Selling Krispy Kreme

After a thrilling 7-6 loss in overtime (best skip stone with sweeping) at curling tonight, I stopped at the gas station for a fill-up. I'm usually hungry after curling, and I noticed a Krispy Kreme sign, so I went in to pick up a doughnut. I walked to the counter and the guy said, "Is that all you're getting? It's OK; they're free. You can take some more if you'd like."

Bonanza! The only question in my mind was, what is the greatest number of free doughnuts I can grab without the guy saying, "That's too many!"? Seriously, I went with a half-dozen, which also added up to one for me tonight and one for all the doughnut eaters tomorrow morning.

(Actually, part of me was thinking, "If they're free, there must be something wrong with them", but it tasted fine.)

However, this was a disappointment as well. Foolish optimist that I am, I bought some stock in Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc. at a price much higher than today's. Ever since then, the stock has dropped, and mostly bad news has come from the company. Today, in the news, I even heard the term "bankruptcy" mentioned as one possible future for the company.

So, it's probably not a good investment at this time, unless you like high-risk turnaround plays. Still, when I invest in a company, I am usually slow to sell it; perhaps too slow at times. However, tonight clinched it. I mean, if gas stations are giving away their doughnuts for free, how can I ever expect them to make money? Krispy Kreme, if you're reading this, you might want to do something about it. It's time to sell the doughnuts' stock. It remains to be seen if stopping in for (hopefully) free doughnuts after curling will become a habit.

Actually, the guy at the gas station likely knows that few doughnuts sell after a certain time, and they'd all get thrown out anyway, and maybe they were expired, and maybe he hates to see them go to waste, and he's a nice guy. But a win for the doughnut eater is not a win for the owner of the company that sells the doughnuts.

Below should be the price chart for KKD shares over the past 12 months. As of this writing, the last trade was at $6.06 per share.