No More Scoops From Jake's Ice Cream?

A sweet Amherst business is closing the doors of its retail location in order to pursue a more wholesale-minded operation.

Jake’s Old Fashioned Ice Cream & Bakeshop announced on Tuesday that it will close its Amherst store on Nov. 4 and move production to Nashua. Their new home will be in Palm Square, which used to house the Old Batesville Casket Company before it was recently refurbished.

This shift is in response to a boom in wholesale business as opposed to the cost and time necessary to maintain a retail space.

“We’ve been in this location for eight years, and it has become clear to us that the wholesale part of the business exceeds the retail,” said proprietor Roni Vetter. 

Their new location will be available for orders and pick up only, and will not include any ice cream scooping or seating. Jake’s will still be taking cake orders and maintain its distribution with current wholesale customers. Their phone number, website, Facebook, Twitter will remain the same.

Vetter said that while the retail side of her business was strong this year despite the economy, the space holds her back from future wholesale accounts. The change is more about streamlining her production and getting her product to people more efficiently.

“It has become quite evident that more and more people want the Jake’s products,” she said. “We are trying to be in more locations where people shop rather than having them come to our store.”

Jake’s ice cream can be found in both Hollis and Bedford Harvest Market locations, The Copper Door in Bedford, The Mile Away Restaurant in Hollis and many other nearby locations. Their food truck will also continue to make rounds at local events throughout the region.

Vetter has owned Jake’s for nine years and has been running the retail store in Carriage Depot Plaza for the past eight years. All outstanding gift certificates from this location will be good at the store in Nashua and their truck.

She said this decision has been in the works since last year because she wanted more time to focus on her products. Her job is twelve hours a day for six days out of the week, and it is easy to see why she would feel stretched too thin. Next month’s move will give this sweet treat maker more time to focus on what matters: the treats.

Jake’s makes all of its own ice cream in a large range of flavors, and offers a variety of ice cream cakes and other baked goods. 

The owner is looking confident as she prepares to move into the next stage of her business, and is anticipating more expansion with her new business model. She is eyeing sales in smaller stores as well as larger clients, and already planning new products such as gluten-free ice cream.

However, she said that the move is bittersweet and is very grateful for the patronage of her customers over the past eight years. Go to the Jake’s Facebook page to see their reaction to the news.

“We love the community, we love where we are, but it is just something we have to do to further the business,” she said.