Soft Ice Cream, often called Soft Serve, is usually made in a soft serve machine with a liquid mixture available through many supply chains. The machines can be expensive, anywhere from a couple hundred for a personal size to $5,000-$10,000 for a single or multi-flavor Soft Serve Maker/Dispenser system. So obviously if customers are requesting soft serve and local businesses are selling it, it may...
Gelato is an Italian version of Ice Cream, it has similar ingredients as most ice cream worldwide with mild (sometimes cream), a sweetener (usually sugar), and a flavoring (maybe fruits or nuts or artificial flavor) and air for main ingredients. Gelato, however, can be made with either a pasteurizing hot provess or a a cold process without pasteurization but both require a special gelato batch...
The IDFA stands for the International Dairy Foods Association and offers statistics, facts, and prospects for dairy products and prices in the US every year. As an Ice Cream Shop owner your business maybe heavily effected by supply prices and demand which the IDFA tracks for supplier and consumer needs. Their website http://home/silver72/public_html/icecreamprofits.com.idfa.org offers great facts and articles for any questions you may have.
Frozen Yogurt is generally a healthier alternative to ice cream. Typically, it consists of lower or non-fat yogurt, a sweetener, gelatin, corn syrup, and flavoring. The mixture can be added to an Ice Cream Machine/Maker and can come in a variety of flavors similar to ice cream. It also melts much slower than ice cream and recently the “pro-biotic” varieties have become popular. The taste...
Everyone has been told the most important thing for a retail business is “location, location, location.” You want to find the best location for your shop but … you don’t know how. So, how do you choose the best location for your shop? This is always a tough question to answer specifically as different location demographics and factors come in to play. The 5 most...
Blue Ridge Ice Creams just celebrated 20 years in business in 2008. The onset of the present economic environment was subtle. The reason for this was that our peak season, which is directly opposite to most other businesses, was happening. We didn’t experience the decrease in sales that restaurants did in the last part of 2008 since that was our normal period to slow down....
We’ve updated the about us section on our website to highlight the newest additions to our website. We hope to make it much easier to navigate to our forum, directory, free classifieds, articles and franchise sections. We are also excited about our new blog section where we will have ice cream industry experts, shop owners, consultants, and marketing professionals posting tips and tricks of the...
Designer Eric Zhang has created the next generation ice cream truck. The MERM, or Modular Electronic Retail Minivan, is designed for rapid conversion. The vehicle can transform from a van into a complete vending station in three minutes: this includes a sales area, storage bins, and room for signage. Zhang postulates the MERM would be most effective in settings where an outdoor market needs to...
Baskin-Robbins continues to expand and grow in Canada. With over store locations in the country, the ice cream chain hopes to open 3 to 5 new locations in the Hamilton and Niagra areas. The company is searching for “business experts” to open the new locations. No ice cream experience is necessary. Baskin-Robbins was started by brothers-in-law Burt Baskin and Irv Robbins. Their first ice cream...
Strickland’s Frozen Custard is an Akron, OH based ice cream company with 14 locations in four states. The newest location is set to open in Lake Wylie, SC. The store was set to open in June, but construction was delayed. Owner Andrew Puch does not think the cold weather will slow down customer flow. The old-fashioned soda shop will share space with a tenant in...
