BLUE BELL PHASE THREE RETURN TO MARKET BEGINS TODAY
Blue Bell Ice Cream began Phase Three on their five phase return to market on Monday.
Phase Three include more stores in Texas as well as central and southern Alabama.
Phase four market return covers Louisiana and Jackson, Mississippi.
It was announced on Friday that the El Paso, Texas, Little Rock, Ark., and Memphis, Tenn., markets will have ice cream in stores beginning for Phase four on January 11.
A date for phase five has not yet been announced.
For the time being, Blue Bell is producing the following flavors of ice cream: Buttered Pecan, Cookies N Cream, Dutch Chocolate, Homemade Vanilla, Peppermint, Pistachio Almond and The Great Divide, as well as the 12 pak of Homemade Vanilla Cups and 12-pak of Homemade Vanilla and Dutch Chocolate cups.
Ricky Dickson, vice president of sales and marketing for Blue Bell, says that, “Phase three reaches the remaining majority of Texas as well as central and southern Alabama, This is our largest phase to date but we will work as quickly as we can to get our products in stores. Freezers will be refilled as needed throughout the week.”
Wonderful news!! When will they start making the ice cream that says NO SUGAR? I miss the homemade vanilla.
I hope they do start the no sugar options soon too for friends of mine who cannot eat the sugared kind. I also hope they can do the ice pops soon for those friends of mine who can’t eat gluten or dairy.
That said, it may be a time because they’re slowly getting back to steam, and they’d rather do it right than fast. This is a good process because the ice cream is still relatively popular (though I admit it’ll be years before it’s top three nationally again), and people also would rather it be right than fast.
Case in point – they started with the basics, then one add in (Buttered Pecan, Cookies ‘n’ Cream) then two (Pistachio Almond) and then candy (Peppermint) to ensure quality and rule out possible troublemakers. I also don’t think they’ll do more than 10-12 flavors a year, and occasionally swap out one or two for other flavors at times for variety.
Yes, I too want to see the no-sugar version like I said, but if it meant the factory had to shut down temporarily for another cleaning and such due to another outbreak of listeria, I think I can wait a little longer and sub out with another brand briefly. I go to HEB brands, as the stores filled the shelves with their own brand they could quickly swap out with Blue Bell when it came back instead of going with other brand names.