Jerry was on campus last Friday. No, I’m not talking about Jerry Springer, and no, not Jerry Seinfeld either. Rather Jerry Greenfield, co-founder of Ben and Jerry’s, jumped onto the Armory stage.
For those of you ice cream fans who missed the show, the co-founder of the famous frozen dairy company from Vermont was here doling out free scoops to the Rensselaer community. They even had their choice of five flavors—Chocolate Fudge Brownie (oh so rich), Cherry Garcia, Phish Food, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, and One Sweet Whirled, the new flavor of the year, which contains caramel and coffee ice cream, marshmallows, and espresso chocolate chips.
But handing out ice cream wasn’t the only reason why Jerry came to Troy. The business of Ben and Jerry’s is a thriving one, and Jerry described in detail how the ice cream maker got started along with its unique way of doing business.
Ben and Jerry’s began in 1978 when Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield decided to make their foray into business and “do something fun … do something with food.” So, they managed to raise enough money, $12,000, to start up their business in an abandoned gas station in Burlington, Vermont.
Ice cold Vermont sounds like an unusual place to start an ice cream shop, though, doesn’t it? Originally, the duo had planned to locate the ice cream maker in a rural college town where it was warm. They threw out that idea, Jerry said, because there were already way too many ice cream makers in the warmer climates. The cold climate location was an immediate success.
One other hilarious and related antic the company used to draw new customers to their ice cream, despite the cold temperatures, was to start a promotion nicknamed Penny Off Per Celsius Degree Below Zero Winter Extravaganza.
Hey Jerry: did you ever consider that your customers would probably turn into ice-cubes after the fact?
Certainly Ben and Jerry found a way to sell ice cream to the masses. But, selling ice cream isn’t the only thing they did well.
The ice cream duo wanted to change the way people thought of business to include social responsibility. “There is a spiritual aspect to business,” Jerry said, “Where you give, you will receive.”
And give Ben and Jerry’s did. Flavor names soon began to be selected based on specific social needs and responsibilities. The company even set up their own foundation which gives out approximately 7.5 percent of its pre-tax profits each year.
In my opinion, it was not a bad lecture, Jerry. Some might say they went to the Armory event to hear Jerry’s intriguing story. Personally, I went for the ice cream.
