Watched a viral ice cream shop go from lines around the block to dead quiet in 18 months

There's this place in Austin called Frosty Cow that was all over TikTok in 2022. People were driving 2 hours to try their cereal milk soft serve. I finally went last week and there was nobody there, like 3 customers at 7 PM on a Friday. The owner told me they blew their entire budget on that first viral push and never built a regular local base. Now they're stuck with a weird lease and an Instagram page that hasn't posted since March. Has anyone else watched a hyped up place crash this hard in their town?

3 comments

3 Comments

emma_wells8322h ago

There was a taco spot near me in Denver called El Boom that was the same thing... packed for like 4 months straight in 2023 because some influencer said their birria was life changing. I drove past last week and they had a hand-painted "for lease" sign in the window. The owner told my neighbor they spent $12,000 on a single TikTok campaign but couldn't afford to pay their regular staff a livable wage after that. It's like these places get one shot of fame and then the whole business model falls apart if you don't have enough local people coming back for the basics. Kind of makes you wonder if that viral success is actually a curse in disguise sometimes.

wood.uma18h ago

That's such a heartbreaking story, it feels like the system is rigged against these small places from the start.

lucast8122h ago

Man that Frosty Cow story hits close to home. @emma_wells83 your taco place example sounds exactly like what's happening here too. It breaks my heart seeing small owners get tricked into thinking one viral moment is enough to carry them. They spend everything on the hype and forget the boring stuff like having enough cash to pay rent next month. Kinda makes you wonder if the whole influencer game is just setting people up to fail if they don't already have a solid local crowd.