Do you make more money selling soft serve ice cream or hand dipped ice cream?

Answer 1

Soft serve equipment is expensive but the ROI is rather short. Soft serve food cost is 67% less then traditional ice cream, the time it takes to produce a cone is much shorter then hand dipped making lines move faster and reducing the number of discouraged potential customers who simply move on. Soft serve sales beg for upsells such as dips, sprinkles, nuts, crushed candies etc... Sales of popular higher price point items such as blizzards and flurries add to the product mix and enhance top line and bottom line sales and profits.

Traditional hard ice cream requires more storage space, a much greater variation of flavors is necessary, is very sensitive to temperature variations and is subject to crystalization and freezer burn.

Adding soft serve to a menu with hand dipped ice cream adds an economical choice to the offerings and allows the operation to carry fewer flavors of hard ice cream and offers the opportunity to sell a much more premium product at a higher top line selling price.