I recently received these questions about our Shaved Ice Business from Julie…
Does someone work for you? What are the hours? Since you use all natural real foods, what kind of flavorings do you use for your business? What does your establishment look like? How much does a shaved ice cost? ….the list goes on and on… I’d love it if you’d do a blog sometime (with pictures included) that tells about your business now that it’s up and running.
Here are my answers (finally):
1. Yes, we’ve hired three different teenagers to work for us so that Matt can continue to work his regular job. Also, Asa works there sometimes and does a great job.
2. At the beginning of the summer our hours were 11 am to 9 pm every day except Sunday. (Oh, and except for Wed, when we’d close down early for church…and Thurs when we’d close down early to take the shaved ice machine to the Farmer’s Market.) Now that school has started, we’re only open after school from 3:30-6pm.
3. We have both 100% fruit juice for our shaved ice flavors and also sugar filled, dye your tongue a weird color flavors too. We’ve been so glad to be able to offer our customers a healthier option if they want it. Our 100% juice choices are: orange, pineapple, grape, cranberry and apple raspberry. Other choices are strawberry, cherry, lime, blue raspberry, pink lemonade, and bahama mama. (I probably forgot a few in there somewhere.) Many people like to have a combination of flavors. (My favorite is the pineapple/orange mixed. Or the cranberry/grape mix…can’t decide!)
4. We purchased a concession trailer and re-did the sinks to make everything up to code. (Of course I mean that Matt re-did the sinks….I just washed the new sinks afterward.) Our set up is nothing fancy, but it works just fine.
5. We sell a small shaved ice for $1.50 and a large for $2.50.
Overall we’ve been pretty pleased with our new little business venture this summer. We haven’t had as much business as we were expecting/hoping for…but remember all that road construction I talked about? That kinda messed us up a bit. But, it’s been a great experience and we’ve learned a TON about food service.
Now, everyone come on over and have a shaved ice!
Mmmm, shaved ice with pineapple juice sounds heavenly! I’m not sure where you live, but I don’t think it’s Nashville, so I don’t think I’ll be making a trip anytime soon, unfortunately. But mmm…
Interesting! Thanks for sharing.
Do you plan on continuing with the buisness next summer?
Thank you so much for posting the answers to my questions! Very interesting! :)
Yum! Can I come get some?! :D
Oh I loved this post, I’m totally intrigued by this. I think it’s so wonderful that it’s something you can do as a family. We just purchased a large shaved ice today for $3.00. It was in a neat cup thingy. My son loved it but they only offered the full sugar kind. I love that you offer the 100% juice, so very awesome.
So my question is in regards to where you set up. Are you on your property? I remember you posted about this once. Can you tow the trailer to town and set up or do you need special permits for that?
Do you still operate the shaved ice stand?
We don’t at this time. We still own the trailer and the all the shaved ice equipment, and use it only occasionally for special events.
Hi there, I’m in az and have been searching for 100% fruit juice for my little shaved ice machine I take to b-day parties. Where do you get yours? More moms are requesting it and I just can’t find any!
Thanks a bunch~
We just use frozen juice concentrate from the freezer section of the grocery store, then delute it with about 3 cups of water. :)