At This Naugatuck Doughnut Shop, Drive-Thru Is The New Normal

NAUGATUCK, CT — It's the classic All-American success story, now with the mandatory coronavirus twist.

Erica Rocha's parents immigrated to the U.S. from Portugal as children in the 70s, got married in their teens, and started working at her uncle's Dunkin' Donuts in Rhode Island.

When the Dunkin' at the corner of Rubber and Meadow in Naugatuck fell on hard times in the mid-80s, its owner put it up for sale. Erica's father Manny Rocha decided to throw the dice, borrowed some money, and bought it. With mom behind the counter and dad in the kitchen, the restaurant turned profitable within a year, principally upon their hard work and charisma, according to Erica.

"And they hired a bunch of really friendly kids in town, people we still know to this day," she said. In short order her parents bought a second Dunkin' store in Naugatuck, at 1182 New Haven Road, and then added a third in Wallingford. The family now operates 11 Dunkin' restaurants in the area.

Although there is no undervaluing the importance of the transient high school students who are the lifeblood of fast food restaurants and drive-thru's nationwide, Rocha said that lifers have been key to her franchises' success. Some of the family business's managers have been with them for 25-30 years, enjoying the kind of 401-K benefits and insurance not often associated with the fast food trade. The elder Rocha built up an org chart of area supervisors, local managers and shift leaders you won't find in a single-franchise restaurant in order to keep tabs on his local doughnut empire.

"It's definitely something you can make a career out of," Erica said. "Our supervisor in Wallingford has been with us for 20 years."

Being part of a national chain has been crucial to the growth of the business, with the Massachusetts-based corporation sharing numbers and best practices from nearly 12,900 locations nationwide.

"You are able to confidently predict your sales and your business," the franchise owner said.

And that national brand recognition doesn't hurt, either.

"Nobody would care about 'Erica's Doughnuts,'" Rocha speculated, but everybody knows and loves Dunkin'. The franchisees also get invaluable marketing assistance from the brand, which includes locating new and promising sites into which to expand or move.

But there's a limit to how much help a franchise can expect from Corporate.

"The whole thing, from negotiating, to the letter of intent, closing on a property, financing a property, financing the building, financing the purchase of equipment — that's all on us, as independent small business owners," Rocha said.

Dunkin' is at the forefront of advanced drive-thru technology, according to Restaurant Business Magazine. The chain is testing drive-thrus that can recognize a loyalty member as soon as they pull up, greet them by name through an AI-powered digital board, display their loyalty points and recent orders, and ask if they want the "usual."

The corporation's expertise was crucial when the coronavirus pandemic hit last spring, but those drive-thu windows weren't Get-Out-Of-COVID Free cards by any means.

"Across the board we saw a 50 percent decline in sales because nobody knew what the heck was going on," Rocha told Patch. "That was back when they were saying 'this virus could live on surfaces, we don't know for how long,' and people were really scared to leave their house."

She said her family's doughnut shops suffered terribly last spring for about a month, until patrons got the lay of the New Normal. When they saw all the plexiglass, masks and gloves deployed at her family's establishments, they came back in droves.

"It became something of a comfort food, everyone's working from home, but they were still willing to run out and get a cup of coffee and bring back breakfast for their families," Rocha said. "So instead of our 6 a.m. rush, we saw a 9 a.m. rush." She said they were "hugely successful" at their locations near grocery stores and pharmacies, as hungry residents swung by for a white chocolate raspberry latte and Boston creme-filled when they headed out for essentials.

Because "people were putting their health and safety at risk by coming to work every day," Rocha said the family incentivized workers during the height of the pandemic for 10 weeks. She gave her shift workers a $5/hour rate increase, and offered bonuses for the salaried managers and supervisors. "Does that hurt your pocket as an owner? Well, sure! But if you don't take care of your workers, you don't have a business."

The state lifted all capacity restrictions for restaurants earlier this month, but at the Rocha family Dunkin' restaurants, they are mostly still in place. In some of her smaller locations, it's still just take-out only, and 50 percent capacity at her larger locations.

She says it "remains to be seen" whether she will ever reopen the dining capacities to the level they were before the pandemic, as the new internet ordering technology Dunkin' introduced and perfected during the pandemic is responsible for enough regular sales she doesn't need "sit-down experience" money.

"That's the direction businesses are going," Rocha said.

One thing she does need, is more help.

Closing times at her Naugatuck, Prospect, Middlebury and Wallingford restaurants, once as early as 6 p.m., are now back to 10 p.m. nightly. Additional personnel are desperately needed to fill openings at every location. Job applications and more information are available online.