This small, sweet treat has defined summer in the city. (Anne Wermiel/NY Post)
Dominique Ansel isn’t the only one reaping the benefits of the city’s Cronut mania. Some enterprising neighbors to Ansel’s bakery are working to cash-in.
Joey Goodwin, 28, lives across the street from the Soho bakery. He’s also the founder, along with business partner John Gagliano, of Good Days Marketing, a mobile marketing company that promotes its clients, which have included Focus Features and New Balance, with an advertising-wrapped truck that drives and parks around the city.
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On a recent morning, one of their trucks sat parked on Spring Street next to the Cronut line with a sign reading “CATCH THE CRONUT CRAZE ADVERTISE ON THIS TRUCK.” Goodwin says the truck, and the Cronut line location, will soon be used in promotions for Poland Spring water and an Anthony Weiner’s Weiner truck.
He says he’s also working to get permits to sell advertisement on wallspace near the bakery and is in talks with both Crunch and Seamless for the space.
“The [Cronut line] audience is great, it’s comprised of two demographics — transients tourists … and young professionals who work in marketing or finance,” says Goodwin. “Both of those audiences have money, spend money and are looking to buy into a product.”
Goodwin says he’s also the one who encouraged two neighborhood homeless men, Joe and Danny Bird, to scalp Cronuts — much to Ansel’s chagrin. The two men have since been banned from buying Cronuts, so now they get the first seats in line each morning and sell the prime slots.
“I’ve passed on some marketing savvy to them, now they provide the first person with a seat and a bottle of water for $30,” Goodwin boasts.
This past Friday morning, those waiting in line were none too happy with the fact that a couple of people had paid their way to the front, but the muscular middle-aged man at the front of the line, who bruskly refused to give his name or any identifying details, wasn’t apologetic. “My is time is very valuable,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ansel and his team have decided to exploit the Cronut’s popularity in a less cynical manner. Starting tomorrow, they’ll be selling t-shirts online, with proceeds benefitting Food Bank For New York City.
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The shirts read “Crolanthropy — Making the world better, one Cronut™ at a time.” Customers wearing them will be able to buy four Cronuts at a time, instead of being limited to the usual two.
Helping the hungry is a cause that is close to Ansel’s heart.
“I grew up in a very poor family with three other siblings. I remember counting coins from my mom for just a piece of bread,” he says. “Hunger is a problem I have experienced myself.”