Okay. Disgruntled Coldstone employee here. I am a teen, and as such my job experience is zilch. So, while desperately looking for a job, I noticed that coldstone is hiring. In my infinite wisdom, I apply. Later I am hired. Then I find out my wage… minimum. Like, the lowest they can legally go. $5.15 an hour. THIS JOB IS NOT WORTH THAT LOW OF A WAGE.
Every time we are tipped, we sing. I have even been asked as someone gingerly dropped money in the tip jar not to sing. Okay, I would not sing, but I would probably be fired. If you dont want us to sing, then tip us anyways and make us read off a trivia question, or maybe a joke. We have a whole fucking book of trivia questions and jokes! You know what? Some are even funny!
Please people, tip us. We get paid shit, we have to constantly be happy and cheerful despite the fact that we really dont want to be, and this job is not the healthiest one out there. I know of two people out of our whole staff who have not burned themselves on the waffle makers. Thats it. Many smashed fingers, burned hands, brused bums from the wet floors, and the like.
Maybe I am just overreacting, because I truly like my job. I like the people, I like the environment, and I like the hours. I, however, do not like the reinbursement.
Whenever you go to your local coldstone, be nice. Tip a little. Hell, bring a roll of quarters and hear every song/joke/trivia question on our list! Trust me, we will oblige. When our dinners depend on that tip jar, we do like to see it filled.
Come on over to customerssuck.com . A lot of us know what it’s like to work for minimum wage (though its higher here in Washington State.) We’d like to know what you have sung, tell us some trivia and jokes or just tell us how your day went or your problems with customers or bosses or whatever.
Keep coming to the Dope though. It’s one of my two favorite websites.
Heh. When I saw the title of this thread, I was wondering if you were a Coldstone employee. I love Coldstone, but I’m kind of annoyed by the singing. Mostly because I feel for you guys being required to do that. Last time I was there, there was only one person working, and I was torn between leaving a tip and making the poor girl sing, or not leaving a tip and possibly pissing her off for that, because I bought a quart, and that’s a lot of ice cream to mix…so, I left a tip after she turned her back. Thus, no singing.
I tip well, very well. But those ‘give me your change jars cause I don’t make enough money jars’ don’t sit well with me. And if I was a business owner, I would have nothing to do with it and would not allow it.
Look for another job. Sing because you got 6 cents? Your getting pushed around.
I see in your post that you are from Houston. And you’re a teenager. Lawn care/maintenance in Houston, is probably big business. Most of the companies in that area probably hire illegalles for the work. But, if your strong enough, and are willing to learn a few new words/a bit of Spanish that’s the way I would go.
The Hispanics that I know in Colorado have probably the best work ethic I have ever seen. Be ready for work, but know that they will back you up if you need help.
Singing for tips… I wouldn’t tip for fear that you would need to sing! I would never come back. Your boss is the largest controlling ass I have ever heard of.
I visited one once in Houston (which I had forgotten was named Cold Stone until I visited the company website). No one sang at that one, either. Each CS is privately owned, so I was thinking maybe not all Cold Stones have the “sing for tips” schtick. But then in the Cold Stone FAQs:
So, Tamryne, I have to ask – were you “auditioned” rather than “interviewed”? Did you know what you were getting into?
Good lord. I had to audition for a job as a cocktail waitress once (and yeah, wear 37 pieces of flair, too). But that was in the early 80s, the bar was a meat mar… uhh, singles bar, and cocktailers also danced on the damn bar and performed on stage (not THAT kind of bar, it was clean, if a bit silly - we’d dance to “She Works Hard For The Money” or “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”, fully dressed, and do lip sync acts, conga lines and such nonsense.)
BUT… I averaged $200 a night in tips AND got paid $4.00 an hour for it. And I still thought it was plenty demeaning work.
Singing for a quarter tip? I’d tell the boss to go shit in his hat.
You have to sing because being chipper and happy and singing when you get tipped is all part of the Cold Stone Experience™. Sure, they could be lax on this point and let you all be the typical angry minimum wage drone that Indygrrl mentioned she’d be in this thread (btw, I love that you were so upfront about that). The ice cream is good (hand mixed on a cold stone slab, hence the name) but who’s going to wait 20 minutes to be served an overpriced scoop by an angry teen who’s busy talking on his cellphone?
I’m sure as hell not. One of the selling points to going there is the upbeat atmosphere. You wait on line, at least you don’t feel like you’re at the DMV. Everyone is smiling and happy and there’s singing, it’s a nice place to take a date.
Get rid of the singing… get rid of that job you just got hired into, because they won’t be doing as much business as they were yesterday and don’t need any extra staff.
That pisses me off. If they’re paying crap they should tell you up front. Not wait until you have the job.
I recently took a part time job because I had been out of work for awhile and needed some extra cash, and it seemed like it would be fun. They insisted that they were “incredibly laid back” and I would have more fun there than at any other job in the history of the universe…etc, etc. About halfway through my first shift I asked the manager how much I would be getting paid and she mumbled something that ended with “…minimum wage.”
“How much is that?” I asked, having not made minimum in roughly a decade, and never in this state. I figured it was around $7.50 or $8.00/hr.
“$5.15,” she replied.
“:eek: :eek: :eek:”
Not only was the pay negligible once I spent the gas money to drive there and bought lunch on my shift, they were NOT the laid back employer they claimed to be. They were total uptight assholes, much like your “sing for your supper” boss at Coldstone.
Do what I did and tell them to take their job and shove it, right between their buttocks.
It’s not as bad as the chain of restaurants in Phoenix called The Rusty Nail.
I’ve only been to a Coldstone once. It’s kind of an interesting experience. There are a couple of vats of vanilla-y flavors. You choose which one you want and how much you want and then you choose what kind of flavor you want, such as chocolate, blackberry, strawberry, caramel creme, etc. There’s lots of different flavors and the fruits were real fruits! They had real burgundy cherries in syrup so I got my all-time favorite, cherry vanilla!
So then, the server takes the base flavor, plops it on a flat, cold slab of stone*, adds your flavor, and mushes it around with a couple of paddle-like spoons until its mixed, then scoops it up and puts in a cone or a dish, whichever you choose, and then you can have toppings put on if you want.
I didn’t know about the singing for tips part. It was dead when I went in so I didn’t see it happen. The server was cheery though. Wish I had tipped her now.
