The ice cream shop Cold Stone Creamery is known for mixing toppings together rather than placing them on top of your ice cream like other ice cream shops. It serves several unique blends of ice cream and toppings. Anyway, here are the payment methods you can use at Cold Stone Creamery.
Paying With Frequently Used Payment Methods at Cold Stone Creamery
Cold Stone Creamery | Cash | Large Bills | Personal Checks | Debit Card | Credit Card | Apple Pay | Google Pay | UnionPay | JCB | PayPal | Venmo |
In-store | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes* | Yes* | No | No | ||||
Online | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
You can use several popular payment options at this ice cream shop but in this case you may want to check whether the location you plan to visit supports your preferred option. Cold Stone Creamery’s ice cream shops are franchises and some of its franchise owners have not added new point-of-sale terminals that support contactless payments yet. This means that some locations may not accept Apple Pay and Google Pay but other locations will accept these mobile wallets. And unlike other restaurants, Cold Stone Creamery doesn’t accept PayPal for online orders either.
Using Alternative Payment Options at Cold Stone Creamery
Cold Stone Creamery | Klarna | Affirm | Afterpay | Sezzle | Zip | PayPal Credit | EBT | Store Gift Card | Store Credit Card |
In-store | No | No | Yes | No | |||||
Online | No | No | Yes | No |
You can use gift cards at Cold Stone Creamery but you can’t use EBT there. While restaurants can sign up for the Restaurant Meals program in California and several other states to accept this form of payment, Cold Stone Creamery hasn’t enrolled in this program and neither have any of the other ice cream shops and frozen yogurt shops I’ve looked up. It’s possible that these types of shops don’t qualify for the Restaurant Meals program since ice cream is often considered a luxury. Like many other restaurants, this ice cream shop doesn’t accept BNPL either.
Additional Background Information for Cold Stone Creamery
Every day, the employees at this restaurant mix freshly-made soft-serve ice cream with various toppings on top of a cold stone counter. This mixing process is what makes Cold Stone Creamery different from other ice cream shops. Its toppings include popular favorites such as fudge, mixed nuts, and fresh fruit such as blueberries.
Additionally, you can also buy coffee-based beverages such as lattes as well as smoothies made with fresh fruit at this ice cream shop. Another unique thing about Cold Stone Creamery is that it has some co-branded Cold Stone Creamery/Tim Hortons locations. Tim Hortons is a major Canadian coffee shop chain that also has many locations in the US, although as far as I know it doesn’t have any locations in Southern California.
Other Ice Cream and Frozen Yogurt Shops Where You Can Pay With Apple Pay
The drugstore Rite Aid has pop-up ice cream shops in its drugstores that serve soft-serve ice cream from its Thrifty plant in El Monte. It has 500 of these shops and Cold Stone has around 1,000 stand-alone ice cream shops.
The self-serve frozen yogurt shop Menchie’s also has many locations in Southern California malls. It has several locations in Ventura County and more locations in other regions.
Another popular self-serve frozen yogurt shop, Yogurtland, also allows you to create your own mix of frozen yogurt and toppings. It doesn’t have any shops in Ventura County but it does have shops in Santa Barbara and Los Angeles.
You can also visit TCBY to get a cup of frozen yogurt. It’s a national chain that has locations in many Southern California malls including the mall in Northridge.
Another ice cream shop chain that was once prominent in my area is Haagen-Dazs. It still has shops in Los Angeles but if you don’t live near one of its stores the best way to buy its ice cream might be to visit the frozen foods section of an upscale grocery store.