The success of Coldstone in Taipei is quite shocking. This is because it seems to combine two things that Taiwanese don't like, sweet food and dairy products.
The sweet foods one is a bit strange. Because many of their main courses, side dishes, and snacks can taste a bit sweet. Yes everything from their meat, to their vegetables, to even their potato chips can taste a bit sweet; but they do not like desserts to be too sweet. Many times when eating some wonderful cakes or cookies I've had friends tell me "it's too sweet!" to which i respond "dessert should be sweet."
Dairy is a bit more straight forward as many Taiwanese are lactose intolerant. although that really isn't a thing here, so people will just know that if they eat too much dairy, they will get sick. On the flip side there is belief that cold foods are bad for women (it will make their period cramps worse) so by extension many dairy foods are not eaten.
However Coldstone seems to get away with all this. They get by the sweet problem by having a sweetness meter on their menus. This tells you how sweet a particular flavor is. On top of this they will warn you when you order one of the sweeter ones, just to double check with you that that's what you want. They usually don't do this for me, but for my friends they will say "oh that one is very sweet, are you sure you want it?" Although I remember one time I decided to try their milkshake and the worker got very serious as if she was selling me poison and really wanted me to think about it before confirming my order.
The way they get past the dairy problem is by technically not being ice cream. They are butter cream which some how means people who can't handle dairy can eat it. I have a foreigner friend who is lactose intolerant and he can freely eat Coldstone without any ramifications.
But the real secret to their success? Lines. By nature they have to have lines since they make the ice cream right in front of you, this takes some time. But they smartly figured out the Taiwanese mindset so they did what they could to facilitate line growth. Basically their first few stores didn't have much if any seating, so there was always a line. Also even now they constantly give out buy one, get one free, coupons. This causes huge lines on the last day the coupons are valid.
All this just contributed to Coldstone's popularity and it was uber popular for a long time. Things have cooled down a bit though. They have more locations, and a few with more seating. Also Taiwanese are very strict temperature eaters hot food can't be eaten in hot weather and cold food can't be eaten in cold weather. So as the temperature cools, Coldstone's popularity goes into a hibernation of sorts. However they do try to keep popular. Any time you use the ATM, the ATM receipt prints out a Coldstone coupon (you have a choice of other coupons for other eateries if you'd like) and 7-11 has a program where each time you buy something you get a stamp and collect enough stamps and you can get a Coldstone discount (again among other choices of eateries).
The picture above is in a department store, after a lovely ice cream tea time. This picture hides another bit of info. In department store food court, you do not throw your trash away. When you are done eating you just leave your trash on the table and a worker will come pick up the trash and clean the table. Pretty nice, especially as it provides jobs. However after a big meal it always makes me feel like that much more of a glutton.
