Have you ever dreamed of working at Cold Stone? Have you ever eaten the store’s delicious and extremely fattening ice cream? Well then, you’re in luck, because I’m about to give you information from a Cold Stone Creamery worker of what Cold Stone is like behind the scenes.
So the question which everyone wants to know, if how fattening is Cold Stone’s ice cream? The answer, is higher than you think. Cold Stone actually has fact sheets buried under a register at most locations and customers hardly bother asking about calorie content because they know how high it must be. However, the amount of calories in the ice cream is quite alarming. A peanut butter and chocolate large ice cream, which has chocolate ice cream, real peanut butter, Reeses pieces and fudge, has the most amount of calories out of any ice cream creation, totaling a whopping 2,000 calories.
As a side note, Cold Stone Creamery recently expanded its smoothie drink sizes to include a new “large size.” It’s previously listed “large size” is now its medium size. To make the new medium or “Love it” size more attractive to customers, the price has been decreased slightly. The difference in size is 24 ounces for a large instead of 20 ounces. A small size is 16 ounces.
Prices: Cold Stone ice cream is deceivingly expensive. Yes the prices are listed on the board but most people don’t quite realize how expensive the ice cream really is. A medium ice cream without anything on it can cost about $4. Many people hand over a $20 or have their credit card swiped without realizing twice just how much money they are paying.
Also, if you decide to get an ice cream flavor, I suggest making it a signature creation which has 3 “mix-ins” in it. Mix-ins are basically extra toppings or candy you can mix into your ice cream like butter-finger, Reeses pieces, marshmallows, sprinkles, fudge, caramel, etc. On the board at Cold Stone locations is a listing of all “signature creations” which have great tasting and funny names and different creations of ice cream and mix-ins which cold stone has perfected that taste good. If you decide to get ice cream with you own mix-in toppings instead of a signature creation combination, it will be an extra dollar or two which doesn’t make financial sense for you.
Is the ice cream made fresh? The ice cream is made fresh, although I suppose that depends on your definition of “fresh.” Your ice cream combination is made right in front of you as ice cream is scooped out of a metal tin and your chosen mix-ins are put into the ice cream right in front of you. However, the ice cream is usually made the previous day or even before that as the ice cream is put into a freezer. Once that ice cream flavor runs out at the window display in front for customers to see, it is replaced by a new batch of ice cream from the freezer. Still, the ice cream almost always tastes fresh and tastes delicious.
How do they create the combination? In front of the store where the Cold Stone workers work behind the counter is a large marble slab on a counter. Below it is a freezer which can be turned on and off which keeps the marble salb frozen so that ice cream can be mixed and combinations created on top of it.
Do the Cold Stone workers really sing to us? Yes, the Cold Stone workers really do sing. The songs are from a song sheet of Cold Stone created songs that relate to Cold Stone ice cream in some way. Songs are only sung after a tip. Not all tips receive a song – it really is a matter of how enthusiastic the workers working at the store are at the time of the tip. If a person gives a tip and there is a request for the workers to sing, they will of course sing to the customers.
What’s the deal with that tip jar anyway? The tip jar is a great way of boosting the salary of the cold stone workers. Cold Stone workers usually get paid state minimum wage, with assistant managers getting paid slightly more. The money from the tip jar gets split amongst all the workers and none of it is pocketed by the owner or store manager of Cold Stone. During summer months, the tip jar can boost the salary of each worker by an extra $2 per hour while in the winter months when ice cream sales and customers is considerably fewer, it can be less than a dollar extra per hour.
Is that real fruit Cold Stone uses? Actually, the answer is yes. Real fruit like blueberries, strawberries, pineapple and raspberries are used. All the fruit is real.
Cold Stone is a fun place to work at, and from experiences that I have read for other fast food workers or other chain restaurant workers, Cold Stone is a generally clean and great place to work. During a busy Friday or Saturday night, the lines can be quite long and out the door, especially in the summer months but if the customers interact with the Cold Stone employees, it makes the experience working that much better and the time working does not seem that long.
