2023 Industry Outlook

The National Dipper asked several ice cream shop owners from around the country to look at their business for the past year and to look ahead to predict the future of the ice cream industry in 2023. This year the participants are: Darell and Lisa Day, Mystic Ice Cream, Fruitland Park, Leesburg and Eustis, Florida; Patrick and Philip Guglielmo, Farmington Miniature Golf & Ice Cream Parlor, Farmington, Connecticut; Don and Jill Johnson, Cool Spoons, Carbondale, Illinois; Mark Lawrence, Polar Cave Ice Cream Parlour, Mashpee, Massachusetts; Bonnie Plottner, Swanky Spoon, Woodinville, Washington; Robin Rinearson, Jake’s Ice Cream, Falls Church, Virginia; Joe Schembri, Ice Dreammm Shop, Tampa, Florida, Jade Sturgill, Here’s The Scoop!, Taylor, Michigan; and D. Whittington and Maria Anderson, Das Ice Cream Cafe, Helen, Georgia.

QUESTION: Please tell us the name of the owners of your store, give a few sentences about yourself and your store. Where are you located? How long have you been in business? How many stores do you own? What do you serve? Etc.

DAY: We are Darrell and Lisa Day and we own Mystic Ice Cream (3 years as new owners) in Fruitland Park, Leesburg, and Eustis Florida. We added the Leesburg and Eustis shops during the last two years. We also added an ice cream food truck where we do nearly 200 events per year. Our ice cream is all homemade - over 30 flavors and half of the flavors have a bit of alcohol. Lots of great flavors.

GUGLIELMO: Patrick and Philip Guglielmo (brothers) own Farmington Miniature Golf & Ice Cream Parlor in Farmington, CT. The store opened in

1991 so we just completed our 32nd year. One store is enough!! We are open seasonally – we carry soft-serve with flavor burst, dipped from several companies. We have some food items: steamed hot dogs, soft pretzels, nachos and taco-in-a-bag.

JOHNSON: We are Don and Jill Johnson, owners of Cool Spoons in Carbondale, Illinois. Cool Spoons offers 18 flavors of soft serve ice cream, frozen yogurt, & non-dairy soft serve. We are a self-serve shop with over 200 different toppings and charge by the weight of the cup or cone. We have been open for 11 years and operate this location as our only unit.

LAWRENCE: My name is Mark Lawrence, and I own Polar Cave Ice Cream Parlour, on Cape Cod, in Mashpee, Massachusetts. This will be my 23rd year in business, typically open late March through December. About 15 years ago I did have a second store, but it became obvious that I couldn’t be in two places at the same time, staffing was a major issue, and I sold it to my then manager. We serve literally anything to do with ice cream. Our menus feature over fifty signature sundaes and frappes. Ice cream cakes and ice cream pies are a large part of our business. Off site catering was busier prior to the pandemic. but slowly building back up. This year we will have an ice cream truck strictly for parties of all kinds.

PLOTTNER: Swanky Scoop is owned and run by Bonnie Plottner, a former software programmer and long time ice cream enthusiast. Our single location store is located in Woodinville, Washington (outside of Seattle) and opened in April 2022. We are a small batch ice cream store featuring

12 dairy and 8 non-dairy flavors at all times, waffle cones and gluten free waffle cones made on site, sundaes, milkshakes, floats, and ice cream sandwiches.

RINEARSON: I am Robin Rinearson, the owner of Jake’s Ice Cream. We are in Falls Church, Virginia in a shopping center. We opened 08/2021 and have one brick and mortar store at the moment. We make and serve hard ice cream, cake pops, ice cream sandwiches, ice cream cupcakes, decorated cookies and pretzels and in colder months, hot cocoa bombs.

SCHEMBRI: Hi, I’m Joe Schembri owner of Ice Dreammm Shop located north of Tampa, Florida. I own two locations serving our homemade hard pack ice cream. The first location opened in 2017 and the second in 2021.

STURGILL: The name of my store is Here’s the Scoop! and is located in Taylor, Michigan. This upcoming spring will be our 25th year in business. We are known for incredible frozen custard, fun creations, and the best customer service. My store offers four flavors of frozen custard daily, including vanilla, chocolate, twist, and a different flavor custard every day. Here’s the Scoop is owned and operated by three generations of family, Sheri Davis (grandmother), Brandie Sturgill (daughter), and me, Jade (granddaughter and daughter). Together, we are a united front and love the opportunity to work with family and sell what we love most.

