'Where the Heck's Our Ice Cream?'. Sonne, Paul. Levitz, Jennifer

http://search.proquest.com/printviewfile?accountid=14604

Back to previous page

document 1 of 1 Not Cool: I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream 'Where the Heck's Our Ice Cream?' --- Fans Lose Their Good Humor as Roving Vendors Are All Out of Almond Bars; 'Nightmare,' Says Mr. Ding-A-Ling Official

Sonne, Paul; Levitz, Jennifer. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition [New York, N.Y] 26 May 2012: A.1.

Find a copy

Check for full text http://uncg.on.worldcat.org/atoztitles/link?sid=ProQ:&issn=00999660&volume=&issue=& title=Wall+Street+Journal&spage=A.1&date=2012-05-26& atitle=Not+Cool%3A+I+Scream%2C+You+Scream%2C+We+All+Scream+%27Where+the+Heck%27s+Our+Ice+Cream %3F%27+---+Fans+Lose+Their+Good+Humor+as+Roving+Vendors+Are+All+Out+of+Almond+Bars%3B+%27Nightmare %2C%27+Says+Mr.+Ding-A-Ling+Official&au=Sonne%2C+Paul%3BLevitz%2C+Jennifer&id=doi:

Abstract

The problem is that the long, hot spring has caused demand for ice-cream bars to far outstrip what Good Humor's owner, Unilever PLC, had predicted -- just as one of the main Good Humor factories, in Hagerstown, Md., is preparing to close for good. (Eskimo Pie, a contemporaneous chocolate-covered ice-cream bar, had no stick; it received a patent in 1922.)

Full Text

MADISON, Conn. -- With summer in the air, Paul Padelli, a 46-year-old locomotive engineer, bounded to the Good Humor truck that stopped Thursday evening on his leafy street in this seaside town. His smile quickly melted.

Ice-cream-truck driver Carolyn Chimbolo told Mr. Padelli she didn't have his longtime favorite, the Toasted Almond Bar, and probably won't for most of the season. Her truck, like many others, can't get them from Good Humor or its distributors, even though summer is barely here.

"No Toasted Almond?" Mr. Padelli said, crestfallen. "I've been getting Toasted Almond for 40 years. Oh, man. How can that possibly be?"

1 of 4 1/15/2016 12:57 PM http://search.proquest.com/printviewfile?accountid=14604

As a consolation prize, Mrs. Chimbolo offered a discount on a mini Toasted Almond bar from a tiny stash she had procured from a local grocery store. But she warned: "This may be your last one of the season."

It's going to be a long, hot summer for ice-cream trucks. Drivers say Good Humor classics including Toasted Almond -- an almond-flavored slab on a stick, surrounded by vanilla ice cream and sprayed with cake and almond pieces -- are often unavailable. Also missing in action: Chocolate Eclair.

That has put businesses relying on Good Humor in a bad mood. "It's a nightmare," says Brian Collis, a 39-year veteran of the business and owner of Latham, N.Y.-based Mr. Ding-A-Ling Ice Cream Inc., which operates more than 60 trucks across upstate New York and Vermont. "It has never been like this."

The problem is that the long, hot spring has caused demand for ice-cream bars to far outstrip what Good Humor's owner, Unilever PLC , had predicted -- just as one of the main Good Humor factories, in Hagerstown, Md., is preparing to close for good. Production is being moved to other factories, including those in Covington, Tenn., and Sikeston, Mo., that face "routine challenges" revving up, Unilever spokesman Jeffrey Graubard says.

"We anticipate alleviating this issue by the end of July, but it's still a moving target," he says. Unilever says shortages are limited to the ice-cream-truck versions of Good Humor products, which are physically larger than their grocery-store cousins and made on a different production line.

It isn't just the warm weather that has stressed Good Humor's factories. Unilever has rolled out thousands of new convenience-store freezers, partly tied to last year's U.S. launch of Magnum bars, a confection Unilever describes as being "enrobed" in a "chocolatey coating." But all these new freezers also need to be stocked with other Unilever ice creams, including Good Humor bars, pulling production away from the truck treats.

Toasted Almond is actually the least popular of the five classic Good Humor bar flavors, accounting for 3% of U.S. sales last year -- but it is a hot seller in the Northeast, especially among grown-ups. Amid the shortages, Unilever is prioritizing its most popular bars, like Strawberry Shortcake and Oreo. But that means Northeast trucks wanting more Toasted Almond are getting the short end of the stick.

