District 6 Donuts in Oakwood shuts its doors

The Dayton area’s doughnut wars may have claimed a victim just before Christmas as the owners of District 6 Donuts in Oakwood posted on the shop’s Facebook page that they had shut down.

The Miami Valley has seen an influx of chain doughnut shops in recent years, and large chains such as Dunkin’ Donuts and Tim Hortons have said there are more coming.

William Parsons, the retired Dayton police officer who co-founded District 6 Donuts, that the business was not losing money, although he was disappointed at the level of walk-up sales. The driving factor behind the decision to close was the amount of time he and his sister — who has a full-time job unrelated to the doughnut shop — were spending at District 6. Parsons has law enforcement consulting and training businesses and spends about 180 days a year on the road.

But Parsons acknowledged that the future of the local doughnut market will be difficult.

“Between Tim Hortons and Dunkin’ Donuts, it will be a tough market to thrive in,” he said.

District 6 allowed customers to customize each doughnut, which was fried and topped on demand, ensuring that each doughnut was served warm with fresh drizzles and toppings.

Two weeks after District 6 opened in June, Duck Donuts — which has a concept very similar to that of District 6 — announced it would open its first of multiple Dayton-area doughnut shops.

Duck Donuts opened in October six-tenths of a mile north of District 6 Donuts, at 6 Oakwood Ave.

Parsons said he and his sister had decided even before Duck Donuts opened that they were either going to move to a smaller location that could attract more walk-up business or shut down altogether. Contact this reporter at 937-2257355 or email Mark.Fisher@coxinc.com.