WHITTINGTON: D. Whittington and Maria Anderson were both retired until D. tasted alcohol infused ice cream and decided to open a Ger- man themed shop in Helen, Georgia, a German themed Alpine Village in the north Georgia mountains. We opened Das Ice Cream Café in the middle of Covid about 3 years ago. We have one shop in Helen, GA with another stand alone GrabNGo window at the other end of our building. We make our own artisan ice creams. We make traditional, dairy free, sugar free, and adult alcohol infused flavors. We also have German inspired desserts and kaffees.

QUESTION: Please tell us why and how you decided to open an ice cream store.

DAY: Lisa and I bought the existing business when we moved to The Villages. Newly married, we wanted to operate a business together. We each have a like for ice cream, good customer service, and - in this case - a hippy tie dye vibe!

GUGLIELMO: Our ice cream parlor is part of our miniature golf course which was built in 1962. We worked for our parents in our teens running and maintaining their miniature golf course. During those years we were continually asked “where is the closest ice cream?” Carvells or Dairy Queen were a town or two away. The two stores in town were a chain and known to be notoriously slow. People said “anyplace but there”! So we saw an opportunity.

JOHNSON: In 2011, we decided it would be a great time to become entrepreneurial. We looked at several franchise opportunities, but felt coming up with our own concept was a better fit. We choose ice cream because of the family friendly aspect and the limited competition in our immediate market. In addition, Carbondale has a state university, Southern Illinois University, that we believed would help support our store. We did our industry research, and developed our store plans at our kitchen table.

LAWRENCE: After twenty plus years in hotel and restaurant management, working for corporate America took its toll. I said to myself “If I work this hard for a company and feel unap- preciated, why not work for myself?”

Ice cream has always been a staple in my life - so naturally it made sense to get into the business. I purchased Polar Cave from its second owner after it had been operating for five years.

PLOTTNER: My family arrived in the greater Seattle area in 2006 after living in several other cities with many small ice cream stores (St. Paul, MN and Boston, MA in particular). At the time the Seattle suburbs didn’t have much to offer outside of chain ice cream stores. I started researching the steps and requirements for starting an ice cream store after years spent as a software developer and then being home with kids. I wrote a pretty complete business plan and attended the University of Wisconsin ice cream school in early 2020. Spent the first year of the pandemic focusing on making ice cream at home and photographing it to share on social media. Found a viable location in early 2021 and signed a lease. While store was under construction, rented a commercial kitchen space and made ice cream to sell by the pint from a cart in the same development where my store is located. We opened in April 2022 with a good social media following and existing customer base from the pint sales.

RINEARSON: I retired from my profession of 44-1/2 years as a developmental optometrist and wanted to open a business to employ people with disabilities - particularly my nephew and others like him. A friend strongly suggested ice cream, offered to help with advice and we got started.

SCHEMBRI: I always knew I wanted to own an ice cream shop! As a child, my family and I would go to our favorite ice cream shop weekly. It was our family time back then and I wanted to recreate that for other families in my area so Ice Dreammm Shop was born.

STURGILL: In the spring of 1999, Here’s the Scoop was established by five gentlemen and one woman. With no experience in the ice cream business before, the gentlemen thought that this small, bright pink shop would instantly take off, but they in fact were wrong.

All men but one decided they wanted to pull their investments out by the end of the first season. This left Sheri and her husband as the only owners. It took many years before actual profit was made, but eventually the small business started to see more growth. Over the years Brandie, daughter of Sheri, helped run the shop and eventually I started to work as well. Both my mom and I started working from a very young age. This has led us to where we are as a business now. Together, my grandmother, mother, and I work as a team to run this shop.

WHITTINGTON: Some friends were over for a holiday weekend and one of the people, as he was leaving, stated he was stopping on the way home to get ice cream for his wife. Nothing exciting about that but later he said it was adult ice cream with alcohol in it. Several weeks later I found the shop and tried it and thought it would be a good thing to open a shop in our village. Researched the internet for equipment, recipes, and requirements to open an ice cream shop in our area. Put a business plan together, found a location and started our buildout while all the restaurants in the country were closed due to Covid. The recipes we found had mistakes in them so we threw them out and said how do we make a great vanilla, then chocolate and what was supposed to be about 18 flavors is now 77. Currently, we have about 15 adult, 10 dairy free, 3 sugar free and the rest traditional flavors. We use local ingredients and liquor when possible.

