A gloved hand lifting a freshly glazed doughnut from a wire rack behind a doughnut shop counter

Menu desk — updated against the 90th-birthday campaign calendar

Shipley Donuts menu news and promotions

Limited-time items, anniversary campaigns and value deals with the dates attached — so you can tell what is running now and what has already closed.

Read the 90th anniversary story See current promotions

What this section covers

Campaign dates, not campaign noise

This section covers limited-time items, anniversary campaigns and value deals, with the dates attached. We report what a company announced, when it runs, and where it applies — nothing else. Campaigns end, and when they do we leave the story up, so you can read down the list and tell what is current and what is already over. If a window has closed, the entry stays and the date says so.

The clearest recent thread is the chain's 90th-birthday schedule, which packed several different offers into one 10-week block. Each offer had its own window inside those weeks rather than running the whole time — which is why two readers in different states could walk into two shops in the same week and find two different menus. We date every entry on this page for that reason.

The promotion calendar at a glance

Every row below belongs to the 10-week 90th-birthday run from Aug. 10 to Oct. 18. Read the window before you plan a trip; the offers stacked rather than overlapping end to end.

Browse all menu stories

Birthday Bullseye donut

The headline item of the anniversary run and the one most readers asked about. A limited-time build rather than a permanent menu addition — it belongs to the campaign's supply plan, so it leaves on a date instead of selling out.

Limited-time item · inside the Aug. 10 – Oct. 18 window
1936 Favorites Box

A bundled selection tied to the founding year and sold during the birthday campaign. We reported it as part of the run rather than a standalone launch, because that is how the company announced it.

Bundle · birthday campaign only
Duo Deal

A returning price-led promotion, brought back for the anniversary. Terms matter as much as the item here: we note the window and any stated limit, and we never assume a deal applies at every location.

Price-led · returned for the birthday run
90-cent glazed donuts

Offered for a limited period inside the campaign, not across all ten weeks. A short window is the point of a price-led offer, so the date on this row is the useful part.

Price-led · limited period
Bonus loyalty points

The closing beat of the 10-week schedule: extra points on purchases. Loyalty runs at brand level rather than per store, which makes it the most consistent part of a promotion calendar.

Loyalty · end of campaign

The 90th-birthday campaign, start to finish

Close crop of a glaze tray and fryer basket with a glazed ring doughnut catching noon light — Glaze trays at a working counter. Items tied to a campaign usually leave on an announced date rather than when they run out.

Shipley Donuts launched a 10-week 90th-birthday campaign running from Aug. 10 to Oct. 18 in 2026. It included a limited-time Birthday Bullseye donut and a 1936 Favorites Box, brought back the Duo Deal, and offered 90-cent glazed donuts for a limited period. The campaign closed with bonus loyalty points on purchases.

That is the full arc as announced, and each element had its own window inside the 10 weeks rather than running the whole time. The schedule stacked offers: the anniversary item and the bundle carried the first stretch, the price-led deals landed inside their own shorter periods, and the loyalty bonus closed the run. A reader who wanted to catch every piece would have had to check the calendar more than once.

We track the schedule this way because the alternative — one big date range with no internal structure — tells you nothing about what is actually on the counter in any given week. When the company announces a new anniversary or seasonal run, we rebuild this page with the same internal windows, so the archive keeps its shape year over year.

Full report

Shipley Donuts Marks Its 90th Anniversary with Rotating Promotions and a New Birthday Item

The Birthday Bullseye donut

The Birthday Bullseye was the campaign's headline item — a limited-time donut built for the anniversary rather than a permanent addition to the menu. Limited-time items are usually tied to a supply plan, which is why they disappear on a date rather than when they sell out. If it returns, it will be a new announcement with a new window. We will cover it the same way.

That distinction matters when you are planning a visit. A donut that sells out is a stock question; a donut with an end date is a schedule question. Check the window before you drive across town, and treat the shop as the final word on what is available that day.

Where the item sits

Part of the 10-week anniversary schedule, not the standing menu. When a window closes the entry stays on this page with its dates intact, so the record of what ran is still readable after the counter changes over.

Bundle reporting

The 1936 Favorites Box

The 1936 Favorites Box was a bundled selection tied to the brand's founding year, offered during the birthday campaign. Bundles like this are a way to move several items at once and give customers a reason to buy a box instead of a single donut. We reported it as part of the campaign rather than as a standalone product launch, because that is how the company announced it.

