Cold Stone Gone
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Patch tells us: Cold Stone Creamery left Suburban Square December 24. It will allegedly be replaced by a frozen yogurt place. http://ardmore.patch.com/articles/frozen-yogurt-coming-soon-to-old-cold-stone-spot#photo-12804037 Interesting comment on the Patch article: I wish the new place luck - with the super high rent and never any parking its an uphill battle to survive at Suburban |
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Cold Stone was in WSJ a few years ago. It did not matter if you had the best location it was difficult to make a profit.
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2010/smallbusiness/1004/gallery.Franchise_failure_rates/4.html
10 most popular franchises
4. Cold Stone Creamery
Number of SBA loans : 774Total dispersed: $180.9 millionAverage loan size: $233,687Failure rate: 31%
Cold Stone Creamery's "super-premium" ice cream brand got its start in Tempe, Ariz., more than two decades ago. Known for its made-to-order treats with toppings folded into the ice cream on a frozen granite slab, Cold Stone Creamery currently has more than 1,400 locations. Kahala Corp., the parent company of Blimpie and other fast-food franchises, acquired Cold Stone in 2007.
The product is sweet, but the financials can be bitter. In the last 10 years almost one in three SBA-backed franchisees defaulted on their loan. It's an expensive shop to start, too: the initial franchise fee is $42,000. A 2008 Wall Street Journal article spotlighted the company's franchise troubles, including high operating costs and overambitious expansion.
In recent years the numbers do not look better.
http://www.bluemaumau.org/11665/worst_25_franchises_highest_failure_rates_2012
SBA failure rate of 41.93%
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COLD STONE CREAMERY, INC. |
41.93% |
Yeah, I noticed that too. That's unfortunate, because while very fattening, their ice cream was delicious.
Clearly other businesses are surviving in Suburban Square, but I suspect they pull in a little more revenue than an ice cream should would. That, and there was little seating in Coldstone made it a less attractive place to go if the weather was bad.
(Frontpaged your post, BTW)
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