Archive for 'Mister Softee'

Pay No Attention to the Rain, It’s Officially Softee Season! Meet The Rolling Cones…

Becoming a mobile vendor is not quite as easy as ehow would have you believe. So in anticipation of Softee Season 2011 we’ve asked Chrissy (aka Miss Softee) to show us the process of what it takes to become an ice cream vendor in Midtown.

Miss Softee

You’ve met the first few hires here and here and seen what it takes to get your paperwork in order to become a licensed mobile vendor, and where the trucks live. After the typical bureaucratic paperwork delays, today marks the official beginning of Softee season and for her last regular post, Miss Softee has some big time announcements. Take it away Miss Softee!

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Becoming a Mister Softee Vendor (Part 5): After All That, It’s Finally Time to Actually Apply

Becoming a mobile vendor is not quite as easy as ehow would have you believe. So in anticipation of Softee Season 2011 we’ve asked Chrissy (aka Miss Softee) to show us the process of what it takes to become an ice cream vendor in Midtown. So far you’ve met the first few hires here and here, we’ve seen what it takes to get your paperwork in order to become a licensed mobile vendor, and we’ve seen where the trucks live. This week the crew begins to ready the trucks to hit the streets. Take it away Miss Softee!

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Soo… just a quick recap on what’s already happened in the process to becoming a licensed mobile food vendor (MFV). These candidates have gone through the application and interviews, reference checks, they’ve  registered to take the MFV food safety class, applied for their tax paperwork, took the actual MFV class, and finally the day has come that they have all the paperwork necessary to head down to the Department of Health and Consumer Affairs down by Wall Street and apply to be mobile food vendors!!  Every time a potential RollingCone hire calls me to say that their paperwork is in and they’re ready to apply, I swear, you can hear the 5 year old kid in their voice because they’re that much closer to becoming an ice cream vendor. (And the whole process is a huge pain the ass!) This is a true labor of love, kids.

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Becoming a Mister Softee Vendor (Part 4): Getting the Trucks Ready to Roll

Becoming a mobile vendor is not quite as easy as ehow would have you believe. So in anticipation of Softee Season 2011 we’ve asked Chrissy (aka Miss Softee) to show us the process of what it takes to become an ice cream vendor in Midtown. So far you’ve met the first few hires here and here and seen what it takes to get your paperwork in order to become a licensed mobile vendor. This week the crew begins to ready the trucks to hit the streets. Take it away Miss Softee!

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Hey kids!! The RollingCones team has been busy applying for their badges (which we’ll tell you all about next week), but that hasn’t stopped the returning ice cream truck vets from hitting the streets along with this gorgeous weather! Read more »

Becoming a Mister Softee Vendor (Part 3): Want to Serve? Hurry Up and Wait!

Becoming a mobile vendor is not quite as easy as ehow would have you believe. So in anticipation of Softee Season 2011 we’ve asked Chrissy (aka Miss Softee) to show us the process of what it takes to become an ice cream vendor in Midtown. We’ll meet the potential new vendors, and track their progress through the selection and training process as all of the candidates make their way towards being a full fledged Mr. Softee vendor. So far you’ve met the first few hires here and here. Now see what it takes to get your paperwork in order to become a licensed mobile vendor. Take it away Miss Softee!

Miss Softee with Potato Chip Choco Dip Cone

Becoming a mobile food vendor isn’t just about coming up with a cool persona, finding awesome outfits to wear to work, or letting culinary creativity loose with awesome toppings… it’s a long process with many confusing steps along the way! Such a long process that even though we started with 20 total hires at the beginning of February, we’re already down to 16. It’s inevitable that people will drop off along the way, so most smart employers will tend to hire more people than they ultimately need. I can’t speak for every business, obviously, but here’s what a potential Mister Softee driver has to do to work in Midtown for the RollingCones.  (Yup, I’ve given us a new name!) Read more »

Where Do Male Mister Softee Drivers Pee?!: Miss Softee tells DNAinfo that there are disadvantages to being a female Mister Softee driver. For example "unlike male vendors, she said she can't come up with alternatives to finding an actual bathroom." Uh... "alternatives"? Selling ice cream in Midtown isn't exactly camping in the woods. What are the alternatives? On second thought, I don't want to know.

