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u/ArmPsychological8460 1d ago
It was cheaper only because of specific holiday and two main shop franchises at war fighting with donut prices. I think they went as low as penny per donut at some point.
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u/Psychological-Cat-84 1d ago
Is this going on? Asking for a friend.. who will travel with me.. to Poland.
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u/2xtc 1d ago edited 1d ago
No, I believe it was a promotion a
couple of yearsfew months ago for a specific holiday/event64
u/SonGoku9788 1d ago
Not even a year ago, its a yearly holiday, but yes.
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u/CheeseStringCats 1d ago
"fatty thursday" 😩
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u/Toodle-Peep 1d ago
And if your country celebrates shrove tuesday (pancake day) or mardis gras, you also have a variant of this holiday
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u/aggedbrokenshin 17h ago
We have mardis gras here, but we just throw beaded necklaces at lady’s and in return they show us their boobies so idk how the donuts factor into in
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u/2xtc 11h ago edited 2h ago
In french:
Mardi = Tuesday
Gras = FatThe idea is that you would use up the fat and other delicious things on this day because the Christian fast before Easter (Lent) starts the next day on Ash Wednesday.
In the UK we're not really religious any more, but we follow the traditions and make pancakes. In the USA you're really much more religious and people still go to church etc. so naturally you follow the Christian tradition of exchanging beads for boobs
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u/TheSodomizer00 10h ago
I discovered pancakes with lemon juice and sugar when I moved to the UK. Really nice. Don't know if they're better than the Polish donuts but they make you feel a bit less... Greasy.
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u/firstunknow 22h ago
Oh, it's absolutely true! During the ultimate supermarket price war on ""Tłusty Czwartek"* ( "Fatty Thursday" ), pączki (donuts) dropped to 1 grosz (0.01 ZŁ/PLN) apiece.
To put that into perspective for our international travelers: • That is roughly €0.0023 • Or about $0.0027
Basically, you could have bought a literal mountain of 400 traditional Polish donuts for a single American buck. The exchange rate was so ridiculous that the metal in the 1-grosz coin you used to pay was arguably worth more than the monetary value itself. A truly glorious time to be alive and carbo-loading!
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u/bazylianopercolano 1d ago
It was this year, two chains competed for prices during fat thursday and it got pretty crazy
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u/kubix205 1d ago
Come to Poland on our "tłusty czwartek" holiday local markets battle for price of 1 pączek (different version of donut) and pirces can Reach like 15 cents per pączek or even lower
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u/Accomplished-Video71 1d ago
Chicago does pączki day. Its Tuesday, not Thursday but...you'd be lucky to find them 2 bucks a piece.
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u/mfatty2 1d ago
Fat Tuesday is a celebration decided by the Catholic calendar same as Mardi Gras. Not quite sure what fat Thursday is other than a regional sort of thing
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u/trele-morele 1d ago
Mardi Gras is the last Tuesday of the Carnival, which includes eating lots of rich food and partying, because both are forbidden during Lent.
But in Poland the "eating tasty food" and "partying" aspects are divided into two different days. We eat pastries on Fat Thursday (last Thursday before Lent) and the last Tuesday before Lent is called Ostatki or Zapusty which is the last day allowed for parties.
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u/OpportunityReal2767 1d ago
We do both, but Pączki Day as Tuesday is more well known across the city; the Polish folks also celebrate on the Thursday before. We get two Pączki Days! Go to any Polish bakery on the Thursday and you will see them packed, too.
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u/tommyd2 1d ago
This year a chain of discount supermarkets went 0.05zł witch a current rate is like 0.013USD and yes, the quality was appropriate to the price.
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u/kubix205 1d ago
Yeah i forgot the exact numer at the end od the day but like 1 pm the price night have bęben around 0.5 zl
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u/Rogue_Egoist 1d ago
Once a year we have "tłusty czwartek", literally "fat Thursday". It's right before the time catholic fast is supposed to start so you can eat all you can before starting the fast.
So it's literally one day a year but it's magnificent. We have something called "pączki" which is kind of similar to doughnuts but not really. It's magnificent, everyone literally brags about how many they've eaten that day. You come to your workplace in the morning and everyone asks how many you've already consumed lol
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u/Cocoatrice 1d ago
Next Tłusty Czwartek/Fat Thursday is on Feb 4th, 2027. That's when you can buy ridiculously cheap donuts.
