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BUSINESS
THE CHANDLER ARIZONAN | WWW.CHANDLERNEWS.COM | FEBRUARY 6, 2022
Business is just ducky for Chandler donut bakery BY KEN SAIN Arizonan Staff Writer
I
t might be an oversimplification to say the reason that there is a Duck Donuts franchise in Arizona because of a wife’s craving during pregnancy. But it’s not far from the truth. Daniel Bruno said he and his wife fell in love with the North Carolina-based donuts franchise while vacationing in the Outer Banks. During his wife’s first pregnancy, she got a craving for something sweet and sent her husband out to find something. “So, I went out, in the town of Duck, and I was asking people, ‘Hey, my wife’s pregnant, could you suggest something.’ ‘Get her Duck Donuts.’ ‘What’s that?’ ‘You smell that in the air, follow your nose.’” He did – and brought his wife a Duck Dozen. Fast forward a few years and the Brunos are living in Arizona and expecting their second child. “She’s having cravings one night, ‘I
Duck Donuts owner Daniel Bruno displays some of his fare at his Ocotillo bakery.
(David Minton/Arizonan Staff Photographer)
want Duck Donuts.’ Man, we’re living in Arizona, it’s not happening, so she’s like,
‘figure it out!’” And that is how the first Duck Donuts lo-
cation in Arizona came to Chandler, one of more than 100 franchises across the nation. Duck Donuts is different from traditional bakeries. Instead making their donuts with yeast-based dough that takes a while to rise, they use white cake dough. Also, they don’t have a case filled with donuts that were made an hour or two before. They are made to order, which requires customers to wait unless they call in their orders or use their loyalty app to order in advance. It has gained a lot of fans. The Chandler franchise just celebrated its 2-year anniversary with a party and about 200 people showed up. Bruno opened at Arizona Avenue and Ocotillo in late January of 2020, also known as the time before COVID-19 shut down the world. He had a new franchise most people had not heard of before and large chunks of the population afraid to
see DUCK page 30
Chandler woman gives birth to her retail dream BY PAUL MARYNIAK Arizonan Executive Editor
E
rin Dragoo made it out of school before COVID-19 hit. With a degree from Arizona State University’s Cronkite School of Journalism, the Chandler woman had her sights set on a career in web design and social media studies. But she also helped out at her mother-in-law’s 4-year-old Ocotillo boutique called Judy Wear. That experience gave her the retailer bug – and that itch blossomed last week into the grand opening of her own store, Lunch Money at 2430 S. Gilbert Road, Chandler. The store reflects a certain nostalgia that Dragoo has to the 1990s. Though born in 1990, she explained, “Fanny packs, baby tees, butterfly clips, oversized scrunchies, chokers, printed leg-
Erin Dragoo last week cut the ribbon at the grand opening of her new Chandler store, called Lunch Money. (David Minton/Arizonan Staff Photographer)
gings – it just brings back some nostalgia for me.”
Hence, she said her “entire store is curated” with an inventory that “took me
three months of heavy research and online shopping.” “It’s carefully selected to ensure that everything goes together, that everything is fun, that nothing is basic or ordinary,” Dragoo explained, stating that she also looks for handmade items to sell because “they make the most unique gifts for both the people we love and ourselves.” So, Lunch Money brims with a variety of handmade wares: clay and resin earrings and hair clips, concrete phone holders, photo holders and soap dishes, hand-mixed confetti packets, candles, hand-painted blankets, sage bundles and incense burners, resin bottle openers and wine glass holders, dried flower arrangements, wood flowers and wall hangings, paper machè bowls and animal head wall hangings “and some really
see LUNCH page 29
