Wow. I’ve lived in Houston my entire life and I’d never heard of any such place as “Coldstone” until this thread. 'Course, ice cream is in around two dozenth place in my list of preferred desserts, but still…
Are there many locations around town, or just a few? I may have to stop in and experience the horror for myself.
Have you and/or your coworkers considered coming up with some “alternative” lyrics to sing?
Actually, we come up with our own lyrics and sing them (to the tune of popular songs). There are like 10? locations around town, scattered everywhere. Look it up on their website, they have all of them listed along with maps.
There’s a Coldstone’s around here, which provides tasty ice cream. I’ve been a few times, always enjoyed myself, but never been sung to. Had I known that I might be sung to then I’d never have gone, and lost out thereby.
Right… I was thinking more of, er, less family-friendly lyrics. I’m sure you know what I mean. 
The day you are about to quit, I say you wait for someone to tip… THEN, when you and the other employees are about to sing, start screaming the words to “Take This Job and Shove it” by Johnny Paycheck… grab the tip jar, rip off your apron and leave.
Oh, that would feel so good if I were in your position.
As an Ice Cream lover, I’ll give Coldstone a thumbs up. Making the crew sing for every penny? That sucks.
I’ve tipped at Coldstone and said “Don’t worry…I don’t want you to sing.” I tend to get smiles from that.
On the other hand…I’ve seen groups of little kids who get very excited & happy with all the singing.
Ah well…I feel for you. Good luck.
You aren’t wearing enough flair. Where is your flair? Look at Ted! Do you see how much flair Ted is wearing? Flair shows pride! Are you not proud to work here? Why do you always have to be told to wear more flair, instead of the minimum amount?
Hmm… synchronicity… I just found out that Pittsburgh has a Cold Stone. I must have passed it a few times already but never noticed the sign before. Still not planning to go in, though at least now I know I have the option to.
I went to Johnny Rocket’s with my parents one time, when we were on vacation. We were all totally embarrassed by the dancing and singing. My face was so red I could barely choke down my hamburger. So that’s another repressed memory this thread brought back.
There’s a nice steak restaurant near us where the waitpeople sing - for real. They’re trained, some of them are grad students in voice. They do requests. Some people might think it’s cheesy, but I think it’s wonderful.
There is a Cold Stone creamery in a mall near me, but they haven’t really made inroads in my area. We’re a Marble Slab Creamery kind of area. I have to admit I passed by the Cold Stone in the mall and I thought “ok, a Marble Slab knockoff, or at least something similar”. I don’t think I would ever have imagined tipping at such a place. Are you supposed to tip at the ice cream counter at Braums? The “Dippin Dots(Ice Cream of the Future)” kiosk in the mall? The workers at Braums, or Baskin Robbins, or whatever is near you, put as much work into making a bananna split or one of those soft-serve cups with mixed-in candy/fruit as the people at Cold Stone. Does that mean they should be tipped as well?
Honestly, where does it end? Is there any business owner who won’t add a tip jar to a counter to try to get a little extra cash out of his customers without having to do it the honest way, i.e. by having slightly higher prices?
Enjoy,
Steven
snerk
Slightly higher prices? If Coldstone’s prices climbed any further, they’d go out of business.
[sorry bout the hijack]
Oops…I misspelled, it’s actually
Celoron. And funny I should be typing this right after posting about the 10,000 Maniacs, cause Celoron Mall is about 2 blocks from where Chautauqua County’s only other famous person, Lucille Ball, grew up.