Cold Stone Creamery update
I’ve made repeated calls to the person I believe to be the franchisee at the Cold Stone Creamery location at Valley View Station in Roanoke, but have not heard back.
Today, I finally did hear back from someone at their corporate office, though. The spokesperson said that location definitely closed on July 26, as did the location in Danville.
If you have a Cold Stone Creamery gift card, you can still redeem it at most Cold Stone Creamery locations. Around here, your best bet is going to be the store in Lynchburg or the one in Christiansburg.
August 2, 2012 - 3:17 PM
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Wasn’t Cold Stone one of the first of the ‘new style’ frozen yogurt places to arrive in SW Va? I wonder if perhaps their method of operation has become passe for customers, with all the other options.
I don’t know in what sense, but that could be what happened at Valley View. Or it could be lease problems. I’d imagine the Valley View leases would be more expensive than those in strip centers.
I worked at a Cold Stone in New York for four years of my life…secretly glad it closed here. Homestead Creamery makes such a better, fresher ice cream! I’d rather have their local key lime pie cream any day.
Overprices and bad location killed the Roanoke location. Brusters much better as is Bratchers but he just doesn’t have as much selection. Could care lesst that Cold Stone is gone.
I wish the franchise owners and his family the very best. This is not their fault. It’s Kahala’s and Cold Stone’s fault. This is similar to what I went through as the owner of three Cold Stone stores. The Wall Street Journal revealed several years ago that Kahala and Cold Stone Creamery were taking kickbacks. CNBC revealed that Kahala Corp, which owns Cold Stone Creamery, charged its franchisees more than $13 million in kickbacks. Kahala and Cold Stone Creamery charge kickbacks for the products they force franchise owners to buy from their distributor, Sysco. The SBA has consistently listed them among franchises with the highest failure rate, 42% in their 2012 listing. That is a very high failure rate because it only includes SBA loan failures, not conventional loans, stores purchased with cash and other forms of financing. According to the entrepreneur.com, Cold Stone has closed 345 stores between 2008 and 2011.
So many Kahala and Cold Stone Creamery franchisees have been left broken, having lost their homes, savings including their kids’ college, 401k, and other assets. It should be apparent that Cold Stone’s business model is broken with all the stores that are closing. Kahala and Cold Stone Creamery are the ultimate in corporate greed.
I hope this couple has success in putting their lives back together.