Aussie shoppers have made an unexpected discovery about a popular in-house made bakery item at Coles – leaving them up in arms.
‘My local Coles says no more donuts before Xmas,’ one customer revealed in a post shared on December 22. ‘What’s the go here?! I need my doughnuts and coffee.’
Daily Mail understands that in the days leading up to Christmas, in-house Coles bakeries prioritise producing popular items such as loaves of bread and cookies, which are in high demand for Christmas Day entertaining.
So, in order to meet this extra bread quota ahead of the holidays, some stores make the internal decision to temporarily halt production on other in-house-produced bakery items – with donuts often being one of them.
This is not a blanket rule across all stores and some Coles stores do continue to make and sell donuts as usual.
A Coles spokesperson told Daily Mail: ‘Our hardworking bakers are focused on delivering the fresh products customers love most for their Christmas celebrations with friends and family.
‘At this time of year, demand for favourites like fresh bread rolls, loaves and cookies is incredibly high, and our teams are working hard to keep shelves stocked with quality and great value bakery items.’
‘Donuts are still available in our stores, though we bake fewer in the final days before Christmas so our teams can prioritise the products customers rely on most. We know how much customers enjoy our Coles donuts, and they’ll be back in full supply straight after Christmas.’
A supermarket shopper revealed that their local Coles Bakery informed them that they wouldn’t be making any more of their signature donuts until after Christmas
A Coles spokesperson said ‘donuts are still available in our stores, though we bake fewer in the final days before Christmas so our teams can prioritise the products customers rely on most’
A Coles spokesperson explained bread products like loaves and rolls along with cookies are in extra high demand at this time of year for Christmas Day entertaining
A Coles store worker offered a similar explanation in response to the online post question.
‘At Christmas time, the production levels of scratch bread are drastically increased and the bakers don’t have time to make donuts and get all the bread made in a timely manner.
‘So they have to cut what doesn’t sell as well. My department usually cuts donuts and savouries until after Christmas.’
Another store baker offered a similar in-depth explanation, replying: ‘We cut the donuts off for about a week at most, as our scratch production is essentially doubled to quadrupled on certain lines, so we need all hands on deck packing the rolls and loaves.
‘Most stores, including mine, stop doing the savouries as well.’
The lengthy and time-consuming process involved in producing their in-house made donuts was also discussed by Coles Bakery staffers in reply to the online question shared to Reddit, with some explaining it can take ‘five-ish hours’ from start to finish.
This revelation came as a shock to some Coles shoppers – with some simply stunned to learn that the donuts are ‘fresh made and hand iced’ in-store every single day.
One baker explained: ‘The donuts have to go through the machine and cook. When you have two 10kg bags of mix it takes a while. They come out of the hopper two at a time with around 10 donuts cooking in the oil at once.
Coles Bakery staff explained the hours-long process of making their signature donut ranges, which includes their popular Coles Bakery Cinnamon Donuts 12 pack $3.50 (left) and Coles Iced Donuts 6 pack $3.80 (right)
Many Coles shoppers were surprised to hear how involved the process was to produce the popular supermarket donuts
‘Then, all the donuts are hand iced (individually dipped in icing) or sugared in groups of six and packed. They also have to cool so they don’t sweat,’ she continued.
‘You also have cleaning afterwards which includes cleaning the hopper and parts of the machine. It ends up adding up pretty quickly.’
Another store baker noted: ‘There are also other tasks done while the donuts are cooling that elongate the process. Typically the danishes, crowns, scones etc are iced and packed at the same time by the same person.’
After hearing about the rigours involved in producing their signature donuts, one sweet-toothed shopper gratefully replied: ‘And on behalf of myself and all other Coles iced donut connoisseurs, we thank you, lovely Coles baking staff!’
However, a number of cheeky replies from customers joked that the unspoken reason why the Coles bakery didn’t produce donuts in late December is because they’re concentrating efforts on making Easter hot cross buns.
Every year from December 26 onwards, there’s predictable outrage over major supermarkets like Coles and Woolworths choosing to sell the traditional Easter treat the day after Christmas.
Accordingly, some of the comments on the Reddit post about the missing pre-Christmas donuts sarcastically theorised that the real reason was because stores were ‘getting ready to start pumping out hot cross buns on Boxing Day’.
‘They are likely making room for hot cross buns on the 26th,’ light-heartedly agreed another person.