QUESTION: How did you manage to stay in business during the COVID-19 pandemic?

DAY: During the virus, we opened our front window of the original shop and did lots of drive up sales. We also purchased a delivery truck and converted it to the Mystic Mobile! We were then “planted” for several months at a very busy part of The Villages…we developed a real following.

GUGLIELMO: We are seasonal and the State closed down our business until May 2020, so we only lost two months of being open. It was a slow and uncertain opening, but by July business picked up. People just wanted to get out. The miniature golf was open the whole time, being one of the few things people could do outside, and the ice cream parlor was right there which helped having a captive audience.

JOHNSON: Honestly it was very difficult. The state of Illinois shut down all “non-essential” businesses. Because we provided food, we were able to stay open on a limited basis. Inside dining was not allowed. Only delivery and carryout were permitted. Within 60 days outdoor dining was permitted and we shifted our entire business model to accommodate the ever-changing environment. Our local health department would not allow self-service, so we took orders at the outside tables, made the ice cream treats for the customers and delivered them to each customer outside that entire summer. Our sales numbers dropped by 75%. Because we were fortunate enough to not have debt on the business, and one spouse still gainfully employed outside the business, we were able to keep the doors open,

LAWRENCE: We went to strictly curbside delivery, ordering from vehicles or online via a Google Doc sheet.

PLOTTNER: Did not open until after the worst of the pandemic.

RINEARSON: We opened during the pandemic so I don’t know what it’s like without it in place.

SCHEMBRI: We quickly pivoted to an online model offering curbside. In fact, we started this right before any shutdowns in order to prepare for the inevitable. The move was highly successful and brought in families and friends who would social distance in our parking lot and “camp out”.

STURGILL: When the COVID-19 Pandemic started the feeling of fear came to mind. With the restrictions, guidelines, and closures we thought we would be put to rest. But we thought wrong. The COVID-19 Pandemic did nothing but bring us business, in fact one of the best summers we had finan- cially. This was the summer that left us with profit that we were able to start major renovations to our business. In the state of Michigan, most indoor facilities such as restaurants, movie theaters, and more were closed. Our business was a success due to its structure of being a walk-up ice cream shop.

WHITTINGTON: When things opened back up, it started out slow but turned into a strong half season.

QUESTION: How have you and your employees been affected by the pandemic?

DAY: As a staff and team, we made slight adjustments that allowed us to continue serving our customers while keeping distance and wearing masks and gloves. We were open again after the third month of being closed inside. After that, we reopened and returned to our evening entertainment schedule, we well.

GUGLIELMO: We have been affected by the pandemic in several ways. We had to alter the store by placing plastic barriers between the servers and the customers making it difficult for people to communicate. We placed signs throughout the store informing customers of the need to wear masks and other protective procedures. We had special pandemic-specific trainings for our employees. We changed the cleaning processes to reduce possible contamination including hand sanitizing stations and offering masks.

JOHNSON: I think we have learned how to be a better operation. We always have made extra efforts to keep the store clean and well organized. Procedures put in place during Covid were essentially being done in advance of the pandemic. In the last year, it has been more important to return to “normalcy” and get our customers over the fear of interacting in public. Our success relies on providing a unique ex- perience with our ice cream. The guest is highly interactive with our products, The guest operates the ice cream machines, adds their own toppings, syrups, etc. The experience we provide is a big part of the fun in eating at Cool Spoons.

LAWRENCE: In March of 2020 due to the despicable behavior of many customers on our opening day we made worldwide headlines. With numerous television and phone interviews for newspapers I simply wanted to spread the word of being kind to ALL service workers. We were all doing the best we could, in unprecedented times, with no road map to follow.

PLOTTNER: Opening in 2022 the staff wore masks for the first several months and then has been individual choice. The worst has just been having various employees out for days at a time due to catching COVID. I think we opened at a time when people were eager to be getting out and about again and appreciate a little human interaction with our very friendly staff.

RINEARSON: We require masking in the shop and that all staff be vaccinated. We also require that all patrons wear masks and we supply them for people who don’t have them. We periodically deal with mask holes.... who like to pontificate about conspiracies and other nonsense surrounding this contagious disease.

SCHEMBRI: The pandemic wasn’t bad to be honest in the beginning. We noticed we would get more-thanusual rude customers but we chalked that up to the stress the world faced. As the pandemic continued, employee call outs was a major concern but I’m happy to say we managed without any downtime.

