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PERIMETER BUSINESS
Baskin-Robbins franchise owner tastes success
Baskin-
Robbins store
owner Shaheen
Haque, left,
with employee
Michael Star.
Haque says
working with
teenagers is
part of what
makes her job
worthwhile.
Dan Whisenhunt
By Dan Whisenhunt
The decor of the Baskin-Robbins
store in Sandy Springs looks like a
busted pinata.
Children spend their birthdays at
the two-story shop located at City-
Walk. They make candle wishes in a
room sprinkled with shades of pink
and blue. Frozen cakes decorat
ed with a mother's touch and cray
on-box colors of ice cream wait like
temptation inside glass cases.
The aroma of cooked waf
fles greets each customer coming
through the door.
Store owner Shaheen Haque said
she didn't expect her life's work
would be this sweet. She's spent 28
years serving up scoops of famous
ice cream flavors and loves
her job.
"You meet people.
You manage employees.
You have little kids com
ing to you as customers.
You have cakes," Haque said. "It's
a very vibrant and happy atmo
sphere, compared to sitting in a cor
porate office with a desk and chair."
Haque can win friends with a
few words and melt hearts with her
matronly smile. She's not shy about
promoting her company's brand.
Her sales pitch flows as easily as
caramel dripping off a ladle.
Haque fell in love with Baskin-
Robbins ice cream in 1985, when she
took her first bite of the chain's Pis
tachio Almond ice cream. She said
that first bite "sold me on the fran
chise."
Haque wasn't thinking about the
ice cream business back then. She
was a graduate student at Emory
University, finishing her master's
degree in public health. She saw a
future of sitting behind a desk and
taking orders. She decided it just
wasn't for her. "My personality
wasn't suited for this type of job,"
she said. "I started thinking."
She bought out the owner of
the Baskin-Robbins store on Ro
swell Road and hasn't looked back,
though there were some rocky roads
along the way.
Haque moved the location to
CityWalk in 2006, hoping she would
be a part of Sandy Springs' down
town renaissance. While the down
town plans haven't moved as quick
ly as Haque expected, she
said she's found new op
portunities at her much
larger CityWalk address.
The second story be
came a party room and it's
something Haque credits with keep
ing her ice cream shop afloat during
the economic meltdown.
When the economy crumbled
in 2008 and 2009, she stretched her
company's dollar by working more
hours at the store. Her uniform
shows faint tatters at the shoulders
and 31 flavors (and then some) of
ice cream stain the brim of her visor.
"You have to know how to man
age your numbers," Haque said.
"That's the key factor to your sur
vival. You have to control product
waste. You have to control payroll
cost."
The store is never far from
Haque's thoughts. When she visited
Turkey for one week in November,
she had a video conference with her
employees every day.
Haque said the teenagers she em
ploys in the store are part of what
makes the job worthwhile. In 28
years, she's seen many grow up, be
come successful and return to her
shop with their own children in tow.
She thinks she can take some credit
for their success. Two of Haque's chil
dren are doctors and they worked in
the store when they were teenagers.
"They have learned some of their
management skills from Baskin-
Robbins," Haque said.
The dessert fads have also tried
to take a bite of her ice cream shop's
profits. Cupcakes, cakes and pies
are all contenders, but frozen yo
gurt currently reigns as the dessert
fad king.
Frozen yogurt shops offer cus
tomers a myriad of toppings, but
Haque doesn't see the fad toppling
ice cream's enduring appeal. Haque
conducts market research by visit
ing nearby shops.
She said that full-fat ice cream is
healthier than nonfat yogurt, partic
ularly when customers eat their yo
gurt with a pile of sugary toppings.
That master's degree in public
health came in handy, she said.
"I think it will take time for peo
ple to catch up and realize that hav
ing a serving of yogurt with all that
toppings heaped up on it is worse,"
Haque said.
And when they do, Haque will be
waiting for them behind the counter
at Baskin-Robbins.
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10 | JUNE28 — JULY 11, 2013 | www.ReporterNewspapers.net
