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Why am I having a hard time finding a supplier for Taylor? Can anyone suggest a supplier?

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Michael Hurley
Impresario

Mike,
Hi, this is Dave from Steve's Frozen Chillers, I saw that you found our website. Anyway, alot of people are giving you good personal suggestions, you might want to call a Taylor distributor for service or parts. You can find one at http://www.taylor-company.com/dist_dom/domdist.htm and if you would like you can call me I might have another suggestion for you, 561-723-2459 or email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , or visit our website http://www.stevesfrozenchillers.com and I am listed as the technical contact. Anyone feel free to contact me concerning frozen drinks and I will try my best to answer your questions or put you in the right direction.

Best Regards,

Dave Schoenberg
Steve's Frozen Chillers

Mike,
Hi, this is Dave from Steve's Frozen Chillers, I saw that you found our website. Anyway, alot of people are giving you good personal suggestions, you might want to call a Taylor distributor for service or parts. You can find one at http://www.taylor-company.com/dist_dom/domdist.htm and if you would like you can call me I might have another suggestion for you, 561-723-2459 or email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , or visit our website http://www.stevesfrozenchillers.com and I am listed as the technical contact. Anyone feel free to contact me concerning frozen drinks and I will try my best to answer your questions or put you in the right direction.

Best Regards,

Dave Schoenberg
Steve's Frozen Chillers

My above post from May of 2003, stated that Gold Medal would give you the machine if you bought their product. They were true to their word.

We sell a frozen "Frusheez" slush-type drink, and we sell the heck out of it. We sell it in a 160z. cup for $2.25.

Only draw-back has been the markup on the syrup because we use their machine. We actually pay DOUBLE the amount for the syrup mix than if we would if we owned the machine.

So far.. 3 months into the season, we've yet to have the first problem with the machine.

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Barry Floyd
Floyd Entertainment Group
Lebanon, Tennessee

Stardust Drive-In Theatre
Watertown, Tennessee

Well we still love our Crathco bubbler. Much more reliable than the frozen granita machine. Quieter too.

We used to sell the Slush Puppie brand at two locations. They provided the machines and the squirt bottles for the flavored syrups for free so long as we used their product. One of the locations had a floor-standing machine that used concentrate in bottles. The other had a counter-top unit that used bag-in-box syrup.

The floor unit worked flawlessly, but was a pain to keep filled.

The counter-top unit broke down all the time. Its contents kept freezing solid and breaking the pin that links the stirrer to the motor. Despite the fact that our customers loved the product (and so did we) we eventually had to get rid of it because the machine was broken more often than it was working and they would take a couple of weeks to come out and fix it.

We use the Bunn Ultra 2. We order Island Oasis products, which contain sugar but use real fruit. Island Oasis has great recipes on their website. We have a health oriented customer base, so they appreciate the real fruit. Also, we have a full liquor license, so the product doubles as a good base for daiquiris.

By the way, the cleaning can be a pain. If you choose to leave it on the automatic freeze/thaw setting, it gets a creepy crust at the top of the bin.

Another company to check out is PARROT ICE. We had one of their units at our grocery store. Ran like a charm. They had tropical flavors and a mocha coffee type slushie. I do remember that every now and then the nozzle dispenser would freeze up, due to the department moron having the temp set too low.

If you casn afford to buy your own equipment, prices for mixes are MUCH lower. I guess it depends IF you are sure you really want to sell slushies, if not, get a machine placed and pay the extra $ untill you are SURE, then either buy a used one from a reputable company $maybe $700-$800 or buy new for around $1500.

Also, try selling an Iced Cappuccino!

I guess my question with these things is how much soda pop revenue do you lose? Is it a replacement for a soda or an additional purchase? My soda machine came free and I'm hesitant to shell out hundreds of dollars on a machine that may only divide my sales into two parts....

... and get less profit.

In January of 2005 we were able to purchase a refurbished used slush puppie machine from a local distributor who also sells the product. We paid about $800 and also got a start up supply of slush base, syrups and cups included with the deal. We crossed our fingers that the machine wouldn't fail before it had paid for itself and went on faith. We had the same concerns about cutting into our pop sales so we priced the same size slush $1.00 higher than the pop. We sell a 22 oz slush for $3.25 and the pop for $2.25. We calculate that the machine had paid for itself by April when we also finished up our initial supplies of everything. It has been a very good investment for us without noticeably hurting our pop sales. Sometimes I think of it more as a candy substitute than a pop substitute. In which case I would rather sell a slush than a candy as we all know that our candy margins are shrinking. We've never had the machine worked on and we enjoy buying the slush base at the discounted price for owned machines. We only sell the one size with the exception that you can get a child size slush (12oz) as long as you buy the Kids Pack. We are very satisfied with how it has worked for us. We initially started out with 5 flavors and the shocker to make them sour, but added 6 more flavors this year when our company gave us a deal on slush base that included either an equipment credit or a machine service credit. We took the equipment credit on the syrup containers and the rack. It has been great fun trying all the flavors.

Do you charge an up charge for the slushy in the kid pack? We carge an extra .50 for a slushy in the kids pack. I sell more slushy that way than in the larger cups.

We use a 16/18oz clear plastic cup. We don't use the slushy brand our slushy is a preflavored base that is frozen in the machine. Its counter top and all stainless. You can't see in the machine except for the front panel but I can sell several gallons of product in one show so those plastic barrel machines you see in the quick stores would not keep up. Our machine cannot even keep up sometimes.