STURGILL: As a business, we benefitted from the pandemic in the financial aspect. We did have a difficult time maintaining staff during this time though. One of our employees was exposed at her daytime job and word spread fast. She found this news out while at our business (her nighttime job). We did what we thought was best, to send her home and await testing. Mind you at this time we all practiced safety guidelines including wearing a mask and proper handwashing. Seven of our employees disagreed with our decision regarding the exposed employee and decided to quit within 24 hours of this occurring. The employee that was exposed never even tested positive. This left only six employees left including my mom and me.

WHITTINGTON: It was tough at first with the protocols but quickly became the new normal so it was not a big deal.

QUESTION: What procedures did you put in place during the pandemic that you will continue to use even after the pandemic is over?

DAY: We monitor all cleaning and cleaning supplies closer as a response to the effects of the pandemic.

GUGLIELMO: We are continuing the hand sanitizing stations and our employees have become more aware of the importance of health and sanitation guidelines.

JOHNSON: We added to our selections. In addition to soft serve, we now serve cold brewed coffee and other specialty beverages.

LAWRENCE: With the creation of a Facebook Group for our regular guests we continue to offer online/call ahead ordering, with a designated pick up window.

PLOTTNER: Careful to limit the hands touching things--spoons come out of an individual dispenser, straws are wrapped. Also, always have hand sanitizer out for guests.

RINEARSON: We have hand sanitizer and as I mentioned above - require masking. No one in the shop has caught covid from another worker or from being in the shop. Most of my staff has caught it from other social events where someone brought in cooties.

SCHEMBRI: The biggest change that we implemented was our mobile ordering and curbside service.

STURGILL: The procedures we put into place during the pandemic included six feet apart signs and stickers on the concrete. We also installed additional hand sanitizer stations outside our business as well. As of recent, we plan to keep our hand sanitizer stations and continue our cleaning practices as well. Along with maintaining quarantine periods for those who test positive for COVID-19.

WHITTINGTON: We still sanitize everything all the time, hand sanitizers both inside and outside the shop. Gloves and masks as needed and customer spacing is still in place.

QUESTION: Are you experiencing supply chain shortages and how are you managing that?

DAY: We did experience a shortage of things like cups and concerns over the possibility of cream shortage. Those concerns have subsided.

GUGLIELMO: Yes, we are experiencing supply chain shortages, particularly for popular ice cream flavors. We are managing this by trying to find other flavors to suggest, or finding other suppliers. Paper products are a problem at certain times. We are very loyal to our suppliers (two we have been with for all 32 years) and because of that they tend to make sure we get what we need or a good substitute.

JOHNSON: This is a challenge almost every day. Our primary yogurt manufacturer distributes the yogurt through regional food distributors. Over the past few years, many self service froyo shops closed. That put our food distributor in a disadvantage of not being able to order full truck loads from the manufacturer. Prices have escalated to a point that we have been forced to go away from premade flavor mixes and instead buy frozen yogurt base and flavor it in-house using flavored syrups. The cost of our base product in the past six months has actually gone down slightly with the switch. We also have better options with flavor selec- tions. The food distributor started only stocking the top 10 yogurt flavors limiting us to keeping our flavor lineup stagnant. Topping prices however keep going up. Some toppings that we have used in the past, we simply cannot afford to offer any longer. We substitute the item with a close alternative. An example was chocolate covered espresso beans. We cannot source them affordably. We now offer espresso chips as an alternative. Most of our guests seem to understand.

LAWRENCE: Last year was challenging in so many ways, everything from ingredients to disposables were always in short supply. To counter this I was on a constant hunt to track down items and buy in larger quantities than normal. This will be of great help this year as there is a larger than normal opening inventory, and a money saver on top!

PLOTTNER: Have had to increase our orders for printed cups and plan more in advance--needing to store larger inventories of paper products in particular to satisfy larger minimum orders and increased lead times. Otherwise, having good relationships with a few key suppliers.

RINEARSON: I have ordered my stock of cups and spoons for the year in February. I misjudged the need for pint containers and could not obtain them in mid-summer. I consequently contacted another supplier and had them make them with our logo. If you purchase in enough quantity - it’s cheaper than the cartons purchased from re-sellers. The problem is the space for storage.

