To paraphrase Paul Revere’s famous warning: “Change is coming! Change is coming!” You know all about it: Dunkin’s menu simplification, aimed at improving the brand’s competitiveness by reducing the number of sandwiches and keeping the focus on beverages. In the Tampa area, franchisee Alex Fernandez gladly rolled out a menu reduction in early August, having prepared for it months ahead of time. There was a lot of signage work to be done, and more importantly, hearing from other store owners like John and George Primpas in Norfolk, Mass., who had already gone through the process in early winter and were part of a 300 store test market.

“There are challenges and opportunities with the smaller menu,” says Fernandez, who pointed out that communicating the change to customers was the most important aspect of the menu slim-down.

Many Dunkin’ loyalists are not happy about the elimination of their favorite products, complaining on social media sites. One wrote on Facebook: “Been to this store for a Chocolate Donut covered in coconut three times and they never have them….today the guy behind the counter told me they have been discontinued. Again, walked out without buying anything.” Another said, “Unfortunately all of the frozen coffees now have a chemical aftertaste since they switched from the Coolatta. Major bummer.” And another: “The lack of pistachio has cut down my purchases this summer. Bring back pistachio please!”

The skinny, new menu comes as customer traffic to the chain’s U.S. stores has fallen for five straight quarters and the Brand has reduced the number of new U.S. restaurants it will open this year. At the same time, second quarter results, driven by higher spending per visit, exceeded Wall Street’s expectation. The stock price hit a 12-month high in June, but has slipped since.

According to Dunkin’ Brands CEO Nigel Travis, eliminating lower-selling items – especially food items like afternoon sandwiches and an assortment of bagels – will allow franchisees to improve speed and accuracy while saving on food and labor costs. For years, franchisees have complained of menu complexity.

“All the brand has been doing is adding, adding, adding,” says franchisee Jerome Johnson, who owns a string of Dunkin’ Donuts shops in the Washington, D.C. area. “Stores have just been putting in machines wherever there was space – espresso machines, new ovens. That’s a tough way to run the back of the house.”

“Complexity creeps in and you have to attack it.” Dunkin’ Brands President Dave Hoffman told the trade magazine Nation’s Restaurant News. “[It] is not unique to Dunkin’. It’s common in other players in the industry.”

According to Mike Halen, senior restaurant analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, Dunkin’s bloated menu never made sense to him. “There are other ways to get people though the door then selling sandwiches. Breakfast makes sense for Dunkin’. But not the turkey, tuna, and chicken salad and other bakery sandwiches introduced five years ago, added with the hope of boosting food sales after breakfast hours. Franchisees were complaining that they were required to carry all the options. Operations behind the counter were a mess, with people stumbling over each other. It was a disaster.”

His comments confirm what brand research from Boston Consulting Group found after hearing from 10,000 customers: Dunkin’s is seen as a beverage and on-the-go purveyor, not a sit-down restaurant.

The decision to change the menu focus did not come overnight. In February, when he announced fourth-quarter 2016 earnings, Travis said, “We have a pretty complex store we want to simplify.” Eliminating chicken salad sandwiches on French rolls, represents a piece of the overall strategy to build the coffee culture; provide faster and improved product innovation; offer targeted value and smart pricing; be a leader in digital; improve the restaurant experience, and drive consumer packaged goods and new channels.

Franchisees we spoke with agree with streamlining the menu. Fernandez, who operates six Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants in Jacksonville and six in Tampa says crew members found the complex menu difficult to handle. “There [were] too many options,” he says and that made it cumbersome for customers as well. “Simpler and faster is what customers are looking for; they want speed.” Fernandez says 90 percent of the sales in his shops were based on less than 20 percent of the products.

Fernandez cites the peanut donut as one example of surplus goods in his shops. Loved by a minority of customers, and feared by many more who have peanut allergies, the item sold very little yet had to be available all day. “To convert that peanut donut person to one of the other 18 donuts that we are going to have is a great opportunity,” Fernandez says.

In addition, because he now has fewer offerings, the shops’ digital menu boards don’t need to rotate to show beverage and food choices; at a single glance, customers can see exactly what choices they have. On the other side of the counter, servers can more simply handle the customers’ needs.

Halen, the Bloomberg analyst, says smaller inventory leads to more control and less waste—which all contribute to a better bottom line. “Inventory is cash, and if a bagel is just sitting there, it’s like cash sitting there with no return. A smaller inventory improves your cash and speed increases sales.” What’s more, simpler menus require less employee training. As an example, Halen cites McDonald’s, where a worker may do fries, and only fries, all day. “At Dunkin’s by contrast, an employee has to learn everything and do a lot more,” he says.

Halen applauds Dunkin’s decision to scale back its expansion plans, noting that times are tough for many fast food chains. Dunkin’, he says, can ride out tough times by focusing on what customers love about the brand. “McDonalds figured out really quick that it wasn’t kale,” quips Halen, pointing out that for Dunkin’ it’s the coffee.

“When people do grab a lunch sandwich at Dunkin’, it’s out of dire need or desperation more than anything else,” Halen says. “Maybe you’re on the way to pick up coffee and it’s 2 p.m. I’ve never heard anyone say, ‘Hey, let’s go buy lunch at Dunkin’s.’ I’m sure no one will be heartbroken that they can’t get a sandwich [there].”

So yes, “change is coming, change is coming.” Hopefully that change will lead to a revolution in operations. As notes, “The foundation is running the restaurant and being efficient; improving operations in the back of the house. Once you do that, you’re setting the base to improve other elements, whether marketing or improvement in the mobile app.”

