Ice cream and other frozen treats seem like necessities on a day like Friday, when the heat index could rise to a thermometer-busting 109. But owners of ice cream shops say that the hotter it gets, business actually slows down. What in the cookies and cream is going on here?
“I don’t think it’s the product,” says Brian Lowit, the owner of Mount Desert Island Ice Cream in Mount Pleasant. “People are just like, ‘I’ll stay cooler by staying in my house.'” Charles Foreman, the owner of Everyday Sundae in Petworth, agrees: “I watch a lot of the wildlife shows,” he says. “Everything tries to stand still when it’s super hot.” Says Brandon Byrd, who owns Goodies Frozen Custard & Treats in Old Town: “Everyone assumes when it’s scorching hot, it’s good for the business. Nobody wants to go out and enjoy frozen custard when they’re sweating profusely.”
So it’s not exactly that people don’t want ice cream when Washington’s summers are this horrible. They don’t want to go out for ice cream? Yes, says Lowit. “People will have pints delivered” via services like Uber Eats. But especially in neighborhood shops like his where most customers walk, “You’re definitely chancing it if you’re walking down the street with a cone.” Temperatures in the 80s are the sweet spot, Byrd says, especially around Memorial Day when people are looking forward to summer. When summer lands hard, however, “people hibernate.”
Another complicating factor is rain. Even on a day with comfortable temperatures, Lowit says, rain keeps us ice-cream-eating so-and-so’s home. He’ll often send staffers home when the skies open. Customers sometimes drive when it rains, Foreman says, but then the issue becomes DC’s enthusiastic enforcement of traffic laws: “People don’t want to risk a $5 ice cream cone for a $35 ticket,” he says.
Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.
