PSA: You Can Get as Many Free Scoops as You Want on Ben & Jerry’s Free Cone Day
Yes, you can get back in line for another with an ice cream already in hand. This year, mark your calendars for April 16.
RICK LEVINSON/Photo courtesy of Ben & Jerry's
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: The only thing better than ice cream is free ice cream.
Once a year, Ben & Jerry’s gives away ice cream cones for free on one special occasion: Free Cone Day. It’s happening again this year. And you may want to mark your calendars: Ben & Jerry’s Free Cone Day will be happening at its scoop shops nationwide — and around the world — on Tuesday, April 16, 2024.
Ben & Jerry’s Free Cone Day tradition traces its origins back to 1979, when it gave away cones to thank its customers during its first year of business in Burlington, Vermont. It went national in 1993, spreading to scoop shops across the U.S., and global in 2000. But it took a break — a four-year hiatus — during the pandemic, returning to great excitement last year, when the ice cream chain gave away more than 970,000 free scoops around the world on a single day.
“It was nothing short of amazing to see our fans back in our shops in their full Free Cone Day glory," Dave Stever, Ben & Jerry's CEO, who served ice cream at the Scoop Shops in Vermont, said of Free Cone Day 2023 in a press release.
This year, the chain is trying to top itself, asking fans to help it hand out more than one million scoops on April 16 and make it the brand’s “best Free Cone Day yet.”
“We know together with our fans we can break 1 million scoops.” Stever says, “We’re asking our fans to really bring it this year: invite their friends, family, neighbors, and help us beat our goal of 1 million scoops on Free Cone Day 2024.”
To participate, simply just stop by your local Ben & Jerry’s Scoop Shop between 12 p.m. and 8 p.m. local time on April 16 and ask for a scoop of your favorite flavor — or you can try new flavors like Mango (“mango ice cream swirled with sweet cream ice cream”), which is available only in Scoop Shops, Non-Dairy Strawberry Cheezecake, PB S’more or Impretzively Fudged.
And here’s the best part: You know how a lot of free stuff comes with a “one per customer” limitation? Ben & Jerry’s Free Cone Day does not. You can get in line as many times as you want and get a free scoop when you get to the front — again, and again and again … until you’ve had your fill.
“Experienced fans understand it’s easiest to jump back in the queue on Free Cone Day with a scoop already in hand,” the brand advises.
A brand representative tells us that one regular customer in the Burlington, Vermont, Scoop Shop takes a day off of work for Free Cone Day every year and has notched 14 free scoops in one day.
Just saying … that could be you.
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