SCHEMBRI: We’re not seeing much supply chain shortages now but we did early on. To combat the issue I increased our minimum counts of critical supplies such as cups, spoons, certain ingredients, etc.

STURGILL: We are absolutely experiencing supply chain shortages, more often than before. Before we open for the season, we try our best to stay ahead and purchase as much shelf stable stock and dry products as possible before running out of space. During the season, we basically try and find the product wherever we can regardless of cost. Paper and Styrofoam bowls were extremely challenging to find during the 2022 season.

WHITTINGTON: Yes, many things are harder to find and you have to buy more (whole season) than normal to keep from running out. More money for goods/shipping/storage than normal.

QUESTION: Are your mix/ice cream prices increasing or decreasing for 2023? To what do you attribute the increase or decrease in price?

DAY: . We raised our prices by $1 per unit in response to the inflated prices of supplies and materials…considering the price of gas, we adjusted our event schedule to make trips more effective.

GUGLIELMO: Yes we have to, in response to the State minimum wage increase in May 2023, to $15 an hour. We have not increased prices since June of

2021. We absorbed the increases as much as possible, and wanted everyone to enjoy our shop and come by often during these difficult times. Which worked because our gross has been up in 2021 and even more in 2022.

JOHNSON: It’s a mix bag. Some of the ice cream mix has increased. The price from our supplier has increased just like everything else. The soft serve has increased. Supply chain costs has hit them and they pass it along to us. The frozen yogurt mix has gone down slightly because we changed suppliers and are operating differently.

LAWRENCE: My suppliers are telling me to expect multiple increases throughout the year. Prices are already up anywhere from 5% on many toppings, ice cream 10% and as high as 20% on cones.

PLOTTNER: Overall, staying fairly steadily high. Some price increases were balanced by being a consistent customer with an established track record now and able to negotiate more.

RINEARSON: We’re leaving prices alone for the moment. We just need to have more customers

SCHEMBRI: Our mix prices have steadily increased and I suspect this will continue in 2023. I believe the labor market across the supply chain could be a factor here.

STURGILL: Yes, our dairy prices are increasing this season. We believe this is due to the cost of milk, butter, and eggs price gouging.

WHITTINGTON: Increases since 2021 but for us not real bad like other areas. There were shortages and shipping problems which I think the industry forced the issue and still uses excuses for not lowering prices. It is a systemic problem, not just this industry.

QUESTION: What new products and/or flavors will you offer customers in 2023?

DAY: Our new flavors for the upcoming weeks include Funky Monkey, and Red Velvet Cake. We are also adding waffle bowl.

GUGLIELMO: Possibly, Maple Creemies.

JOHNSON: We are always looking for new toppings and syrup flavors. We try to stay on top of food trends and seasonal offerings. In the past year we have added 40+ toppings. New syrup flavors like “Fruity Pebbles” and “Cinnabon” have been added. Tajin, a lime flavored chile seasoning was added and is popular as a topping to our pineapple soft serve. We also plan on trying coconut ice cream, chocolate-hazelnut, and several other unique flavors rotated throughout the year.

LAWRENCE: We constantly strive to come up with new items weekly. One thing to increase sales will be to get a display freezer and offer a Pie of the Month, in addition to the 20 offerings we currently offer.

PLOTTNER: We are looking to increase our ice cream cake sales. We operate in a very wine focused area (10 tasting rooms in our development) so looking for more ways to incorporate complementary flavors into our offerings. Also delving more into catering.

RINEARSON: We’re constantly changing the flavors and making special items for holidays and events. We will continue to do this. We started our first ice cream eating contest. We started our “valentine’s cards” for kid scoops (copied from another ice cream shop owner - the idea but not the cards themselves). We have a “create your own ice cream flavor” event that we offer up for parties and for auctions.

SCHEMBRI: We offer new flavors monthly so this isn’t new to us. We’ll continue to pay attention to current trends.

STURGILL: During our season is when we usually drum up ideas for new products. We may possibly go to social media and ask the public.

WHITTINGTON: More German themed desserts, add to our sugar free and dairy free flavors and strengthen our specialty German dessert, Spaghettieis.

QUESTION: What was your best selling item during the 2022 summer season? Why?

DAY: One of our most popular flavors is the Oreo® Cookie Dough. Another Summer flavor has been the Crown Apple Betty!!

GUGLIELMO: Our best selling item in the summer of 2022 was vanilla ice cream and milk shakes. The hotter and dryer it is the more hand dipped milk shakes we sell !?

