Ben & Jerry's — Restaurant in Virginia Beach

Caution! This Ben & Jerry's location is engaging in unethical business practices.

Upon my visit, I purchased two orders of ice cream. The total was a whopping $14 and some odd amount of cents. I handed the cashier a $20 bill. I quickly became confused when the cashier mentioned something about a gift card. She said that I needed exact change, making me buy a $6 gift card to pay for my $14 dollar purchase. I did not want a gift card as I will not buy more ice cream here for a while; Ben and Jerry's ice cream is my guilty pleasure! Nevertheless, I had perfectly legal tender to pay for the transaction.

The coin shortage has been over for months. Even if I had not received my 20 odd cents in change, I would still like my 5 dollars back. Nobody said anything about a dollar bill shortage!

Thankfully, I am a gracious person who gave the gift card to the girl behind me.

As many tourists and children visit this location using cash, Ben and Jerry's is making a fortune off of this scam. The gift card is a lure for patrons to come back and never end the cycle. If the store wants to implement the policy, they must clearly inform their patrons before entering the store. A sign on the door would be a simple solution.

I sincerely question the legality and ethics of these actions.

-A frustrated and concerned...

I understand lactose free ice cream is a commodity but to run out of the only oat milk based flavor at 7pm when hours show 10pm during the summer/a holiday weekend is unsatisfactory. I asked the associate upon receiving my ice cream if the update social media when flavors run out since i went to b&j website prior to visiting. I checked facebook and could not find a page with updates on flavors. It was unfair that I got an ice cream cone and my partner couldn’t. Would have gone else where if we knew first. The line was blocking the ice cream tubs/flavors. The labels were not removed, nor was there anyone behind us in line so I am not sure why we were rushed to be served without being able to set our eyes on the 2 empty tubs of the oat mlik flavor. Upo calming giving feedback, the same associate went immediately to reaching out to take my cone from me. I made no request or mention of wanting to “return” or not pay for my cone. Next time i see said associate working, i will immediately walk out and go elsewhere if i even return to my usual spot. This was the first time i saw them. They did offer the sorbet alternative but not the same. That is the only reason I rated...

There are really two ice cream options when in Sandbridge. For the two previous trips we had always done the "local" competitor, but this time decided to try B&J. Next time I'll stick with the competitor.

Yes, the ice cream here is good ... really good. That's the saving grace, but you know most of these flavors. They are the same ones they offer in store, though I found at least the Chunky Monkey was better here than packaged. The problem was the service, which wasn't necessarily bad, just very rushed. There is some signage, but not nearly enough to explain the ordering system here, what kind of cone options they have and what is offered with each. It's very busy, so you don't feel relaxed to ask a lot of questions and the staff were not offering any assistance beyond "what can I get you?". I want to be clear here. At no point were the staff rude. They were just matter of fact about it all and it ended up that many in my group of 12 ended up disappointed with what they ordered, due mostly to not feeling they had time to really even understand what we...