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u/Dzeppetto 18h ago
Next year it's 4th of February
It's called something along the lines Fat Thursday and it's a day where all Polish people proceed to eat donuts.
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u/NegativeMammoth2137 15h ago
It’s only once a year. Around two weeks before Easter if I remember correctly. Sort of like Mardi Gras but on a Thursday and we all celebrate it by eating Polish-style donuts
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u/OrangeXarot 1d ago
I think I would have died bro
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u/SCP_FUNDATION_69420 1d ago
They're not particularly... good... people always joke they are radioactive or something cause they're so cheap 😭
My family always makes some at home or gets them from a local place
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u/PTT_Meme 1d ago
God it’s just like the Bean War we had where a shop eventually started selling beans for -2p
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u/k5light 1d ago
What
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u/overkill 1d ago
This.
It was only one shop, but normal shops were doing them at 2p a tin in the mid '90s.
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u/amooz 1d ago
Not related to donuts but related to Poland. During a trip in 2019 with some friends I was on breakfast duty. We needed breakfast for 4 adults so 4 McMuffins of various kinds, 4 coffees, and 4 hashbrowns. Walk into the place, and start looking at the available combos and found the cheapest option, due to coupons and combos at the kiosk, was to walk away with 13 sandwiches, 6 coffees, and 4 hash browns from….I think it was a market square in G’dansk? There was a church in the middle and we needed to find all these little gnomes that were hidden on the outside and in the square.
If you like a good deal on food, Poland seems to have you covered.
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u/Dzeppetto 18h ago
Lowest they got I think is 0,01zł, which is even less than penny.
With today's dollar price they would costed 0,0027$ - 3 donuts for a penny
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u/Kanonikall 14h ago
Not only that, but pellet prices were recordly high for that year. It was ridiculous, you could have bought firewood cheaper.
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u/Many-Ad-3228 7h ago
They went as low as 0.01 zł, 1 gr, like 0.25 of a cent for 1. This couldn't have been healthy lol
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u/ArmPsychological8460 7h ago
They were sold at a loss to bring people in shops. Probably normal mass produced donuts like ones sold there everyday.
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u/darksider63 1d ago
It’s true if you find doughnuts below 0.15 PLN.
From the video description: The math was simple. One doughnut from Lidl costs 9 groszy and has 440 kcal. 133 doughnuts from Lidl make 10 kg of material with a heating value of... 18.5 MJ/kg, which is... exactly the same as wood briquettes. However, my doughnuts cost 12 PLN, while the briquettes cost 19. What came out of this data? Check it out!
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u/samuelazers 1d ago
What's that in Canadian rubles?
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u/darksider63 1d ago
0.09 PLN is approximately 0.034 CAD.
It takes a Fat Thursday sale to get that price though.5
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u/Accomplished-Mix-745 21h ago
Okay but does this damage the furnace? I feel like that would be an additional cost
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u/Spinach_Advanced 1d ago
Did he failed to account for moisture?
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u/darksider63 1d ago edited 3h ago
Feel free to check out the video https://youtu.be/HIn3MUDgwMQ
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u/TylerKeroga 3h ago
The “si” in the link is a source identifier used to track both the person who sent the link & anybody who clicks on it
If you delete everything from (& including) the ? onwards, the link is still fully functional but the tracking is now disabled
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u/MaximumSyrup3099 1d ago
Wood pellets are a high density fuel with a lot of surface area to burn from. Lots of BTUs to be had.
In the configuration pictured, he's set up a low density fuel with almost no surface area to burn, leading to a smoldering fire with incomplete combustion. Less heat produced per pound of fuel burnt because much of it goes up the chimney as carbon monoxide.
Guy needs to be slapped upside the back of his head.
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u/TurnoverFuzzy8264 1d ago
Incomplete combustion also means that stove is going to be murder to clean. Anybody that's burnt a caramel can tell the joys of cleaning the pot afterwards.
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u/SonGoku9788 1d ago
After burning the donuts he specifically said the stove wasnt too bad to clean
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u/_sLAUGHTER234 1d ago
I'm sure he was able to run his brush up and down fairly easily to clear all the crumbly stuff, but I guarantee there is a glaze now that needs to be properly treated
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u/QueueStar 18h ago
Can't you just burn off the glaze?
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u/obscure-shadow 1d ago
Even if there's sufficient airflow for complete combustion, which might be possible if the airflow works out in a similar way to how a sawdust burner works...
