Founders avoided warm college towns due to existing ice cream competition
Ben Cohen · Ben & Jerry's: Ben Cohen And Jerry Greenfield (2017) · Mar 23, 2020 · at 11:09
Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry's, describes the location search and market research process that led them to open in cold Burlington, Vermont.
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“We figured we had a better chance of success if we opened up in a place where there wasn't much competition. And originally we were looking for warm, rural college towns, and all the warm ones already had ice cream. So, you know, as we went further and further north, but then the only town left that we knew anything about was Burlington, which, you know, is an hour and a half south of the Canadian border. It's kind of cold, and there wasn't much ice cream here.”
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