘s feature in their Taste section. My informal survey in line supports that opinion.
See newspapers aren’t entirely dead, yet. No other media more effectively lets the reader (consumer) simply stumble upon interesting news. When you go online for news or sign up for a newsletter, such as the Heavy Table’s; you seek information. You don’t just discover cool stuff.
Sara Kerr 
The Strib article was not the first media to cover Mojo Donuts – both Joy Summers at City Pages and Dara Moskovitz Grumdahl at Minnesota Monthly wrote columns the previous week about the shop, plus many local foodies were talking about it on Twitter.
I think that word of mouth did play a role; the Strib article was just the tipping point for the general public.
I was at Mojo Monkey the morning the Strib article was published. They were experiencing lines out the door before that article, and they said that they’re working on establishing a good work flow at the register. It’s a tiny space and amazing that they can churn out as many donuts as they do.
The trick is to go there as early as possible – there was no line before 8 am! The mango glaze donut w/ coconut is awesome. 😉
Thanks for the update about their other press. I think you are right about the Strib article being the tipping point.
The only problem with showing up before 8 AM is that they will only have raised and cake varieties. I was really excited to try their bismarks and fritters on Sunday after snagging a couple chocolate cake donuts on Saturday and even went so far as to place an advance order. The person who took that order advised that I could/should arrive “anytime after 8” the next morning to pick up my order. The problem is that she didn’t know to tell me that 80% of my order wouldn’t be completed until 930 on any given morning and that they could not guarantee that these items, all on their permanent menu, would even be available that day. The cake donuts are great, the beignets delicious and I will definitely be back…but not until the novelty wears off, the crowds normalize and the staff works out the (large and numerous) kinks in their operation.