Niccoles Robertson Sr
Google
I’m giving Knead Donuts three stars because I’m honestly pretty frustrated with the aggressive upselling I dealt with today.
I went in this morning just wanting a simple Vietnamese coffee. Instead, the male cashier refused to just ring me up and kept trying to push donuts on me. I told him clearly that I don’t eat sugar in the mornings as part of my diet, and instead of respecting that, he giggled like it was funny. Then he started pushing croissants, avocado toast — anything else he could think of.
I had to keep telling him no, over and over, until I finally said I’d just take a bottle of water. Even then, he wouldn’t drop it, repeating “No, no, you know donuts.” It was completely ridiculous and felt almost harassing.
What makes this even more of a shocker is that the Cerritos location never does this. They’re polite, quick, and never pressure you into buying more than what you came for.
As someone who works as an operations manager, I totally understand the idea of upselling and profit margins, but there’s a huge difference between suggesting an item and badgering a customer. If someone says no, take the hint and move on.
It’s a shame, because the atmosphere and everything else at Knead Donuts is great. But this experience really left a bad taste in my mouth, and that’s why I’m only giving them three stars.