Maevenn

All of the goods you "bake" arrive frozen, some stuff like muffins come in pails of batter that are thawed in the fridge and scooped into pans. When they switched from traditional bakers to the new system, huge parts of the stores were converted to massive walk-in freezers to accommodate the new stock that was previously stored as bags of mix. (I'm not OP, but worked as a baker for three years when they switched to the "par-baked" method)

eew. I thought things were bad when I left, but that explains some things.

Because of health and liability concerns, the stores tend not to donate the food. With the current system though, you can bake the donuts in small batches (as small as six at a time)to avoid a lot of waste.

it looks like OP stopped posting for a bit, but when I worked there, our routinely bestselling donut was the Boston Cream, it's filled with a type of custard and dipped in chocolate fondant. The honey cruller is also unique since it's not cake or yeast, but a sweet egg donut. Oh, and the standard beverage is a "double double".