I have been keenly interested in the past year in the Quiznos and UPS discussions. One could easily substituted "Cold Stone Creamery" in either of those discussion forums in discussing product costs, labor percentages, kickbacks, franchisor horrors and the non-viable business models. Yet, this "golden child" of the ice cream industry continues to go undetected in their ruthless business practices, their flawed business model and their total disregard for the profitability of the franchisee. Well, with some help that will stop here, I have passed too many wounded (failing) and, indeed, dead (closed) franchisees on this road to remain silent any longer.

I am opening up two forum topics:

1) a "Cold Stone Creamery - Tales of Gore" topic and invite other Cold Stone veterans to speak out - and help would-be future franchisees with operational details and Cold Stone relationship insights and to lend a hand in the post-traumatic rehabilitation of other CS franchisees coming in from the "Cold".

Tails Of Gore Topics:

Failed marketing attempts - cakes, shakes, red pan, smoothies, grab and go

Corporate Inexperience - failed TV ads, gift card fiasco

Churning - 2nd, 3rd generation owners

Franchise transfer nightmares, the CS transfer process

The CS lifecycle - honeymoon, recruitment, break even, try to sell, … death spiral

What did you pay and what price are you trying to sell?

Inability to organize a franchisee association or to successfully litigate

Ability to successfully litigate (tell us how!)

2) and a "Cold Stone Creamery - Due Diligence" - this topic will attempt to deal strictly with the facts and figures related to owning (and closing) a Cold Stone Creamery. Over time this will help the general public and would be franchisees understand why it costs most franchisees $7.50 to sell a $5.00 ice cream in a Cold Stone Creamery Franchise. I invite both Cold Stone pro and CS con to join in and defend or refute the discussed due diligence topics.

Due Diligence Topics:

Training cycles (hire, train, layoff, hire, train, layoff)

Pro forma breakdowns, Labor breakdowns, product breakdowns

Product costs, Sygma and Sysco markups

Buildout costs

Chronic equipment failures

Compressors = electric bill

Smoothies, shakes, cakes, soups, coffee - other losing attempts at profitability

What SBA did you use?

I encourage Cold Stone Creamery franchisees to post regularly with product costs, franchisor issues, insane marketing abilities and updates on legal proceedings.

-jm