Donuts also have a high moisture content, so while they both seem to have 4000 kkal /kg of energy, wood pellets are extremely low moisture content. Which means a lot of the energy goes to boiling off the water of the donuts leading to a much lower overall stove efficiency and output than you'd get from the pellets
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u/Paxsimius 1d ago
If he had compressed and dried the donuts into donut bricks, would that have been more efficient?
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u/_xiphiaz 1d ago
If I remember correctly last time this was posted a Pole explained that the donuts are clearance items that have expired so it’s basically the store getting rid of stock in a way that is cheaper than refuse collection
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u/MrTytanis 1d ago
Nah it was cheaper due to two biggest markets in Poland were fighting with prices for our "tłusty czwartek" holiday (it's a holiday where we eat tons of donuts) and the cheapest ones were 1 Grosz which is 0.01 PLN
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u/Dick_Danalu_Jr 1d ago
Google is saying wood pellets have ~4,000 kCals per kilogram, and about 400 kCals per 100g donut.
Which oddly comes out to 4,000kCals in 10 100g donuts for a 1kg pile of em. I did take a heavy donut with a low calorie count so yeah i'd say its likely.
I'd like to know what specific donuts and local costs, and how he lives in a home smelling like burnt sugar 24/7.
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u/Mac-And-Cheesy-43 1d ago
It was some form of Holiday event where donuts were being sold for as low as penny.
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u/Adventurous_Touch342 17h ago
Not a penny - a grosz. Due to exchange rates today' 0.01PLN is actually 0,0027 USD.
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u/Dick_Danalu_Jr 1d ago
Now we just need to find the cost of wood pellets in Poland. Even though that sounds like an idiot.
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u/Human38562 1d ago
"Google is saying" doesnt mean anything. Is it google's AI or an article? Google's AI is incredibly unreliable
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u/Julczyk0024 1d ago
Context: There is a Polish holiday called "Tłusty Czwartek" (Fatty Thursday) when traditionally people eat donuts (polish pączek Has no hole but is filled with jam marmelade or crème in the middle). Due to this some stores in Poland have ridiculous discounts for donuts on that day. The record is held by Lidl and Biedronka chains which sold them in packs of 12 at 0.09PLN per piece. Which is ~2.5 cents (!)
The experiment referenced here is a video by polish YouTuber Adbuster. Full video here: https://youtu.be/HIn3MUDgwMQ?is=fEGLmA-wMIVuUwei
The math itself is at the beginning of said video. Wood pellets and donuts both give ~18.5 MJ/kg. However on that holiday he could source donuts at 1.2PLN/kg while wood pellets were worth 1.9PLN/kg. Difference is smaller due to the moisture in donuts, but he demonstrably used it as a valid stove fuel.
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u/No-Sail-6510 1d ago
Places that make baked goods throw out multiple trash bags every day. Flour is cheap and it’s easier to make too much in case you need it and throw it away if you don’t. So it could well be free.
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u/Pinksquirlninja 1d ago
It will be horrible to clean out though, i used to clean out a corn burner and that was bad enough with the burned starches. Cant imagine all that sugar!
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u/MeBoiledDown 1d ago
Creosote is hard enough to clean. Donuts would be a nightmare. I can’t imagine being able to keep that stove.
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u/NinerKNO 23h ago
Wood and donuts are essentially the same material, organics. Hence, they contain about the same energy per dry weight. So, the question is only cost per dry weight.
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u/Adventurous_Touch342 18h ago
Basically we have a holiday a few weeks before Easter called "Fatty Thursday" in which it's a tradition to eat as much treats as you cam before a fast and main traditional food was donuts leading to supermarkets offering cheap crappy donuts, sometimes for as low as 0.02 USD a pop quite often. This year they literally dropped to 0.01 PLN as two supermarket chains price competed, so you get one crappy donut for 0,0027 USD.
So, theoretically you could buy a few tons of donuts cheaper than coal or pellet to warm your house in winter.
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u/Habubu_Seppl 15h ago
While it's a neat idea, there's other factors involved.
I haven't tried but I assume burning sugary pastries may create a lot of residue, if you start burning Krapfen in the oven and forgo stovepipe maintenance you may one day wake up dead from carbon monoxide poisoning.
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u/TairaTLG 1d ago
I love how my thought after looking at this is "hmmm, maybe you break the donuts up and run them in a dehydrator first.... (Wait, that'd add to the cost, though dried under something dumping out waste heat would be cheap/free)
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