First Krispy Kreme opened in Ireland causes frenzy

It looked like closing time at the county fair or the week before Christmas at the mall: cars just sitting there, bumper to bumper, waiting their turn to inch along.

Dozens of vehicles were lined up and down the aisles of the parking lot, honking as if every single driver in front of them was staring at their cellphone while stopped at a green light. It sounded like the traffic jam of the century.

But, in fact, it was just the Krispy Kreme drive-through at 1:30 a.m. in Dublin, Ireland — the first to open in the country.

The Dublin location opened Sept. 26 to wide acclaim, especially for its 24-hour drive-through. At least 300 people were lined up at the door at 7 a.m. that day, the Irish Times reported. But the lines did not go away.

Neighbors complained to local government and Krispy Kreme executives that the constant noise from the doughnut drive-through had kept them awake for days, they told the Irish Times.

After just one week, Krispy Kreme had to shut down Dublin’s 24-hour drive-through.

“We anticipated a warm welcome for Krispy Kreme in Ireland and have long wanted to open a store here, but the response has been way ahead of our most optimistic expectations,” Krispy Kreme Ireland said in a statement Wednesday on Facebook, announcing the overnight shutdown.

The doughnut chaos has perplexed much of Ireland.

After all, Irish people “had actually seen doughnuts in Ireland before all hell broke loose about #KrispyKreme’s arrival,” one Irish woman, Mim Donovan, confirmed on Twitter.

But there is apparently something incomparable about a Krispy Kreme in Dublin.

“I was at the opening and I have to say, I wasn’t prepared for the phenomenon that it is,” local councilman Ted Leddy told the Independent. “I mean there are other 24/7 stores in the (shopping) center, but I’m not sure what it is with doughnuts.”