Have you noticed a change of staff while grabbing your morning coffee? 

Dunkin’ Donuts, located at 2650 Lincoln Way, closed during the first week of the semester and reopened almost as quickly with new staff members.

Denzel Decker, a senior in apparel merchandising and design, was a former worker at the location and was not notified that he was no longer an employee. Decker said a new general manager was hired recently but they have not interacted.

“I [was] supposed to work that night from three until 9 p.m., I believe, and I woke up that morning to a message at 8 a.m.,” Decker said. “Mind you, the store opens at 5 a.m., so they’d only been open for three hours, and I had a message that was like, ‘If you work at all the rest of the day, don’t come in.’ They were really short-staffed and decided to close the doors. So that was a little bit weird.”

According to Decker, the store temporarily closed Aug. 28 with notice to the staff of the initial closure and no further details. A group chat with Dunkin’ employees was used to communicate the closure.

“Thursday rolls around, and then a [co-worker] messages in the group chat,” Decker said. “She got there at 7 a.m. for her shift and is like, ‘Hey, all the lights are off and the doors are locked. I don’t know how to open the store. Are we open today? Like, what’s going on?’”

Decker said the general manager sent a message to the group chat that the store had no one to open, and that doors were closed. Assistant managers were then removed from the group chat. Decker then contacted the assistant manager, and told him that she and the district manager had quit. The rest of the employees were removed from the chat with no notice.

According to Decker, the store re-opened a few days later without notification to former employees and was replaced with an entirely new staff. Decker then contacted the store and an employee told Decker they were a temporary worker from Illinois, and the owners had contacted him to work at the location. 

Decker then inquired if he needed someone to cover his shift that was scheduled for that day before the initial closure.

“He’s like, ‘Oh yeah, no, no, no one’s on the schedule. Yeah, no one worked here,’ and it was just like, ‘Huh?’” Decker said.

Decker went into the store to inquire about his final paycheck Sept. 9. Staff were able to locate his paycheck.

“I was able to get it,” Decker said. “But, yeah, like, even going into the [store to] get that they were like, ‘who are you?’ [And I was] like, ‘I used to work here. My name is Denzel. I should have a check in the back.’”

The Daily attempted to get a comment through two managers at the Dunkin’ Donuts location and the franchise’s owner but did not receive a comment after numerous attempts.

Lydia Wigdahl, a sophomore in culinary food science, noticed the changes immediately.

“I am a regular here at Dunkin’ so I noticed as soon as it was closed, and I was very disappointed because I wanted my coffee, and it was closed for a couple days,” Wigdahl said. “I remember calling the location to see when they would be open again, and the guy on the phone told me that they were going to be closed for like, maybe a month, and then a couple days later, they were open again.”

Wigdahl then came into the store and noticed a change of staff.

“I didn’t notice any of the people who I had regularly interacted with making my coffee,” Wigdahl said. “And I was like, ‘Oh, where did they go?’ The coffee still tasted the same and stuff, but Dunkin was definitely a little different.” 

Leah Newton, a junior in aerospace engineering, also noticed the changes, but noted that the quality hasn’t changed.

“Other than the staffing [being] different, the quality has been the same,” Newton said. ““I haven’t really noticed an issue with any customer service or anything. I think it’s been fine, maybe just a little bit more of a communication barrier between some of the workers.” 

For Iowa State University students, student legal services offers support and legal guidance for employment problems. Contact 515-294-0978 to schedule an appointment or ask questions from an attorney.