It's My Job: Ice cream and a song

New feature

The Forum begins publishing a new Monday business feature today called "It's My Job."

The new segment replaces the Business Q&A feature launched on May 1, 2006, resulting in more than 200 individual stories.

"It's My Job" will feature randomly selected subjects who will tell Forum readers what they do for a living.

It will follow a question-and-answer format.

If you have a story idea for "It's My Job," e-mail businessnews@forumcomm.com .

Danielle Forner and Samantha Colombo, both of Fargo, agree they have a fun job.

"It's really easy and stress free," Forner said.

They are singing ice cream scoopers at Cold Stone Creamery in Fargo.

They mix and blend ingredients of all kinds into ice cream concoctions. If customers throw a tip into the jar, the women reward them with a song.

"I've worked here for almost three years now, and every time I think

I'm getting older, I should find a new job, there's something about it; I don't want to quit Cold Stone," Colombo said.

Q: What is your job typically like?

A: Danielle Forner: Our main focus is to serve customers, and then we also make cakes, ice cream, waffles, and we do a lot of cleaning.

Samantha Colombo: I usually open. I usually work from 9 to 5. Basically, whenever I open the store, we set up the stone, make sure everything is ready and stocked, because usually it's busier at night.

Do you get to eat a lot of ice cream?

DF: We get 50 percent off, so however much we can afford.

What are your favorites?

DF: I really like the banana. It's made with real bananas.

SC: I like the banana ice cream, too. I like to mix the banana and peanut butter together.

DF: The most popular ones, which probably everyone likes, are probably cake batter.

SC: And cheesecake.

Do you ever get any weird requests?

SC: We have a lot of excited kids who come in. They get like six different things mixed in.

DF: They get the largest size - a Gotta Have It - cotton candy with Snickers and gummy bears and whatever else they want.

Do adults ever do that, too?

DF: Yeah, actually, I had this one guy who got watermelon sorbet and mint in a shake. It was really different.

Did he like it?

DF: I think so.

What is the best part of your job?

DF: The co-workers.

SC: Yeah, I like who I work with. Plus, ice cream makes people happy, so it's fun to serve people and just see how excited they are.

What's the worst part?

SC: Ice cream gets messy and melty, so probably cleaning up.

Do you like singing for tips?

SC: Yeah, it makes it more interesting. Whenever we get a rush of people and they're constantly tipping, we're kind of like, what song did we just finish?

DF: It makes it more fun when the customers enjoy it and smile or laugh.

How many songs do you have?

DF: Maybe 10 or 15 that we normally sing. There are a lot more, but it's hard to remember them all.

They're all made up by Cold Stone, but they're to tunes of songs that people know.

How do you pick what song to do?

DF: Whatever pops into your head.

What do customers like about that?

DF: A lot of people like when it's unexpected if it's their first time coming here and they don't know it's coming.

SC: I think some people just like to hear us sing.

To submit an idea for "It's My Job," e-mail businessnews@forumcomm.com .

Readers can reach Forum reporter Tracy Frank at (701) 241-5526