Asked by Vita (chat)

Several dealers chimed in on this one. Dawn Vanden Berg shared that she jumped a dollar last year with no issues. Susan Moreland said she’s done it a couple of times and plans to do it again. Venessa said she’s raised prices a dollar twice and never had anyone comment on it. Andrew Clary raised 50 cents and heard nothing. Eric Slivinski’s rule of thumb: if you’re only hearing a complaint about pricing every 75-100 customers, you’re priced right. If nobody’s complaining, you’re probably underpriced. The consensus from the group: don’t overthink it – just do it.

Asked by Dawn Vanden Berg (chat)

Eric Slivinski addressed this directly. His stores were on the corner across from a high school, and he’d consistently charge $1-$1.50 more at their football games than at the storefront. No one ever thought twice about it. Susan Moreland also confirmed she’s never had an issue with different pricing at events vs. her store. People understand that events have extra costs.

Asked by Jessica Smith (chat)

Dealers shared a wide range during the meeting. Common event pricing was $6/$7/$8 across multiple states. Rose shared that at a resort water park, she charges $12 and $13. Mark Purvis shared $7/$8.50/$10 at a ballpark. Eric Slivinski said he was consistently at $6/$7/$8 at community events in Phoenix and people didn’t blink. The key takeaway: your market can likely support more than you think.

Asked by Patrick and Amy Moody (chat)

The $4.30 is the gross profit per serving – meaning after subtracting the cost of goods (flavor, sugar, cup, spill stopper, spoon) from the average retail price. It does not factor in overhead costs like labor, rent, etc. The average retail price shown on the slide was $5.10.

Asked by Marielle Picek & Jake Picek (chat)

No. No flavors are being discontinued. The existing flavors are being reformulated to use natural colors and/or natural flavors where possible, but the flavor profiles stay the same. As Cooper put it: “We’re not discontinuing any flavors, we’re just bringing on a few more” options like additional sugar-free varieties. Think of it as a transition, not an elimination.

Asked by Britney Massey (chat)

The goal is to transition as many flavors as possible to natural colors and natural flavors over time. Some are already there (the green pouch flavors). Others are partway there with either natural color or natural flavor. The biggest challenge is blue – there isn’t a cost-effective, stable natural blue dye yet, which also affects greens. So some flavors will take longer than others, but the direction is toward transitioning everything eventually.

Asked by Abby (chat)

Blue is the hardest natural color to achieve. Spirulina makes a good blue initially but loses its intensity over time. Donald mentioned they’re also working with jagua fruit, which produces a decent blue but leans more purple. The team won’t transition blue until they can do it well. Patrick and Amy Moody noted that they’ve already seen kids come back asking for more flavor because the blue fades – so this is a known challenge the team is actively working on.

Asked by David Williams (Q&A)

Yes, to some extent. Donald noted he recently received an email from Snowy advertising their new natural colored flavors. With major national brands like Nestlé, Kellogg’s, General Mills, Coke, and Pepsi all announcing initiatives to move away from artificial dyes, the entire industry is heading this direction. Tropical Sno’s goal is to be on the forefront rather than playing catch-up.

Asked by Elizabeth Green (chat)

Yes. While the updated formulations use natural colors and natural flavors, they still use the same artificial preservatives as the original flavors, so shelf life should be the same. The standard best practices still apply – keep bottles out of intense light and heat.

Asked by Jess and Nate (chat)

This wasn’t directly answered during the meeting. Generally, the team prioritizes based on what’s achievable – meaning which natural color and flavor options are available from suppliers, are stable enough for the product, and don’t compromise the flavor. The colors that are easier to source naturally (reds, oranges, yellows, purples) are being transitioned first, while blues and greens remain the biggest challenge.

Asked by Brad Calhoun (chat) / Addressed in Q&A

Our updated sugar-free formulations use the same preservatives as the regular flavors, so shelf life should be similar. The standard best practices apply: keep bottles out of intense light and heat. Sugar-free flavors don’t require any special storage beyond what you’re already doing with your regular flavors. That said, if you notice any difference in longevity, it doesn’t hurt to mix in slightly smaller batches – but we haven’t heard of shelf life issues with the new sugar-free formulations since launching them last year.