JOHNSON: Chocolate and vanilla ice cream has been our #1 and #2 flavors since day one. I don’t ever expect that to change. We have had a lot of success in 2022 with the non-dairy options. The pineapple flavor has been a big hit. During the summer we allow 6 of the flavors to be devoted to the product. Pineapple is the anchor and we change out the other selections by rotating 7-8 other flavors. We also reached out to another local small business called Cold Blooded Coffee and Roastery. They were supplying us our cold brew and the owner suggested trying a collaboration using soft serve and flavor it with cold btrew. We worked together getting the recipe correct and sold “Cold Brewed Coffee Soft Serve” for much of 2022. It was a success and it was fun to promote it as a local item.

LAWRENCE: As with virtually every shop in the world, we sell more small cones than any other single item. There was an uptick in sales of our glacier frappes. These are a 22 oz. extra thick frappe with a waffle bowl sundae on top.

PLOTTNER: Our business is almost entirely scoops and waffle cones. Our most popular flavor is a version of cookie monster, dyed blue with spirulina and containing Oreos®, chocolate chip cookies, and edible chocolate chip cookie dough.

RINEARSON: One scoop cones and then pints.

SCHEMBRI: We don’t do much in terms of specialty items so it’s your standard cup, cone, shake, sundae for us.

STURGILL: The best-selling item during the 2022 summer season was any of our five specialty parfaits. Flavors include Banana Pudding, Hot Fudge and Spanish Nut, Caramel and Pecan, S’mores, and Funfetti. We also create specialty parfaits that we think pair well with our flavor of the day such as Blueberry Cheesecake, Reese® Peanut Butter, and Samoa.

WHITTINGTON: TraditionalOreo®; Adult - Bourbon Caramel Pecan; Dairy Free - Lemon Poppyseed; and Sugar Free - Chocolate

QUESTION : Many store owners experienced a shortage of qualified team members during the 2022 season. Did you? Did you have to shorten your store hours or close early because of lack of workers?

DAY: . Worker shortage or quality problems are certainly concerning for us all. We have lost a few employees over the past year - due to lack of committed work ethic and poor quality performance. We have fared better than most - we have a wonderful staff of 12-14 workers who are committed to our product, our concept, and our customers! We did not have to adjust our hours…1pm to 9pm every day.

GUGLIELMO: We did not experience a shortage. Our hours remained the same.

JOHNSON: The number of applicants has declined. We operate as a mom and pop shop. I generally need 3-5 student employees to cover the store in my absence throughout the week. We have always been able to turn to our employees and have them act as recruiters on our behalf. We always have looked for responsible kids. “Good” kids want to work with others that are “good” kids. They help me stay away from bad hiring mistakes. It’s not perfect, we have hired non-qualified individuals, but generally they don’t stay around long and the good ones do. We have not had to shorten hours due to the lack of workers.

LAWRENCE: Due to lack of workers

I was forced to close a total of 42 days between May 1st and September 6th, this was a devastating financial hit.

PLOTTNER: We are located in an area with a lot of teenagers and have been successful at staffing the store. It has been harder to find quality help in the kitchen, especially as a single location store--we have a small kitchen staff, so when one person is sick it hits us hard.

RINEARSON: We employ primarily people with disabilities. This worker group is loyal. We have a backlog of people wanting a job in our shop.

SCHEMBRI: We experienced the same labor challenges however we were able to maintain normal hours throughout 2022. I did change hours at one location to 12pm from 11am due to low demand. I do see labor challenges as a big concern in the near future.

STURGILL: We did not experience a shortage of qualified team members this season. No, we did not have to shorten hours or close at all.

WHITTINGTON: Yes, our whole town was short staffed and many shops/restaurants had to shorten hours, cut back on days open to have staff available.

QUESTION: Good employees are one of the “keys” to a good business. How do you find good employees and what do you do to keep them?

DAY: . I think that our image and reputation helps us recruit great employees. Lisa and I focus on developing family atmosphere and supportive and instructive guidance.

