Added: 05/15/2006 |
Cold Stone Ice Creamery - the Hard to Resist Make-it-Your-Way Ice CreamCold Stone Creamery is one of the best ice creams in the world and the most interesting to say the least. The ice cream is made fresh everyday and mixed to order. Cold Stone Ice Creamery blends ingredients into the ice cream on a large frozen marble counter - hence the "cold stone" portion of the name. You can add in things like candy, nuts, chocolate chunks, brownies, fruits and more. It's fun to watch them make it. It takes a bit longer to get to you than a soft serve cone, but it's worth the wait.
Cold Stone Creamery is a destination-driven, premium ice cream store. As a franchise system, the size of every store varies dramatically. After years of a red and white tiled, slightly collegiate look, the company has re-designed everything from the floor to the color of the ceiling to the brand's visual identity. Walking into an old, un-retrofitted store is indeed like walking into an eighties' time warp: no more memorable than the typical neighborhood ice cream or frozen yogurt shop. Retrofitted Cold Stone Ice Creamery stores include slate floors, wood grain paneling, stylish cafe tables, sophisticated audio system and wine-colored walls with curvy, graphic accents.
The uniform look and feel of the menus, signage and print collateral employs a clean, sophisticated serif font as opposed to the former whimsical, off-centered sans-serif typefaces. Overall, the re-branded Cold Stone Creamery is very unlike the kid-focused "scoop shop" model.
Unlike the traditional hard-packed and soft serve ice creams, Cold Stone ice cream is made fresh with high-quality cream and sugar lending to a creamier texture and smoother taste. Cold Stone Ice Creamery Company is making ice cream about an indulgent, in-store experience. On a weekend evening, you can find a greeter at the entrance and be entertained in line as crew members enthusiastically sing while you're looking at the larger-than-life photographic images of "Ultimate Creations" - the decadent mixtures of ice cream and mix-ins.
Premium ice cream also demands premium prices. It too has its own version of small, medium and large, which in Cold Stone language translates to Like It, Love It, and Gotta Have It. New ice cream cakes introduced were developed with the Scottsdale Culinary Institute to produce highly palatable, specialty cakes.
The Cold Stone staff is always super friendly and if you ask them, can tell you all about how the concept of the 'cold stone creamery' works. They are also quite patient with you, even when it takes you 15 minutes to decide what combination you want to try.
In 1999 Cold Stone Ice Creamery Company set a target goal of opening 1000 profitable stores by 2006; at that time they had 74.
Eight hundred stores later, the brand has migrated across 44 American states, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and Guam. The company says it is on-target to meet its 2006 goal. In 2003, it was ranked on the Inc. 500 list of Fastest Growing Private Companies and realized a 77 percent sales growth between 2002 and 2003.
The company has no plans to create a grocery retail product line unless consumer demand dictates otherwise.
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