They are made out of wood, plastic, and silver. They are sometimes straight and sometimes curved. You may use them when sampling pasta sauce cooked before an evening meal. They are tasting spoons and serve an integral function in two particular industries–ice cream and frozen yogurt.
Every year, the average American will consume ice cream over 28 times. 90% of U.S. households regularly eat a frozen treat, and in any given two-week period, 40% of Americans will eat ice cream. It’s an industry that has roots going back decades, when getting an ice cream cone was often one of the few ways to keep cool in the summer heat.
The Food Channel listed the 15 most popular ice cream flavors recently. The top four are:
- Vanilla (29%)
- Chocolate (8.9%)
- Butter Pecan (5.3%)
- Strawberry (5.3%)
Although these are the top four flavors, ice cream shops often have a much wider selection of ice cream and rely on samples to have customers try new flavors. This is where tasting spoons come in.
Ice cream shops rely on supplies just like any other food service store. That means they need paper ice cream cups, plastic ice cream cups, ice cream cups with lids, and ice cream spoons. The tasting spoons are generally plastic for the purpose of the ice cream shop. This allows them to be disposed of after use, which is helpful when you may have dozens or hundreds of customers each day.
Ice cream shops may find it profitable to give out free samples of ice cream flavors that are not well-known. These may include ones further down on the top 15 list, such as coffee (1.6%), rocky road (1.5%), or chocolate marshmallow (1.3%).
One of the things to consider is that when a customer enters into a shop, 4 out of 10 times, they will select either vanilla or chocolate. That is according to statistics. Still, there are a dozen other buckets of flavors out there and increasing demand for those flavors may build a better client base.
A couple of statistics to note as well:
- Nearly 9% of all milk produced by dairy farmers in the United States goes to produce ice cream.
- June is the month that most ice cream is produced.
- And 1.5 billion gallons of ice cream and related desserts are produced each year.
It is important to recognize as a small business owner or even a manager of a wholesale story that the customer values what they value, but can learn to value another aspect of a product–say a different ice cream flavor–if given the chance with a simple suggestion. A sales approach may be to offer a sample of another flavor to every customer, thereby possibly increasing demand for other flavors.
Ice cream is fun, meant to be fun, and meant to be a great experience for customers. Getting an ice cream cone during summer is a pastime and an enjoyable experience for people of all ages, but especially for children.