Asked by Eric Hess (Q&A)

Not right now. The team hasn’t been able to manufacture a machine cheaply enough to compete with the Swan, which remains the best value. That said, the SI-150 CBK S+ (the newest Swan model) is getting excellent reviews – Donald said he’s worried they may not have ordered enough for this season. They met with the Japanese manufacturer in November and stressed the need for updates, but no major changes have been announced to the SI-100 yet.

Asked by Edwina Soto (chat)

This wasn’t addressed during the meeting, but yes, the Swan machines can shave rectangular blocks just fine. For many years, dealers used rectangular blocks on the Swan machines without any issues. Round blocks are a little better and worth using if you can source them, but if rectangular blocks are what’s available in your area, they’ll work great.

Asked by Curtis – Tropical Sno Terre Haute, IN (chat)

Coffee is probably the most temperamental flavor when it comes to shelf life. Eric’s recommendation: mix coffee one quart at a time instead of a full gallon. This limits waste if a batch does turn. More importantly, make sure you’re following the full bottle cleaning process – wash, rinse, sanitize, and air dry. If a bottle has had mold in it before, the mold spores can survive a basic rinse. You need to fully sanitize and let it air dry to kill them. If you mix a new batch in a bottle that still has mold spores, it will mold again almost immediately. The sanitizing and air drying steps are the ones most people skip, and they’re the most important.

Asked by Eric Hess (Q&A)

The logo is available in the digital asset library, but embroidery requires a digitization process that converts the design into stitches. Every embroidery machine handles the conversion a little differently, so you’ll need to take the print logo to your local embroidery shop and have them digitize it. Andrew Clary shared in the chat that his local shop charged $35 for this.

Asked by Kirstin and Scott Munis (Q&A)

It’s something the team is actively considering. The challenge is making something that’s easy for dealers to edit without needing expensive design software like Adobe Illustrator. Donald was candid that they’d also like to see more dealers buy into the current printed menu before investing heavily in a digital version – but it’s on their radar, and the more dealers who express interest, the more likely it moves forward.

Asked by Kat Smith (chat & Q&A)

We may make a few small tweaks this year, but there’s no major redesign of the gazebo wraps or graphics planned for 2026. A more significant design update is something we may explore in the future. If you need new wraps for this season, you should feel comfortable ordering the current design.

Asked by Susan Moreland & Brad Calhoun (chat & Q&A)

There are no plans for a Tropical Sno-specific app. However, Eric Slivinski pointed out that you can achieve similar functionality through Square. Dealer Eric Hess also shared in the chat that he had a pre-order/QR code system built into his own website that works the same way – parents pre-order online, get a QR code, and redeem it at the event.

Asked by Susan Moreland & Britney Massey (chat)

The best approach is to standardize. If your event lineup is different from your storefront, create an event-specific menu that covers your core event flavors – most events don’t require a completely unique lineup. Having two or three versions (storefront, events, and maybe one for special situations) should cover the majority of dealers. Standardizing your menus into a few versions that work across most situations is the most practical solution.

Asked by Patrick and Amy Moody (chat)

We actually already offer a polo/golf shirt option. You should see it in the TS Apparel section.

Asked by North Post (chat)

The new shirt designs are not currently available as digital files. For now, they’ll only be available through our pre-order process. We’ll share more details when the pre-order store goes live.

Asked by Dawn Vanden Berg (chat)

This is a personal preference. Most consumers are used to paying sales tax on top of whatever they buy, so you don’t need to feel like you have to absorb it. If you prefer to include tax in your listed price to simplify transactions and avoid dealing with change, that’s totally understandable – just make sure you’ve raised your price enough to actually cover the tax so you’re not eating into your margin. There’s no single right answer here; do whatever makes your operation run smoothest.

Asked by Kim (chat)

We actually sell a bottle washer designed specifically for this – it makes cleaning those longneck pour bottles much easier. You can find it on TropicalSno.com under the TS Essentials section.

Asked by Elizabeth Green (chat)

The bottle drying racks that Tropical Sno sells are designed for exactly this – you turn the bottles upside down so they drain completely and air dry. Donald mentioned these racks during the Q&A but acknowledged they probably haven’t done a good enough job educating dealers on what they’re for.

Asked by Kim (chat)

Unfortunately, branded napkins are not available right now. The supplier we previously used stopped offering them, and we haven’t been able to find another source that can produce them at a reasonable cost. For the foreseeable future, branded napkins won’t be part of our product lineup. If that changes, we’ll let you know.