BYU Creamery sells glass milk bottles to celebrate 50 years

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    By MEAGAN BRUNSON

    The BYU Creamery is selling special edition glass milk bottles to celebrate its 50th anniversary and its continued success.

    The Creamery started offering the bottles in September as a commemorative item for customers, complete with anniversary dates and the old glass milk bottle Creamery logo, said BYU Creamery manager Ralph Johnson.

    “This is just a souvenir — we won’t be going back to using glass bottles,” Johnson said.

    The Creamery will sell the special milk bottles just until they run out, he said. It is even selling some of the bottles filled with candy for customers who don’t want ones with milk.

    Johnson said that after 50 years, customers are still keeping the Creamery busy. The majority of Creamery shoppers are students who have been at BYU for a while and know where the Creamery is located, he said.

    “Not many freshmen know we’re here,” Johnson said. “But at times it’s used as kind of a hang out by some of the Deseret Towers students.”

    The Creamery is fairly busy on a normal day, Johnson said. When families come to Provo to visit, they often visit the creamery.

    Johnson said a sit-down area was installed inside the Creamery to prevent business from slowing during cold months.

    As a part of BYU, the Creamery sells dairy products, general groceries, ice cream and hot food to generate working capital to pay its own expenses, Johnson said. If there is any profit left over, it goes into a BYU fund to be used as needed. The Creamery also tries to provide goods cheaper to university cafeterias in order to keep their costs down, Johnson said.

    “We’re not funded by tithing funds which come to the university,” Johnson said.

    About 50 student employees are hired through BYU to work as cashiers, production people and store workers at the Creamery. Six to eight student employees work at each of the Creamery’s two other stores located in married student housing areas Wymount and Wyview.

    Caroline Henrichsen, 18, a sophomore from New Castle, Pa., majoring in elementary education, is a Creamery cashier who has worked there for a year. Henrichsen said depending on shifts, employees are generally happy with work schedules.

    “I like my hours,” Henrichsen said. “The Creamery is really good about trying to let you work when you want to. They totally work with you.”

    Johnson said many students prefer Creamery shopping because they can use BYU signature cards there.

    “Anybody with a signature card can come here and swipe it,” he said.

    Jillena Peters, 18, a freshman from Yelm, Wash., majoring in computer graphics, lives at Helaman Halls and said she prefers Creamery shopping because Dining Plus on her signature card can be used there.

    “It’s a big help to us freshmen who don’t have money and need to buy things like that,” Peters said. “There are so many things here that aren’t in Cosmos or the Cove.”

    Peters said she visits the Creamery about once a week for a shake and she is going to start getting her film developed there also, since she can use her signature card for that too.

    Johnson said he thinks the Creamery is a good thing for BYU overall.

    “It provides a service to students, faculty and even the community,” he said. “We have an ice cream plant here where people can get good ice cream.”

    Johnson said the Creamery’s 50 years have been sustained by its student customers.

    “If there were no students, we wouldn’t be here,” Johnson said.

    Pam Rose, 19, a freshman from Hawaii, majoring in business, said she lives off campus but still visits the Creamery frequently.

    “I come to the Creamery all the time,” Rose said. “I bring a bunch of friends and we all come together. There is good ice cream here.”

    Rose said she always visits the Creamery to buy things like milk and ice cream before taking a trip to the grocery store.

    “It’s kind of expensive here,” Rose said. “But the service is fast and they’re nice.”

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