GUGLIELMO: Generally people that want to work, enjoy working for us. Our employees are found by word of mouth and usually siblings want to work here so we hire employees that have large families! We have 4 from one family right now. To keep our employees engaged and get to know them we have after hours events 2 or 3 times per season. We have a volleyball court we set up, we play midnight miniature golf and have cookouts. At our end of the year cleanup/party we do a tub toss. Which is four empty ice cream tubs spaced from the water balloon thrower with cash under each one. $10, $20, $50 and $100. The farther the tub the larger the prize! Water balloons get tossed taking turns until all the prize money is gone. We also give out awards to deserving employees at the end of the year. Engraved ice cream scoops with things like employee of the year, most improved worker, best second year employee and once ”you are fired” all in fun.

JOHNSON: I believe the most important key to recruitment is to be constantly looking for new talent. Having your current staff help in this process is vital. Good employees want to work with others that show respect to them and the workplace. If you make a mistake in hiring someone that doesn’t fit your organization, cut your losses and severe that relationship. You will end up keeping the good staff rather than losing the good ones trying to save the bad ones. I only hire part-time employees. It is all that is needed for our business model. Wages in Illinois have been by law going up every year until it reaches $15/hr. My experience is that employees are more concerned about working around respectable and good people. We pay $13/hr which is the current state minimum wage. It is fun to work at Cool Spoons. We don’t act or operate like a “fast food” establishment. We do provide uniform shirts and offer a “pooled tip jar” that is used to provide college scholarships for our employees. We match the tip jar and plan on offering four $500 scholarships to our current staff this spring.

LAWRENCE: Even “warm body” employees are hard to find. This year we did piggy back off a local resort, and a grocery store to offer their Foreign Worker Program employees a second job, working around their available hours. I have been blessed to have a core of good employees, they are paid well, receive bonuses throughout the year, and I help them in any way I can. Treated like family.

PLOTTNER: In the front, we have a large staff who mostly only work 1-2 shifts a week between school, sport, and other commitments (they work more shifts in the summer). Overhiring has been the key. Also, we have a very high minimum wage and they make great tips! The community is very happy to have a local ice cream store and the staff have fun interacting with them. We do short shifts (4 hours) so that staff are able to keep up a lot of energy during work and still have time for other things in the day.

RINEARSON: Word of mouth from families of our employees.

SCHEMBRI: We’re lucky to have a constant stream of job applications. When we hire I always look to these applications first. I look at availability, work history (if any) and why they want to work. If the application seems like a fit I’ll bring the candidate in for an interview to see if they’ll “fit in” on the team. We get rave reviews on our team so I look for a positive attitude and the ability to mesh with the other teammates.

STURGILL: We find good employees through friends, family, or just by posting an ad saying that we are hiring. I do most interviews for the business and find that early high schoolers are the best to hire on because they usually have not worked elsewhere, have good availability, and are brightly spirited. During the interview process, I usually start the conversation off by welcoming the interviewee and introducing myself and sometimes other staff members. I then go through a series of questions relating to strengths or weaknesses, job experience, and availability. I try to make this process calm and friendly for the interviewee.

WHITTINGTON: Social media, good pay, incentives, and have employees buy into the dream of nothing like us around the area, making us special on so many levels.

QUESTION: In your opinion, what are the other “keys” to a successful business?

DAY: I believe that the keys to our success are directly related to the positive atmosphere we maintain and the lifting up of our employees in their daily lives.

GUGLIELMO: Enjoy what you are doing and show that to your employees and customers. Get to know and take the time to chat and welcome everyone, make both customers and employees feel appreciated!

JOHNSON: There are so many “keys” to operating a successful business. You can never stop being concerned about the financials or you will not make it. You have to balance the needs and the desires of your customers or you won’t make it long term. You have to offer items that they want. You need to provide opportunities to your employees and treat them with respect. If you don’t you won’t make it. We have a motto at Cool Spoons: “We sell happiness”. We have that saying in our logo. It is printed on every cup of ice cream that we sell. It is a part of our branding and signage throughout our store. We truly believe that if guests are happy, they will tell others and keep returning. If our employees are happy, they will stick around and help find other happy employees. All of this works together to be successful.

LAWRENCE: Being hands on, have a strong presence/involvement within the local community. If you support your community, your community will support you.

PLOTTNER: Personal interactions with customers. Everyone should leave with a smile! Also good relationships with other local businesses and community members, so that there are co-marketing opportunities and good referrals.

RINEARSON: Be flexible. We are open year round. Last year was our first full year. This is our second winter. Last year we closed one day a week because winter business generally stinks. This year, we are open with modified hours and we cut the work hours of some of our staff.

