After writing about the new deal with Cold Stone Creamery parent, Kahala Brands and DoorDash, folks in our office got a strong hankering for some ice cream. We decided to take on the hard work of putting Cold Stone’s delivery to the test to see how well it can deliver ice cream at the peak of summer.
Adding a bit of pressure to the test, 11 of us piled our orders together on an especially hot Friday afternoon. With temperatures hovering around one-gazillion degrees with 5,000 percent humidity (90 degrees and 64 percent humidity, for the official record), the experience was generally positive, but there were a few constructive notes on the delivery from the Food On Demand and Franchise Times staffs.
Our driver was pretty close to on time, although his first stop was at the building next door. When he arrived it was apparent that the insulated DoorDash bag was not properly sealed. In fact, it was basically wide open. Tensions ran high.
The Cold Stone packaging itself was fine. It was a big bag full of ice cream—what else can you really ask for? As for the product, it was largely cold, but either because of the open bag, the short order turnaround or just ice cream and heat, it was less than solid. Several staff members called out this notable shortcoming.
“Mine is a little melt-y, I think it would have helped if the bag were zipped. But it’s delivered ice cream, so I’d give it a B+,” said Jenny Raines.
I’d give it a “Solid B+. Suggestion would be to have used a better insulated transport bag,” said Food On Demand Publisher Jared Pfeifer.
As we imagine a lot of delivered ice cream customers would be, our group was pretty forgiving due to the absurdly hot weather.
“Mine was good, but I agree with the others about a better insulated bag. Maybe the driver should make sure it’s closed,” said Cindee Geach. “That being said, a lot of ice cream was transported and nothing was spilled and it wasn’t soup, so B+.”
One of the Franchise Times interns said the driver deserves some credit for racing ice cream over on a hot day.
“B+,” said Alexa Sablel. “I also give credit to him for not spilling anything since we had a lot of ice cream.”
Adam Griepentrog, our IT guru and resident food enthusiast, gave it the highest marks, despite an afternoon ice cream coma that soon followed. “I ordered too much. Besides that, A-,” he said.
Overall, it was a successful delivery despite a lot of odds stacked against this ice cream. Our very unscientific panel of ice cream judges bestowed a final grade of B+ on the experience.
