There is a new player in the doughnut game, and her name is Scarlet.

Scarlet and David Wilson were the owners of the Tupelo Shipley’s locations until late last year.

“Shipley’s wanted to go corporate, but we wanted to stay local, so that’s what we did,” Scarlet Wilson said. “There would have been too many changes that we did not want to comply with. Things that customers of the Tupelo locations are used to, like tamales and dough rolls, would have disappeared from the menu.”

“It doesn’t taste that different to me,” Tupelo High School teacher Jessica Bragg said. “I’m excited about the new one that’s about to open up.”

Brooklyn Johnson, however, a senior at THS and a frequent Shipley’s customer, does not approve of the change.

“I don’t like it,” she said. “The Shipley’s name was a part of Tupelo culture. It was almost like a staple of the city. It was a historic landmark in Tupelo, so it’s strange to see it go.”

Although some regular Shipley’s customers are worried about the change, they shouldn’t have too much to worry about.

“We didn’t want to change the menu,” Wilson said. “We are keeping the dough rolls, the tamales, and the same icing recipes. The only thing that has changed is the mix, the name, and the logo. The original owners are still here.”

A new Scarlet’s location will open on North Gloster “very soon,” Wilson said. “My daughter and her husband will run the North Gloster location when it opens. We’ve been waiting for the right time to open the store, and that time is almost here. It’s very important to me that everyone knows that it’s still the same, original owners. I can’t stress that enough.”

In addition to the new name, the local staple is changing its doughnut mix.

“Most people don’t know that we’ve started using the new mix,” Wilson said. “People will come in, order their doughnuts, eat them, and then ask us when we are making the changes. We started using the new recipes right after we ran out sometime in late December. We were worried about the transition at first but all seems to be going well.”

Wilson, or “the doughnut Queen” as employee Doug Stewart calls her, seems to have done something correctly. Although this was a big change, it doesn’t seem that way. Scarlet’s is still being visited by many THS students who stop by on their way to school every day.

“Without the high school and all the students in Tupelo, we wouldn’t be anything,” Stewart said. “Thank you.”

THS senior Taylor Justice is also a regular at the doughnut shop.

“It’s kind of sad that they changed everything,” she said. “They changed the box, the sign, the name, and I’m sure they’ll have new bags too. It’s strange to see ‘Scarlet’s’ instead of ‘Shipley’s.’”

Although it may be strange seeing a new name paired with your favorite local doughnut, frequent customers shouldn’t have much to worry about.

“Although I’m still a little shell-shocked, I’m hopeful,” Wilson said when asked about the future of Scarlet’s. “We still have the same great employees and the same great product.”