SCHEMBRI: People > Profits I strongly believe this to be true in relation to my team, my customers and my community. As silly as this may sound, if we’re slow I won’t force employees to go home. I want them to rely on their hours when it’s slow so I have them when it’s busy.

STURGILL: The “keys” to a successful business is high quality product, customer service, efficiency, affordability, and a good location.

WHITTINGTON: Great products, excellent service, employees and customers buying into what we are doing that is so different from anywhere else within miles of us.

QUESTION: Do you use social media to promote your business? If yes, tell us what you use and how you use it. If no, tell us why.

DAY: We have a website and a Facebook page. In addition our social media manager is responsible for all posts and communication. She also drives and schedules our truck.

GUGLIELMO: Yes, we use Facebook and Instragram to promote our business wth events such as birthday parties, work group gatherings and special holiday happenings, such as an Easter egg hunt and haunted halloween miniature golf.

JOHNSON: We have a web presence and try to utilize social media. Honestly, it’s an area we are constantly trying to improve. It is a goal of this year to improve in this area.

LAWRENCE: Facebook is by far the most important social media platform for the business. There is a public page, and an invitation only page for our regular guests. Posting multiple times a day is not unusual and expected by our followers. Our engagement numbers are off the charts, this has taken many years and we have over 11,000 followers over all our pages.

PLOTTNER: Definitely. I post daily our flavors of the day to Facebook and Instragram. Promote specialty items, cakes, pre-orders there as well. Just getting into TikTok and more Instragram reels....everything takes time and since it is still our first year being open there is always a lot to do and learn! My hobby is food photography, so having unique photos that highlight our store is a differentiator...rarely using stock images.

RINEARSON: We use Facebook, Instagram, Yelp and Google to promote the business. We have also been fortunate to have many local papers, magazines and news producers interested in our story. We have had a lot of good press.

SCHEMBRI: We post on Facebook and Instagram but admittedly we’re not using social as effective as we should be.

STURGILL: Yes, our store does use social media to promote business. We have a Facebook page and an Instagram page. We post daily on both to keep customers aware of daily flavors, new products, and updates. Social media helps tremendously with our business. Customers come up to the window and show us a picture of our product and say, “Can I have whatever this is that you made?”

WHITTINGTON: I’m not great at it, could learn more but we use mainly Facebook and Instragram as our social media platforms. Would like to do more videos like TicTok but still learning that and Canva.

QUESTION: What do you see as the biggest problem in running your store? What are you doing to solve that problem?

DAY: Without question, our biggest struggle is the cost of materials and supplies. Because we make our ice cream, we are dependent on reasonable prices in order to offer the ice cream at an affordable price. This really squeezes us. We are looking at ways to cut costs in other areas and be smarter about how we operate.

GUGLIELMO: The time it takes to care and do it right. Working to enable some of our employees that show interest to help with inventory, ordering, computer work and scheduling.

JOHNSON: Inflation concerns have caused us to continue to raise prices. At some point, when are we going to see people stop buying from us because we are too expensive. We are mandated to raise wages every year. Utilities keep going up. Food costs keep going up. I don’t have an answer other than if we don’t keep an eye on the overall costs vs. the revenues, many small businesses will not survive.

LAWRENCE: By far the biggest challenge is finding workers. Today’s youth do not have the same work ethic or drive of past generations. Plans are in place to attend job fairs, and going after more part time “adult” workers for evening hours via posts on job boards. Sort of like waitpersons without the formality of being in a restaurant.

PLOTTNER: High costs. Rent, wages, supplies. Tracking costs, negotiating prices, and unfortunately raising our prices too.

RINEARSON: The biggest issue for us is getting enough good job coaches to help some of the staff to become more independent.

SCHEMBRI: One of the biggest challenges I’ve seen this past year is a shortage in qualified labor, meaning responsible teens who won’t call out, has availability and is willing to complete tasks. As bigger corporations increase their minimum wage (while investing in technology to replace employees) small businesses like mine are forced to increase our wages in order to remain competitive and keep employees.

Having said that, balancing an acceptable price point to afford the increase in costs while making it affordable for families to enjoy some ice cream will continue to be a challenge.

STURGILL: The biggest problem in running my store is supplies. It can be difficult when our distributor is out of a product, and it leads us running around trying to find sold out products. Especially when there are other ice cream shops in the area looking for the same product.

WHITTINGTON: Finding great shift managers to help run things, freeing us a bit to work on social media, finding other locations, etc.