A to Z Creamery — Restaurant in Hopkins

I tried this place a handful of times about a year ago. The ice cream is good, though a bit pricey, but the lack of customer service really turned me off.

On my first visit, I waited in line for about 20 to 25 minutes, past the pickup window I had selected. On my second visit, I arrived two minutes late due to terrible traffic from across town and missed my pickup window. I asked for a refund, but the owner told me to come back to pick it up and refused to issue one. At the time, there was no mention of this policy on their website. I understand that I was late, but considering my previous experience of waiting beyond the scheduled time, a little flexibility would have gone a long way. This policy has been added to their website since, which is a step in the right direction. The whole interaction left a bad taste in my mouth and I haven’t been back since.

As a side note, I think this business model (no store front and scheduled pickup times) worked well during Covid, but it’s quite inconvenient now for everyone but the...

I love to support local business and this ice cream is phenomenal. Really fun flavors and love the concept. I ordered from them back in the spring and arrived about 10 mins before pickup time and had no issues. This time around, way different experience. Unfortunately, I think the popularity has gotten away from them. I had a time slot from 10-10:30am for pickup. I arrived at 10:20am and had to wait over 90 mins in 15 degree weather. Unfortunately, not knowing the return policy which is my own fault, I felt obligated to pick up my 1 pint of $15 ice cream because I had prepaid. I know it is hard to hire more staff these days, but perhaps only allowing a certain number of people to schedule during each time slot may help the problem and/or have more pickup time option? I love their ice cream and would like to continue to support them, but I won't be doing that again until some of the logistics are...

The ice cream is not worth the cost and effort it takes just to get it in your hands. The hype is around the exclusivity and how difficult it is to get it. Once you get it, it's just average, and sometimes below average.

Also, as someone who lives in Hopkins, having 100 to 200 people show up all at once, 3 to 5 times a week, every single week, to pick up ice cream within a 15 minute window is extremely taxing on a smaller town. Traffic is backed up on Main Street, it eliminates parking for other businesses (who have been here much longer) and residents, and the excessively long line of people blocks the sidewalk. It may be a business model that works for you financially, but the numerous cons outweigh your...