Softee Truck Driver Fight Caught on Video!

The turf wars between ice cream truck drivers in Midtown is legendary, and we’ve stumbled upon the aftermath of more than one “encounter”. But this could be the first time a brawl between a Mister Softee vendor and a rival ice cream truck vendor has been caught on video.  Mister Softee CEO Jim Conway is pretty good about pointing out when bad generic ice cream trucks are mis-identified as official Mister Softee vendors… but it looks like he’s going to have a tough time denying this one (the instigator was clearly identified as a Mister Softee truck.)  Super curious to see what they do to the vendor in the video (if anything).  Check out the video for yourself>>

Related:
Cops Cracking Down on Softee Trucks After “Altercation”
Rule #1 of Vendor Fight Club is You Don’t Talk About Vendor Fight Club

Mister Softee Opens Up to Fox Business

With all the turf war controversy surrounding Mister Softee trucks, we’ve always imagined Softee President Jim Conway as some kind of soft serve puppet master, holed up in his Jersey lair ruling the summer streets of NYC with a iron fist.  Nope.  Saw him on Fox Business channel last week, and he looks like… well… the owner of a large (and extremely professional) ice cream company.  Miss Softee makes an appearance in the background, and Conway goes into some interesting business facts about Mister Softee- including the fact that the hours are long, and many of their franchises are owned by immigrants from South America, Eastern Europe and West Africa.

Check out the video after the jump…

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Cops Cracking Down on Softee Trucks After “Altercation”

Fights between trucks is nothing new, but fighting with a cop? That’s kind of crazy. The rumors swirling around Midtown today is that on Tuesday an ice cream truck driver got into some kind of “altercation” with a police officer.  Nobody wanted to say exactly what happened, or who started it, but we’ve heard that the ice cream truck driver is now in the hospital- and has been fired from his job.  One thing is for sure, even though the driver wasn’t a licensed Mister Softee vendor (he drove one of the generic trucks) yesterday was a tough day for *all* ice cream vendors in Midtown.

Miss Softee didn’t want to speak on the record about any of this (after all, there’s a saying about vendor fight club) but she did want to point out how unfair it is that one bad driver could ruin it for all the good Mister Softee drivers, trying to follow the rules.

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Mister Softee for Hard Bodies?: Billy Gunnz, Midtown's Mister Softee for the ladies, is serving up banana protein shakes today as a special (on 39th & B'way). We at Midtown Lunch are more partial to orange creamsicles than "healthy" protein shakes, but with the line situation at Shake Shack, you might need fortification.

Miss Softee: “We Do Not Make $900 a Day!”

CNN’s “Best Jobs” video chronicling a day in the life of a Mister Softee truck sure did make the rounds on the old blogosphere yesterday!  We were slightly suspicious of its awfully rosy portrait of what it’s like to run a Mister Softee truck, and this morning everybody’s favorite Midtown Mister Softee vendor “Miss Softee” checked in to let us know that our suspicions were justified.

I just watched the video and wanted to expand on what she says, plus share a little more detail with the readers because to think that we’re making almost a thousand dollars a day in our pay is a bit absurd and is totally misunderstood!! I think that she gives a decent explanation of the job, including the long hours, the specifics of working for Softee (that they give you a route, a tune, and you have to use all of their product), but the whole ‘making 900 a day’ thing seems like it’s being misunderstood in this report. The TRUCK may pull in $900 on a really GOOD DAY. But, out of that sum, in addition to the truck startup fees (90K) there’s the ongoing costs: the products, the commissary/depot fee, the franchise fee, gas, incurred tickets, as well as any repairs of the truck, so, while $900/day in your pocket sounds great, that’s NOT what is actually going in!!

But wait, there’s more… Read more »