Dippin Dots came out in 1988.
2,000 franchises
330 million in revenue for 2018
Locations average $165,000 in franchise fees alone back to the company.
The brand is always called “The Ice Cream of the Future”, but in 2012, it went bankrupt and the company sold for just 12 million dollars, only to be making over 300 million a year just 5-6 years later.
Personal feeling on the product.
Sort of mediocre in taste.
All pre-packaged and nothing fresh.
Always bad portion size to price.
Was just at a place that had one and was a little confused how they stay still exist, so wanted to do fast research on the ride back.
One quick thing I learned which really puts the brand as a problem is almost no retail presence.
Dippin Dots were made by putting liquid nitrogen in ice cream and they haven’t changed that method. They committed to it and it required -40 degree freezers, making it impossible to store in any home and retailers need special freezers for them.
Minimelts are the knockoff which don’t use the same method. They just shape the ice cream with another method and have been able to sell in vending machines and retail. Basically cloned the idea, but made minor changes the original owners didn’t want to do for retail.
Wanted to figure out why Dippin dots are so popular though and I think I got it.
Dippin Dots stores are really small.
They have no seats.
They have no machines and are really fast to serve people.
They need very little labor or skill to operate.
Ice cream parlors aren’t as easy to run.
They are much bigger with the average size being 800 square feet.
The average shop has 10 employees and normally requires someone to fix machines.
People want to sit down and eat.
The cost to open and operate a normal ice cream shop are higher and the product melts faster making it less mobile.
So are Dippin dots better than ice cream?
No. Probably not to 99% of people.
Are they more mobile, cheaper to open, cheaper to operate and faster for amusement parks to serve people?
Yes.