Close your eyes and breathe in the aroma of fresh coffee, stale cigarette smoke and chocolate icing. Where are you? If you guessed a donut shop, you're right.

    Southern Ontario was (and is) the breeding ground for chains like Tim Horton Donuts and Mister Donut. They both put down roots here in the late '50s and early '60s. And, according to donut expert Steve Penfold, who's a PhD student in History, residents of southern Ontario eat more donuts per capita than anywhere in the world!

    Penfold is writing a book about the place donut shops occupy in popular Canadian
culture. He claims "donut shop culture" is not an oxymoron but a complex phenomenon where many aspects of our society intersect.

    Donut shops are used like community institutions, he says. While most academics see franchises as homogenizing influences, his research reveals that at the donut shop level franchises are often "adopted," and take on the character of the community. In a local Vietnamese neighbourhood, customers interact in the way of their culture, while down the street a group of Greek men hang out at the donut shop and play dominos.

    But don't get the idea franchises are just folksy little mom-and-pop operations, warns Penfold. "They are major corporations that mark up their costs, pay low wages and are only interested in getting people in and out. It only costs nine cents to produce a cup of coffee (coffee, cup, milk and labour). But they charge a buck."

    The donut shop appeals because you can either sit and be left alone, or you can talk to someone, he says. "This isn't to say patrons have philosophical conversations, but people do tend to talk to folks in donut stores that they wouldn't talk to on the street."

    Finding a way to adequately describe donut shops has been taxing for Penfold. "Label them and they loose their complexity," he says. "The basic requirements are few: a place to sit for a long time, a table that will fit a newspaper, and a $2 charge for coffee and something sweet. That's pretty well all people need to build a culture."