H&M Gelato Ice Cream Center

Choosing a Location for your Frozen Yogurt Shop

June 30th, 2011

Location

• What works, what doesn’t – You want a place that is comfortable. Easy to get in, plenty of parking. A place you can see a family sitting and relaxing with their frozen yogurt treat.
• Visibility is important
• Other eateries nearby are great to have. People finish their food and head over to the close by yogurt shop
• Malls are good, but not always. Need to make sure that the mall is open during peak yogurt hours, which can go into the night
• Outdoor seating is a great plus
• Typical

BIGGEST MISTAKES PEOPLE MAKE:

• Improper ventilation of machines – they will “under-perform” and die an early death
• “Too Much Machine” – People think that buying the biggest, most expensive machine is the way to go. It’s not. You can buy too much machine and suffer a utilities bill that is more than it needs to be.
• Improper machine settings – yield crappy texture and taste. Not a good thing. You need to know how to set the machines to yield the product you want, and you need to keep controlling quality on a regular basis.
• Bad location – speaks for itself
• Not throwing away cut fruit that sits in pans too long. I see this often. A manager trying to control food costs keeps cut strawberries or whatever fruit in the pan so long that it looks like mush. These should be thrown away long before. In fact, they should be tossed if they don’t look SUPER fresh. Nothing will turn a customer off more than mushy fruit. In fact, a key to this business is exciting the customer’s senses with fruit that looks fit to be photographed and put on the cover of Bon Appetite.

Entry Filed under: Gelato Ice Cream Machines