Ben & Jerry's Tries New Recipe for Store Design

The problem (pictured left): Whether a person’s palate leans more toward Cherry Garcia or Stephen Colbert’s Americone Dream, Ben & Jerry’s gets the majority of its sales from prepacked pints sold at stores. Not that its parlors are a drip in the bucket. With 500 stores—250 in the U.S.—the Unilever brand with the Yasgur’s-farm-raised, do-good hippie vibe needed to revisit its roots so its cones wouldn’t get short shrift. But with some thrift. “We’re a franchise system … we’re spending other people’s money, so we have to be cost conscious,” said Ellen Kresky, Ben & Jerry’s creative director.