It’s cold throughout most of the United States. Here on this rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean it’s 80 degrees (the previous sentences were not brought to you by the Hawaii Visitors Bureau). Cold weather isn’t ice cream weather, unless you’re eating the ice cream to help you build a thick layer of fat on your body to keep you warm.
But for most people that isn’t the case, and I imagine sales during the winter months at ice cream shops, like Cold Stone Creamery, drop. Well Cold Stone Creamery isn’t standing still like a snowman without a magical hat. Recently, they introduced a line of warm desserts called The Plated Desserts.
The four desserts are:
Brownie A La Cold Stone – warm brownies topped with vanilla ice cream, whipped topping, caramel, hot fudge and pecans.
Churro Caramel Crave – cinnamon and sugar churros with vanilla ice cream, caramel and whipped topping.
Chocolate Lava Meltdown – warm chocolate cake filled with hot fudge and topped with vanilla ice cream, fudge, whipped topping and chocolate shavings.
No Fair Funnel Cake – funnel cake covered with powdered sugar and topped with strawberries, vanilla ice cream, strawberry puree and whipped topping.
The Plated Desserts are available at participating locations through April 30, and cost $4.99 each.
In my town, we have a delivery service that will bring Cold Stone Creamery. Churro Caramel Crave sounds pretty good by the fire tonight as we ride out what’s left of this week’s midwestern blizzard, and I won’t even have to leave the warm house to get it. Thanks for the tip!
I have a meeting that is right next to a Cold Stone downtown today. I might have to try this out
Here Cold Stone goes again… yet another swing (and a miss) at profitability.
This announcement simply means to each franchise owner is additional paper product costs, additional equipment costs, additional labor at times to keep the flow of business moving and adds more complexity to the already complex and costly operations. This addition will simply take the current ice cream customers and move them over to “warm” creations for a few months. Eventually this profit gimmick will go the way of Wasabi ice cream, Black Licorice ice cream, Red Pan Promos, Cereality cereal bar, Soupman Soup Bar, Ghirardelli chocolate, Cup Cakes, Grab-n-Go’s, CS\Tim Horton Combo, and the Cold Stone Yogurt BAR.
CS Franchisees need to wake up and realize that Corporate doesn’t think about the profitability of the franchisee, they continue to JUST PILE ON more labor costs, more product costs, more complexity…. pathetic.
I sense you have a horse in this race?! I don’t, but it seems to me like new products at least have the potential to bring in new customers or to get former customers to return, which would be helpful to a franchise owner, especially if Marvo is right that cold weather isn’t always great for the ice cream business.
I went yesterday and ordered the brownie sundae. It was ok, but I would not drive down there just to have it. It also has 1300 calories so very unhealthy for you. The employee I talked to stated it was a hassle to make and the flavor of the products wasn’t that good. The taste of the product was average. The brownie was warm and soft, but did not have much flavor. The ice cream was good as always and was soft and creamy. The sauces had too much going on but made up for the lack of taste in the brownie. Finally the whipped cream was the best part. It had the best flavor and complimented everything.
Overall a 6/10
I’m surprised to hear Cold Stone is focused on changing their menu when it seems that their entire franchise system is about to collapse. Given their longstanding issues related to their unprofitable franchisees under their current failed business model, I would think this would be their first priority. This was reported nationally by the Wall Street Journal in 2008 and most recently, CNBC revealed in their documentary “Behind the Counter: The Untold Story of Franchising†that the company took more than $13 million in kickbacks in 2009. That was followed by some very messy legal jostling by Cold Stone’s attorney Robert Zarco.
Shouldn’t Cold Stone first focus on their franchisee profitability issues under their current business model? The company was founded in the 1980’s. Shouldn’t they have figured this out by now? Kahala needs to demonstrate they have a proven ice cream business model for Cold Stone before they establish another menu item. Maybe it’s just that they don’t care that these franchisees are going bankrupt and losing their homes so long as they are making big profits. Can you say CORPORATE GREED?
I don’t know where the closest Cold Stone is to me since the one that was nearby closed. I doubt I would seek them out for these desserts though.