Fresh donuts and muffins travel nearly 40 miles to reach McHappy's Bake Shoppe in Athens to feed hungry residents and Ohio University students.
The Athens McHappy's, 384 Richland Ave., is one of five locations that receives fresh bakery items each morning from the main bakery in Belpre, Ohio, said Wayne Waldeck, CEO of Wal-Bon of Ohio Inc., the company that owns McHappy's.
We make the products in Belpre because we want everything made fresh and right for all our locations
Waldeck said, adding that workers start baking at 1 a.m.
Those items then travel to various McHappy's bakeries in Southeastern Ohio and West Virginia. In Athens, they arrive by 5 a.m. when the bakery opens.
Unlike bakery products from chain companies, which generally use frozen ingredients or products, McHappy's makes everything each day using fresh ingredients, Waldeck said.
You can just taste the difference he said. Everything is made from scratch and all of our products have zero trans fat grams.
Because McHappy's doesn't use any additives or preservatives, its donuts have only an 18-hour shelf life before they begin to taste stale, Waldeck said.
To keep fresh donuts on the shelves, the Athens McHappy's receives 600 to 800 donuts during the week, but sometimes 1,000 donuts on the weekend, manager Bonnie Boring said.
Boring arrives each morning around 4 a.m. to prepare for the bakery truck and then stock hundreds of items in the display cases before the bakery opens.
Despite the tough economic times, the bakeries most popular items - giant muffins and cream filled donuts - still sell.
When the economy's bad our business is really good
he said. People still want to treat themselves with a donut and coffee.
However, Waldeck said the price of ingredients, especially flour, rose dramatically in 2008.
Those prices were the highest I've ever seen in all the years I've been in business
he said, adding those prices recently have started to drop to a more affordable price.
McHappy's has seen both good and bad economies in the roughly 30 years the Athens location has been open.
But the McHappy's chain started more than 50 years ago, when the first bakery was purchased in Belpre, Waldeck said.
The bakery actually started under the name Happy's
but when the owners tried to trademark the name, another business already had it, Waldeck said.
We decided to go with 'McHappy's' because McDonalds was pretty popular and it was similar to the original name
he said.
Now, McHappy's and McDonalds are the only two food service companies that have a registered trademark, Waldeck said.
(McHappy's) is just a great place for people to get affordable and fresh bakery items
he said.
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