Ok, so in America, would this work? Pizza delivery works, sandwich delivery works, but I never see anybody delivering ice cream.
Something like Andy’s Frozen Custard, call up or order online, if you are in the delivery area, have it delivered to your door? Surely it could work with some little coolers and ice packs, or something that plugs into the car lighter port.
Would you order ice cream and have it delivered? Or, to you, is ice cream more about going somewhere and eating it there?
Isn’t ice cream a lot more seasonal? Also, sandwiches and pizza work for both lunch and dinner. Ice cream is a dessert.
Yeah, msot of the ice cream stores in my area (northern midwest US) close for the winter, so I’d be surprised if you could do this all year.
HOWEVER, I could definitely see this working as a summer thing IF you were operating out of a conventional, established custard stand (maybe you can offer to partner up with one that’s already in existence?).
We have one of those old-fashioned custard stands that is a local “institution” of sorts. There are always huge lines of customers during the summer months, so I could definitely see the appeal if they offered the option to call in an order and have it dropped off for you rather than standing in line on a hot day!
However, I don’t think it would be practical to rely on nothing but deliveries to stay afloat. People probably would not be willing to pay that much in tips for ice cream the way they are for a whole meal (pizza, chinese food, and such). I think you’d need the storefront too to bring in enough money to make a career of it.
Weird, I’m from the Kansas City area originally and right now live in Central Missouri, and none of our places close in the winter. I think the closing hours are earlier, but they certainly do not close.
I was mostly talking from the standpoint of an existing Ice Cream stand starting to offer deliveries, not me starting one from scratch, so practically they would have already established a presence.
Can I please design the delivery vehicles?
There are ice cream trucks, but you have to be lucky enough to stumble upon one while having the urge for ice cream. Then there is Schwan’s, which delivers ice cream either monthly or bi-monthly, I forget which. They sell ice cream by the gallon or half gallon, plus they sell frozen pizza, ice cream sandwiches, frozen corn dogs, etc. I think it’s just a regional thing, but they have big refrigerated trucks and are all over Wisconsin.
You could never charge enough for ice cream to make enough profit to have a viable business.
I give you Schwan’s, which delivers frozen foods, mostly ice cream and desserts, but also frozen meals and things. I’d never seen them before I moved here, though. Maybe it’s a sort of franchise thing.
We get delivery of ice cream all the time in Beirut. Mmmm…Bliss House…
But labor is cheap here, so delivery is cheap (which is why anything you can buy in Beirut, you can have delivered.)
In Australia - Home Ice cream (warning, shitty flash intro & stupid song)
You don’t call and order like you do a pizza, but there’s a catalogue they send around every so often with this month’s specials and when the truck comes around dinging his bell you go out and buy what you want - tubs of ice cream, icy poles, ice cream cakes… It’s pretty good ice cream too.
Mmm, Schwans. They have em here! (Well, in my college town, and my hometown, each an hour from Abq. I haven’t seen one here, but I’m never in town during the day.)
Good stuff, they sell frozen pizza, raw cookie dough, ice creams of all types.
I’m pretty sure you can even place your order with dangermom 's link.
We have what’s called The Pizza Company in Thailand, which is similar to Pizza Hut (which we also have). It delivers Swensen’s ice cream. I suppose you could order just the ice cream and forgo the pizza.
We have Schwan’s here too.
I wouldn’t place an individual order (like for a sundae or something) because it wouldn’t be the right level of fresh-made and it might glom together. I wouldn’t order packed because Ben & Jerry’s is my ideal and I can get that myself.
Plus I’d be paying the usual delivery tip for a low-price item.
Schwan’s is a big deal here. It started and is still based in the town where I went to college, ~20 miles from where I live now. It’s a pretty interesting story. The guy who started the company started with one truck and the company has expanded all over the U.S. and in a few other countries. They also own Red Baron, Tony’s, Freschetta, and Mrs. Smith’s. Their ice cream is awesome but is kind of expensive.
From April through October, my neighborhood has a truck that delivers that goddam best soft ice cream on the planet.