Häagen-Dazs & Other Ice Cream Shops

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Alpha8472
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Häagen-Dazs & Other Ice Cream Shops

Post by Alpha8472 »

After a more than a 10 year absence I noticed a new Häagen-Dazs ice cream shop in Walnut Creek, California. This used to be a Godiva chocolate shop.

Godiva closed their stores, but Häagen-Dazs seems to be alive. There were Häagen-Dazs shops in malls for many years, but their numbers have gone down. I have seen some convert to independent ice cream shops in malls such as Sunvalley Mall in Concord, California.

The Häagen-Dazs name is well known, but is this really all that sought after? Compared to Baskin-Robbins and Dairy Queen, Häagen-Dazs seems to be more high end ice cream creations. Dairy Queen leans towards fast food with burgers and fries. Baskin-Robbins seems to focus on ice cream for middle class incomes and a very busy made to order ice cream cake business.

I do not recall any mall based Baskin-Robbins. Baskin-Robbins seems to prefer strip mall locations with road visibility. Dairy Queen has both mall based units with limited menus and full menu burger locations in strip malls.
Last edited by Alpha8472 on March 30th, 2022, 11:41 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Häagen-Dazs Ice Cream Shops

Post by Brian Lutz »

I know that Bellevue Square and Southcenter in the Seattle area had Baskin Robbins stores. I believe the one at Southcenter is still open, but the one in Bellevue Square became a Ben and Jerry's shop at some point (Southcenter has a Ben and Jerry's as well, but in a different location.) The only two places that I can recall having seen and visited Haagen-Dazs shops are in Downtown Disney at Disneyland and at Beach Place in Fort Lauderdale. Baskin Robbins also seems to be shrinking around here, as a number of locations around here have closed over the past few years, and although one in Snohomish got turned into a different ice cream shop (Bliss Creamery, a small chain that appears to have only 3 locations) most of these just end up sitting vacant indefinitely.
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Re: Häagen-Dazs Ice Cream Shops

Post by pseudo3d »

I know Baskin Robbins has had a few mall stores, I think there was even a kiosk-based operation in my hometown for a while (I'll have to look into it, it came and went). More recently, I haven't seen any new-build BR stores, they're all part of a co-brand with Dunkin'. The Häagen-Dazs ice cream shops, on the other hand, are extremely rare. There's just two in Texas and they're both in San Antonio. (There used to be one directly on the Riverwalk but now is located closer to the Alamo).
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Re: Häagen-Dazs Ice Cream Shops

Post by Super S »

The only Häagen-Dazs ice cream shop I remember was located on Capitol Blvd. in Boise, Idaho in the 1980s. It has been gone for years. It was a very visible location next to the Boise Public Library. Ironically there used to be a Blimpie up the street there that made ice cream on site.

As for Baskin-Robbins, I know of several that were in malls around here: Salem Center, Lancaster Mall, Vancouver Mall, Southcenter, The Commons at Federal Way, Tacoma Mall. I know the one at Lancaster Mall is gone but am not sure about the others. They are indeed shrinking in size though. Many have disappeared with no replacement. I haven't seen a new-build standalone store in many years, and the few new ones I do see are either in strip malls or as an exterior business at a Fred Meyer.

Part of the problem with the ice cream chains in general is inconsistency. The prices can very greatly from one location to the next, and some like Baskin-Robbins can be very stingy with their scoops. A well-run independent shop can blow the chains out of the water very easily especially if the ice cream is locally sourced.
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Re: Häagen-Dazs Ice Cream Shops

Post by buckguy »

Baskin-Robbins' newer stores all seem to be tandems with Dunkin, which is an arrangement they have been doing in foreign markets for a couple decades, Other, now longgone chains like Ferrell's seemed to specialize in malls more than they did. The typical B-R, in their heyday, was a small suburban strip and occasional streetside locations in urban neighborhoods.

Dairy Queen always seems to have a random collection of locations, usually small towns and scattered suburbs--sometimes in strips, sometimes freestanding, sometimes visible, sometimes not. They occasionally have urban neighborhood locations, too. There's probably a mall someplace that has one, but it isn't the norm. In contrast, their foreign locations often are malls.
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Re: Häagen-Dazs Ice Cream Shops

Post by DFWRetaileWatcher »

pseudo3d wrote: March 30th, 2022, 8:13 am I know Baskin Robbins has had a few mall stores, I think there was even a kiosk-based operation in my hometown for a while (I'll have to look into it, it came and went). More recently, I haven't seen any new-build BR stores, they're all part of a co-brand with Dunkin'. The Häagen-Dazs ice cream shops, on the other hand, are extremely rare. There's just two in Texas and they're both in San Antonio. (There used to be one directly on the Riverwalk but now is located closer to the Alamo).
Galleria Dallas also has a Haagen-Dazs shop.
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Re: Häagen-Dazs & Other Ice Cream Shops

Post by Brian Lutz »

I believe all of the mall DQ locations (Alderwood and Southcenter used to have them) here have closed, but I don't recall ever seeing one that sells hot food, only ice cream and drinks (typically these were co-branded Orange Julius locations.) Without the need for grill/fryer equipment they can operate in a much smaller space and presumably with much less overhead. The vast majority of locations here are freestanding ones with a couple in strip malls (usually on an end to allow for a drive thru.)

And then there's DQ in Texas. It's been many years since I've been there, but I remember several car trips through Texas where it seemed like every little town, no matter how small, had a Dairy Queen (there are 588 DQ locations in Texas, which is 13% of their total US store count and more than twice as many as any other state.) They have their own separate website (https://dqtexas.com/) and a very different hot food menu from DQ elsewhere in the country.
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