Ice cream shop churns its products with pedal power

Los Angeles' Peddler's Creamery is getting its customers to churn their own ice cream using its in-store bike.

Ice cream doesn’t do much for consumers’ waistlines, although its fattening nature can be combatted with a spot of exercise. With this in mind, Los Angeles’ Peddler’s Creamery is getting its customers to churn their own ice cream using its in-store bike.

Selling both dairy and non-dairy organic ice cream, the shop aims to raise awareness of the benefits of local produce as well as sustainable business methods. Rather than using electricity to power its churner, the store gets its customers to directly contribute to the creation of their order by pedalling on the in-store bicycle. The bike is connected to a device that uses the energy to churn the ice cream. The team behind Peddler’s Creamery also regularly promote their products by taking their fleet of churning bikes to local markets and events.

Much like Unilever with it’s smile-activated ice cream vending machine, Peddler’s Creamery has recognized that the dessert is associated with fun, and has built that directly into its business model. At the same time, it replaces machinery with a more eco-friendly method of creating the product. Are there other ways to get consumers engaged with more environmentally-friendly ways to create the products they use?