Cold Stone Creamery: Singin' for yer tipper!
They just opened up a Cold Stone Creamery next to the local Steve's Comic Relief, so that whenever I pop in at Steve's and find my favorite comic book, I can celebrate with a nice Sweet Cream mixed with Heath Bar. Or I can do that if the comic I'm really waiting excessively for (in this case New Avengers #6 -- what's up with that, Marvel?) isn't in, I can commisserate with the same thing. :-)The ice cream is nothing unique -- there was a place in Rocky River, OH, called Mixin's back in the mid-80s when I lived in the Cleveland area, and their stuff was just as good. This site says the Cold Stone/Mixin's theory is much older than that. But Mixin's was one store, long since closed, and Cold Stone is franchising all over the place. And it's unfortunate that Cold Stone's rapid spread is leading to history revisions, as seen in this blog, which reprints a fair amount of Cold Stone's self-professed "whole new way" to enjoy ice cream.
I'm not complaining about Cold Stone, though: I love the ice cream. I don't much care for the prices, which to me are a bit steep. But I also love the service. The young people working the "frozen granite stone" behind the counter will sing a jingle for you if you tip them. Something simple that goes kind of like this:
We'll be scooping here at Cold Stone when you tip (2x)to the tune of "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain." I noticed one server's friends came in not to buy ice cream, but to hear her sing.
We're a dippin' and we're mixin' and we're mixin' and we're dippin'
We'll be scooping here at Cold Stone when you tip!
I guess the lesson for young entrepreneurs is that sometimes the silly stuff makes the customers remember you. Funny or stupid commercials stick with us one heck of a lot longer than serious ones. And the little jingle, which no doubt wears on the servers pretty quickly during each shift, makes the customers smile. I would not at all be surprised to hear that the tips come in pretty high for high-school-age employees, too...
Labels: diversions
posted by Ron @ 9:25 PM
Site Feed
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home