April 2, 2014

By Rumasa Noor

Frozen yogurt is a popular treat for many people. In Wisconsin, however, there aren’t too many places that offer frozen yogurt. Whitewater had its first frozen yogurt shop open last winter. Renee and Jim Ziegel opened the family-owned Yogurt Shoppe  on Dec. 16.

When Renee Ziegel moved from California to Wisconsin in 1991, she said she was unable to find any yogurt shops. Ziegel said she and her family decided to open this place in Whitewater so they could bring something new to the area.

“In a lot of the other small towns, half the store fronts are empty, so we decided Whitewater because of the foot traffic and that the business seemed to be doing well on Main Street,” Ziegel said.

Yogurt Shoppe offers 12 flavors of frozen yogurt along with a non-dairy flavor called Sorbet.

“We change out at least one flavor a week; soon in the next month or two we are going to have a fifth machine, so we will have 15 flavors,” Ziegel said. “We have over 40 toppings, from fresh fruits to candies to gummies and syrups and sprinkles and just to build the way that you would like.”

Ziegel said Yogurt Shoppe offers loyalty cards to its customers to thank them for returning.

“For every cup of fro-yo you purchase, you get a punch hole in a card.  After 10 punches you get a cup free up to $5,” Ziegel said. “Tuesday you get two punches for one cup for Double-Punch Tuesday.”

The Yogurt Shoppe offers 50 percent off on National Frozen Yogurt Day, which is Feb. 6.

Ziegel quit her job of nine years to start their family run business, but it didn’t come without problems.

“One of the problems that we were encountering is the running of the machines,” Ziegel said. “They freeze up on us so it’s like a learning curve that we have; we are talking with them on the phone but just the trouble shooting of machines has been most difficult part.”

Ziegel said they hired a consultant to help them with the process of opening the yogurt place.

“We hired a consultant; she opens candy stores and now she is doing frozen yogurt stores,” Ziegel said. “She helped with the layout and getting things ordered and just helped getting things started.”

Ziegel said they wanted to start a business that did not require a lot of physical hardships.

“We had a couple other business ideas, and we chose this one because we are getting older in age,” Ziegel said. “We are working a lot of hours, but we chose this because it’s more fun.”

Many people wondered why they opened the shop in winter, Ziegel said. They decided to open the shop in December because they wanted to be more comfortable with operating the shop before the peak season would start.

“I am glad that we opened this time of the year to get this a chance to everything become start to be comfortable with responsibility,” Ziegel said. “There is a lot to learn with running the machines and we are still troubleshooting.”

The Yogurt Shoppe has a television, and it also offers a free wifi to its customers. The shop has received a positive customer response so far, Ziegel said. They got more than  300 followers in two months on Facebook.

“It’s been fantastic, I am always hearing this is exactly what Whitewater needs,” Ziegel said. “We have like 50 ratings; one rating is four and the rest are all five. So people are giving us a lot of positive feedback.”

Yogurt Shoppe is one of the only frozen yogurt shops in Whitewater.

“I love the yogurt shop; it has a huge variety of flavors and so many awesome toppings,”  said Kelly Holck, a senior at UW-Whitewater. “I definitely think it was a good idea for them to open in Whitewater since there aren’t any other yogurt shops around.”

Holck said the prices are reasonable in regards to the quality of the product. She said the Yogurt Shoppe will have more traffic in summer; people will be walking around and grabbing themselves a frozen yogurt.

Zeigel said the Yogurt Shoppe encourages its customers to come in and try free samples. She said  they want to expand their business in the future.

“The goal for the future is that we have a really good reception, and if we do well we can hopefully open up a second location in the next couple of years; thats our goal,” Ziegel said.