I think there’s a disconnect between what CSC actually IS and what people seem to want it to be. It is NOT an “ice cream shop”. If you just want bog standard flavors, Baskin-Robbins has 31 of them. The CSC concept seems to be that visiting CSC is something the customer experiences and participates in. I’ll admit, I don’t go there often (they’re pretty expensive) but when I do go, I enjoy the whole thing. Paying a little extra to get a flavor mix that’s made specifically to your order (an order which may well be the only time that particular mix has ever been or will ever be made), watch them mix it in and pack it, and then enjoy the taste seems more interesting and requires more customer investment than just going up to the B-R counter and getting the flavor of the month.
I can’t fault CynicalGabe for not enjoying that experience. I can fault him for apparently wanting CSC to be Blue Bunny.
Elza B, I agree, it’s not hard. But if, the first time I walked in to a Cold Stone, I hadn’t had an enthusiastic kid in tow who knew how the system worked, I probably would have needed a bit of encouragement from the counter person to get in the spirit of the game. If Gabe’s retelling of the transaction is reasonably accurate (assuming it was may have been my first mistake), then the Ice Cream Lady wasn’t very interested in selling Gabe anything at all.
I heard that Cold Stone makes good ice cream so I attempted to go there once. I say “attempted” because despite all the whooping and hollering of the glass-eyed employees constantly yelling and singing bizarre ice-cream chants, I was unable to effectively communicate my desires to eat something.
But look at all the permutations of the ice cream that have already been discussed. For the mint chocolate chip alone, the server would have to ask if the OP wanted mint, peppermint, vanilla, french vanilla, low fat vanilla, frozen yogurt or chocolate ice cream. Then depending on what the OP said, the server would then have to ask the OP if he wanted mint chips, chocolate chips, chocolate sprinkle, the various choclate candy bar flavors etc.
Wouldn’t it be faster and easier if the OP just said what he wanted instead of playing a guessing game with the server?
And that’s not even mentioning that the OP wasn’t sure exactly what went into the cookie dough ice cream. Did he want to pay for the oreos or not?
On preview: pretty much what ElzaB said.
But was the flavor on the wall the one you wanted? Then you could have just ordered that. But normally they put stuff on the wall that has all kinds of extra add-ins so you have to pay more.
I’d be inclined to agree with you about it being his first time there and needing some extra help if he hadn’t said this:
That indicates to me that CynicalGabe knows exactly how it works, even without having ever been there before. But again, he was essentially asking the counter person to play mind-reader and guess which flavor he wanted.
Just looking at their website, I see one flavor that might be considered “Cookie Dough” - it’s the Cookie Doughn’t You Want Some?. It’s vanilla ice cream and cookie dough, obviously, but it’s also got chocolate chips, fudge, and caramel in it. Sure, they could make that for him, but they run the risk of “What is all this extra shit in here? I didn’t ask for that!”.
So if he understands how it works, why not just say “One scoop of vanilla ice cream with a cookie dough mix-in, and one scoop of mint ice cream with chocolate chips mixed in, in a waffle cone.”, and save the “I’m the customer, do what I want or I’ll leave!” bullshit?
No, the stuff on the wall is combinations of ice cream and mix-ins.
If you want to see the actual ice cream flavors, look at what’s in the freezer right in front of you.
The one time I had it, it basically tasted, well, gummy. Gummy and artificial.
Admittedly, I had sugar free. But still. S/f ice cream out of the grocery case was way better than this, unless your idea of premium quality ice cream is something that behaves like pizza cheese but doesn’t have as much wholesome dairy goodness.
I loved Farrell’s! THE place to go for a kid’s birthday.
Elza B, apologies; I shouldn’t have mentioned my own first experience at Cold Stone. What I meant to emphasize is that the Ice Cream Lady’s first response need not have been a negative, “We don’t have flavors like that…”, she could easily have used a question and answer dialog (!) more along the lines of Subway, as in “what base?” (mint or vanilla?) “what chip?” (mint or chocolate?) etc.
Not difficult, not time consuming, no mind-reading involved, and plenty of chance to up-sell the product. And if Cold Stone is supposed to be about the experience, then I’d expect the staff to at least pretend to be helpful.
Hey Gabe, how busy was the shop when you tried to order?
One has to wonder – if the servers were paid entirely by commission, would the importance of making the sale change how they treat (or in the OPs case, mistreat) customers?
I hate ice cream (an’ puppies an’ America an’ blowjobs, too!), because in general, I detest foods that make me feel like I need to brush my teeth immediately after I eat them.
However, I love me some Graeter’s lemon sorbet, and I’ve even been known to occasionally indulge in a pint of their Peppermint. 18% butterfat… yum.
I agree with hawksgirl. Actually, I think the servers would be more rude if they were on commissions. To get commissions on such a small ticket item (unless the commission were greater than the sale, which is unlikely), the volume would have to be very large which would translate to servers trying to get the customer out the door faster. This would mean that servers would have less time to be playing guessing games. They’d probably be more willing to help those that already know what they want since that would bring them more commissions.
Because I already knew the answer. Puppies is good eats in many parts of the world. (Don’t click on this link if you don’t have a strong stomach or if you don’t live in one of the countries that eats dog) I don’t know if black rabbit would want to brush his teeth after though.
I wasn’t sure about the America reference, but that could mean anything.
But, sir, you forget the mind set of the person behind the counter. Said mindset is, if I recall with correctness, ‘Well, fuck it. They don’t pay me enough to care about the customers happiness.’
Fuckin’ A*, man. Fuckin’ A.
*This is the good fuckin’ A, not the bad fuckin A.
I realized Coldstone wasn’t real ice cream when I had a cone and found myself not needing to find a bathroom half an hour later. Fuck lactose intolerance and the horse it rode in on with a rubber dick. (Gratuitous swearing added 'cause it’s the Pit, goddamn it.)
When I worked at Coldstone, when hearing you ask for half mint chip and half cookie dough, we would run by you mint ice cream with chocolate chips, and vanilla with cookie dough, then put the two scoops in a cone. Yea yea, its not as fast as BR, but half of what you are paying for is us to mix it for you and sing shitty songs when you throw a penny in the jar. Frankly, she should have known how to put something that simple together and you should have had the patience to tell her what the fuck you wanted. Hell, Id have to say 98% of the customers I dealt with either ordered something off of our list of mixes or specifically asked for “mint ice cream with chocolate chips” (the other 2% was a regular who would just walk in and we would start mixing up his convoluted order. It was always fun fucking with the newbie, making her try and decipher what he said and the wild finger-poking in the ice cream fridge).
There is a very valid reason why I quickly moved from the stone to cake making.
(also, when you actually know what to mix together and have free reign over the amounts, Coldstone ice cream can be absolutely heavenly)
(and yes, we were not paid nearly enough to give a shit about each customers happiness)
I’m with the OP on this one. I mean, he wasn’t being picky, he just wanted some damn ice cream, which from my understanding (never been to a ColdStone) is what they sell. If he was going to be picky about some piddly little change in the ratios of mint and chocolate, he probably would have specified. Since he didn’t specify, he probably (and rightly so) doesn’t care and would be happy without whatever cold mint/chocolate tooth-rotting combination he received.
But then again, I’ve been chastised by friends for my apathetic ordering practices before. For example, I’m the guy who will walk up to a subway and tell the employee “Just give me whatever you personally would eat here for lunch”. I figure they probably eat there more than I do, so they know what is good and what isn’t better than I would. Using this method I’ve found many new things I like that I would have never tried on my own.
Do service people hate this? Seems to me after hours of boring specific instructions, a bit of free-willed creativity would be kind of fun.