"I can't get hold of a Good Humor Toasted Almond to save my life," says Travone Franklin, owner of the Ice Cream Dream truck in Manchester, Conn. Toasted Almond is a top seller for him at $2 a pop.

Mr. Franklin's distributor offered a generic almond bar as a replacement. "I just can't sell that to people," he says. "I refuse to."

Many trucks can't get more-popular Good Humor bars, either. Mr. Franklin says Chocolate Eclair is often the Toasted Almond lover's second choice, but there is a shortage of that flavor, too. Mr. Collis of Ding-A-Ling says people "walk away from the truck if they can't get the Oreo," which he has had trouble obtaining, driving his drivers "nuts."

Good Humor treats date back to 1920, when Harry Burt, a candy maker in Youngstown, Ohio, stuck some ice cream on a stick and dubbed it the Good Humor Bar. Mr. Burt received a patent for "ice cream on a stick" in 1923, after years of debate among authorities about whether his creation differed enough from the Eskimo Pie. (Eskimo Pie, a contemporaneous chocolate-covered ice-cream bar, had no stick; it received a patent in 1922.)

Later, Mr. Burt waged a legal battle against Popsicle Corp., whose fruity ice on a stick, he claimed, infringed his rights. The companies struck a licensing agreement. Unilever , which bought Good Humor in 1961, today owns Popsicle, too.

Good Humor developed franchises, and the "Good Humor Man," with his trademark truck, became a fixture of the American summer by the 1950s. In the late 1970s, the company sold the trucks off to individual buyers.

2 of 4 1/15/2016 12:57 PM http://search.proquest.com/printviewfile?accountid=14604

Today, Mrs. Chimbolo, 46 years old and the owner of a classic 1969 version of the truck, is starting her fourth summer delivering frozen sweets in Madison, a seaside Connecticut village.

"Who wouldn't want to drive an ice-cream truck?" she says, ringing her brass bell as she rolled slowly past stone walls and Colonial style houses. "People recognize you and it's like, 'It's the ice-cream lady!' "

She worries about a chilly reception when she tells people she doesn't have some of the classics. When she learned recently that she couldn't get Toasted Almond from her distributor, she dashed to the grocery store and "cleaned them out," snagging the last few boxes. On Thursday, she was selling those, which she belittles as "little," for a buck a pop, about half her normal price.

Now, however, Mrs. Chimbolo is almost out. She has already removed the yellow Toasted Almond sign from the side of her white truck.

The Unilever shortages have created a chance for Blue Bunny, an ice-cream-bar rival owned by Wells Enterprises Inc. , to strike while the Good Humor Man is down. "Blue Bunny will be making out this season," says Mrs. Chimbolo, who also carries their treats. A spokeswoman for Wells declined to comment on whether, or how, Blue Bunny was pouncing on the opportunity.

Still, Ben Boger, who runs a truck in Norwalk, Conn., warns that people aren't always satisfied with a replacement for their old favorites. They might take it, he says, "But they're kind of like, 'What's up with this?'"

Credit: By Paul Sonne and Jennifer Levitz

Details

Subject Desserts; Restaurants; Trucks; Grocery stores; Customer satisfaction; Ice cream; Vendors; Mobile businesses

Location Madison Connecticut

Company / organization Name: Unilever PLC NAICS: 311421, 311512, 311520, 311941, 325611, 325620

Classification 9190: United States 8380: Hotels & restaurants

Title Not Cool: I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream 'Where

3 of 4 1/15/2016 12:57 PM http://search.proquest.com/printviewfile?accountid=14604

the Heck's Our Ice Cream?' --- Fans Lose Their Good Humor as Roving Vendors Are All Out of Almond Bars; 'Nightmare,' Says Mr. Ding-A-Ling Official

Author Sonne, Paul; Levitz, Jennifer

Publication title Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition

Pages A.1

Publication year 2012

Publication date May 26, 2012

Publisher Dow Jones & Company Inc

Place of publication New York, N.Y.

Country of publication United States

Publication subject Business And Economics--Banking And Finance

ISSN 00999660

Source type Newspapers

Language of publication English

Document type News

ProQuest document ID 1016441920

Document URL https://login.libproxy.uncg.edu/login?url=http: //search.proquest.com/docview /1016441920?accountid=14604

Last updated 2012-06-29

Database 2 databases View list

4 of 4 1/15/2016 12:57 PM