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We are setting out to have great, over the top, customer service at the Chaeban Ice Cream and Cheese store this summer season.  Before we can get fancy though, we need to make sure that we cover off the basics.  There is no point blowing someone away with some over the top something-or-other thing we do if they go into the washroom and find it dirty, or they go to buy a certain cheese and find none in the cooler. Getting the basics right is, well, boring.  But it is important to establish the base on which you can do…

Our company was founded because of the Syrian refugee crisis. A story of friends brought together while trying to help during a time of crisis. Because our story is known in the refugee and immigrant community, new Canadians often reach out to us looking for help making connections and/or to see if we have or are aware of any opportunities for them. Somebody reached out recently whose story we found particularly inspirational. Her name is Enas. Enas is from Yemen and is the youngest of 14 children. Since 2015, Yemen has been in a complicated civil war that left thousands…

Statistics show that 30% of small businesses in Canada close by their fifth year; we will be starting our fifth year next month. As we plan for our future, we have been reflecting on the lessons learned from our past four years. We have been through a lot during this time: We opened our store on the first day of winter instead of the first day of spring as we had intended and saw just how dead an ice cream shop can be during a cold snap; we lived the reality of how traffic is impacted when someone decides to…

We wrote a blog almost one year ago with worry on our minds. No one knew what COVID would mean for our customers or our business. Cut to 12 months and a second lockdown later, Chaeban is in fact stronger than ever. The ice cream club has far exceeded our expectations, as has our reach into retail across Manitoba. In both areas, we made a conscious choice to think long-term; to take this last year to really build what will help us survive and be sustainable in the future. We believe that people want to support local, and if we…

Bowls and spoons are okay, but there’s nothing like a scoop of ice cream perfectly perched on top of a crisp cone.

As a way to say, “Thanks” to our Ice Cream Club subscribers, we wanted to give them an extra special way to experience our premium dairy or dairy-free ice cream options. So, during August’s deliveries we sent out 3,000 waffle cones – both in regular and our new vegan variety – to be filled with club members’ favourite Chaeban ice cream…

Just over three months ago we launched our Ice Cream Club, and since then over 1,500 people have signed up for dairy or dairy-free subscriptions. Considering we were thinking 400 as our best case, this is amazing. But it brought up a big question: How were we going to get all this ice cream out to our hungry customers? With the “400 plan” Joseph and Mohamad would have done the deliveries with maybe one new staff person to help with driving or ice cream production. But with the “1500 plan” we have had to add three full-time drivers and one…

This is a question we have been hearing a lot lately. The answer is, “likely sometime in August.” Why are we not opening sooner? A few reasons: Our online store and ice cream club has literally saved our business, but with this has come many challenges with deliveries and customer service. We want to stay focused on making this much better. We see it as a permanent part of our business going forward – a game changer for us – and we want to do it right before we take on the store re-opening. There is a seven-storey apartment building…

It feels like it’s been years since we wrote a blog explaining how were going to try to survive during COVID-19;  it was only a few weeks ago! In that time hundreds of people have signed up for our new monthly Ice Cream Club. Our hope was that 150 people would join, but Manitoba you have gone above and beyond. Our goal was to reduce the losses from not being open during our most important part of the year, and that when we could open, there would be a chance to survive. The response has been extremely heartwarming and at…

We opened our ice cream shop on the first day of winter December 21, 2017. As we write this article, we are in the middle of the COVID situation and 28 months into our store’s life. We started out with a vision to make the best premium ice cream possible, completely from scratch, using every local ingredient we could find and serve it in our store direct to customers.  We also wanted to create employment for Zainab’s family, who are Syrian refugees. Joseph wanted to put his passion for dairy products to good use in his own business and Darryl…