It is worth being precise about what a bundle announcement does and does not tell you. It tells you the lineup exists, it belongs to a named campaign, and it carries that campaign's window. It does not tell you which shops received stock, how many boxes each of them set aside, or whether the box will come back in a later anniversary. For any of those, the local operator is the better source than a national announcement.

We keep bundle entries grouped with the campaign they belong to. When a future anniversary introduces its own box, it will get its own entry rather than extending the life of this one — so the page never blends two campaigns into a single claim.

Value deals: the Duo Deal and 90-cent glazed

Both of these were price-led rather than product-led, which means the terms matter as much as the item. We note the window and any stated limit, and we do not assume a deal applies at every location.

Returning promotion

The Duo Deal

Brought back for the anniversary run. A returning deal usually means the structure was already known to operators, which speeds up rollout — but it still needs franchisee sign-off in each market, so participation varies by shop.

Short window

90-cent glazed donuts

Offered for a limited period during the campaign. The price is the headline, so the window is the detail that decides whether the trip is worth planning around it.

A note on how we read these: a price-led deal carries a limit more often than a product launch does, and a limit is the difference between one box and a cartful. When a limit is stated in the announcement we write it down. When it is not stated, we say so rather than inventing one.

How promotions differ by market

Shipley operates through franchisees, so a national campaign announcement does not automatically mean every shop participates on day one. Local operators decide what they can support, especially on price-led offers where margins are thin. That is why a reader in Cincinnati and a reader in Harker Heights may see different things in the same week. When we can confirm market-level participation, we say so in the story.

This is the part of promotion reporting that national press usually skips, and it is the part that changes what you find at the counter. Two shops under the same brand, in the same month, can run different offers, price them differently, and end them on different days. A single store's schedule is a local decision made within a brand framework.

Practical upshot: treat any campaign page, including this one, as the shape of the offer rather than proof it is live near you. Call the shop or check its own channels before you build a trip around a promotion, especially in the first week of a new campaign when rollouts are still moving.

A small-town retail strip at noon with a doughnut shop awning and a pedestrian crossing — Participation is decided shop by shop, which is why two towns in the same week can run two different offers.

Loyalty and the end-of-campaign bonus

The 90th-birthday schedule ended with bonus loyalty points on purchases. Loyalty programs are run at the brand level rather than per store, which makes them one of the more consistent parts of a promotion calendar. We treat loyalty changes as their own story when they are announced separately, and as a campaign detail when they are attached to a limited-time event like this one.

That split keeps the archive readable. If a future change to the loyalty program arrives on its own — a new tier, a revised points structure — it gets a full report on the news page. If it appears as the closing beat of a seasonal campaign, it stays filed with that campaign, because the bonus was tied to the event's dates.

What we don't claim about the food

We do not publish taste reviews or rankings, and we do not repeat marketing language about quality as if it were our own finding. What we report is what a company announced, when it runs, and where it applies.

If you want to know whether a specific item is available at your local shop, the most reliable answer comes from that shop, not from us. Our role is to keep the dates and the offers straight, and to say plainly when we cannot confirm something.

How we report and verify

Questions readers send about promotions

Short answers to the ones that come up most. Have something to add about a deal running in your area? Send it in and we will check it against the announcement.

Send a promotion tip

Do limited-time donuts come back?

Sometimes, but not on the original window. A returning item is a new announcement with new dates, and it may be priced or bundled differently than it was the first time. We date the return as its own entry rather than rewriting the earlier one.

Why do promotions end on a date instead of when they sell out?

Limited-time items are generally tied to a supply plan, so the end is scheduled rather than driven by stock. That is why an item can vanish while other shops still have ingredients, and why we report the announced window rather than guessing when it will run out.

Does a national campaign mean my local shop is participating?

Not by default. Participation is decided by local operators, and price-led offers are the ones most likely to vary because margins are thinner. When we can confirm that a market is in, we say so in the story; when we cannot, we say that too.

Can I plan a trip around a promotion on this page?

Use the page to learn the shape of an offer and its dates, then confirm with the shop before you drive out. We publish what was announced and when it was scheduled to run; we cannot see a single counter's inventory on a given morning.

Keep the menu calendar in view

Promotions move faster than the rest of the beat. The clearest way to follow them is a short digest: new windows, closed windows, and the value deals worth knowing about. No taste reviews, no rankings — just what was announced and when.

Get the menu digest Franchise coverage

Where to send a tip

Running a deal at a shop we have not covered, or spotted a window that closed early? Send the date and the market and we will check it against the announcement before we publish.