Super Scoops Still Serves Up a Cool Treat

With the weather heating up, locals across town will need their summer ice cream fix. For more than a decade, that fix has been provided to a large number of Parsippany residents by at 325 Parsippany Road.

Super Scoops has been in town since owner Heinz Schall, who used to work in the home building industry, decided to switch gears and begin a business that would bring joy to people of all ages.

“It’s a happy business; people go to an ice cream store, and you’re pretty much in a decent mood already when you go to an ice cream store, as opposed to building [houses]," he said. "There’s less stress, and that was one of the reasons. It’s just a family decision, a family store."

Schall said this isn't his family's first commercial enterprise.

“We’ve been in different businesses, and we just decided on an ice cream store," he said. "There was no specific thing [that influenced the decision]; it was basically that it seemed to be a good business seasonally and not as stressful a business. It is stressful at times, like everything, but that was it.

"Fourteen years later, here we are.”

Schall told Patch that the homemade ice cream at Super Scoops features all-natural ingredients in hard, soft-serve, fat-free and sugar-free options. Additionally, Super Scoops provides cakes, sandwiches and Italian Ice to its customer base.

The variety of product offering and clientele has allowed the shop not only to survive, but to thrive in a fickle economy.

“To be honest, we haven’t ridden the waves," said Schall. "The economy hasn’t affected us all that much. The weather affects us more than anything. We have a tremendous amount of regulars and repeat business, and office business for cakes.It seems people are still going to go out and have an ice cream, as opposed to maybe a big meal or expensive meal.
"We haven’t really had a big downturn of business. If the weather’s good, we have lines out the door.”

Among its offerings, Super Scoops has season-specific flavors, some of which, like the shop’s pumpkin flavor, have become so popular that they are now available year-round.

“We do some seasonal things, like key lime pie ice cream,” Schall said. “We have pumpkin year-round, because we sell a lot of it. That’s a seasonal thing, but we sell it, so we have it.”

The downside to having so many popular flavors, though, is that a small uproar may occur if any new flavors are subbed in place of popular favorites.

“We have a lot of flavors, so it’s hard for us to take a flavor away,” he said. “We have a lot of repeat business, so if I want to do something new, what do I take away?”

Between its popular flavors, its regular customer base and friendly service, Super Scoops and the Schalls have proven that it is possible for the small mom-and-pop ice cream shop to survive, no matter the state of the economy.

The owner chalks up his success to the basics.

“It’s a family business with good portions and decent prices."

Let Patch save you time. Get local stories like this delivered right to your inbox or smartphone each day with our free newsletter. Simple, fast, sign-up here.