To paraphrase Paul Revere’s famous warning: “Change is coming! Change is coming!” You know all about it: Dunkin’s menu simplification, aimed at improving the brand’s competitiveness by reducing the number of sandwiches and keeping the focus on beverages. In the Tampa area, franchisee Alex Fernandez gladly rolled out a menu reduction in early August, having prepared for it months ahead of time. There was a lot of signage work to be done, and more importantly, hearing from other store owners like John and George Primpas in Norfolk, Mass., who had already gone through the process in early winter and were part of a 300 store test market.

“There are challenges and opportunities with the smaller menu,” says Fernandez, who pointed out that communicating the change to customers was the most important aspect of the menu slim-down.

Many Dunkin’ loyalists are not happy about the elimination of their favorite products, complaining on social media sites. One wrote on Facebook: “Been to this store for a Chocolate Donut covered in coconut three times and they never have them….today the guy behind the counter told me they have been discontinued. Again, walked out without buying anything.” Another said, “Unfortunately all of the frozen coffees now have a chemical aftertaste since they switched from the Coolatta. Major bummer.” And another: “The lack of pistachio has cut down my purchases this summer. Bring back pistachio please!”

The skinny, new menu comes as customer traffic to the chain’s U.S. stores has fallen for five straight quarters and the Brand has reduced the number of new U.S. restaurants it will open this year. At the same time, second quarter results, driven by higher spending per visit, exceeded Wall Street’s expectation. The stock price hit a 12-month high in June, but has slipped since.

According to Dunkin’ Brands CEO Nigel Travis, eliminating lower-selling items – especially food items like afternoon sandwiches and an assortment of bagels – will allow franchisees to improve speed and accuracy while saving on food and labor costs. For years, franchisees have complained of menu complexity.

“All the brand has been doing is adding, adding, adding,” says franchisee Jerome Johnson, who owns a string of Dunkin’ Donuts shops in the Washington, D.C. area. “Stores have just been putting in machines wherever there was space – espresso machines, new ovens. That’s a tough way to run the back of the house.”

“Complexity creeps in and you have to attack it.” Dunkin’ Brands President Dave Hoffman told the trade magazine Nation’s Restaurant News. “[It] is not unique to Dunkin’. It’s common in other players in the industry.”

According to Mike Halen, senior restaurant analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, Dunkin’s bloated menu never made sense to him. “There are other ways to get people though the door then selling sandwiches. Breakfast makes sense for Dunkin’. But not the turkey, tuna, and chicken salad and other bakery sandwiches introduced five years ago, added with the hope of boosting food sales after breakfast hours. Franchisees were complaining that they were required to carry all the options. Operations behind the counter were a mess, with people stumbling over each other. It was a disaster.”

His comments confirm what brand research from Boston Consulting Group found after hearing from 10,000 customers: Dunkin’s is seen as a beverage and on-the-go purveyor, not a sit-down restaurant.

The decision to change the menu focus did not come overnight. In February, when he announced fourth-quarter 2016 earnings, Travis said, “We have a pretty complex store we want to simplify.” Eliminating chicken salad sandwiches on French rolls, represents a piece of the overall strategy to build the coffee culture; provide faster and improved product innovation; offer targeted value and smart pricing; be a leader in digital; improve the restaurant experience, and drive consumer packaged goods and new channels.

Franchisees we spoke with agree with streamlining the menu. Fernandez, who operates six Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants in Jacksonville and six in Tampa says crew members found the complex menu difficult to handle. “There [were] too many options,” he says and that made it cumbersome for customers as well. “Simpler and faster is what customers are looking for; they want speed.” Fernandez says 90 percent of the sales in his shops were based on less than 20 percent of the products.

Fernandez cites the peanut donut as one example of surplus goods in his shops. Loved by a minority of customers, and feared by many more who have peanut allergies, the item sold very little yet had to be available all day. “To convert that peanut donut person to one of the other 18 donuts that we are going to have is a great opportunity,” Fernandez says.

In addition, because he now has fewer offerings, the shops’ digital menu boards don’t need to rotate to show beverage and food choices; at a single glance, customers can see exactly what choices they have. On the other side of the counter, servers can more simply handle the customers’ needs.

Halen, the Bloomberg analyst, says smaller inventory leads to more control and less waste—which all contribute to a better bottom line. “Inventory is cash, and if a bagel is just sitting there, it’s like cash sitting there with no return. A smaller inventory improves your cash and speed increases sales.” What’s more, simpler menus require less employee training. As an example, Halen cites McDonald’s, where a worker may do fries, and only fries, all day. “At Dunkin’s by contrast, an employee has to learn everything and do a lot more,” he says.

Halen applauds Dunkin’s decision to scale back its expansion plans, noting that times are tough for many fast food chains. Dunkin’, he says, can ride out tough times by focusing on what customers love about the brand. “McDonalds figured out really quick that it wasn’t kale,” quips Halen, pointing out that for Dunkin’ it’s the coffee.

“When people do grab a lunch sandwich at Dunkin’, it’s out of dire need or desperation more than anything else,” Halen says. “Maybe you’re on the way to pick up coffee and it’s 2 p.m. I’ve never heard anyone say, ‘Hey, let’s go buy lunch at Dunkin’s.’ I’m sure no one will be heartbroken that they can’t get a sandwich [there].”

So yes, “change is coming, change is coming.” Hopefully that change will lead to a revolution in operations. As notes, “The foundation is running the restaurant and being efficient; improving operations in the back of the house. Once you do that, you’re setting the base to improve other elements, whether marketing or improvement in the mobile app.”