RICHMOND, Texas — It has been a rocky road for a lot of local businesses paralyzed by the pandemic. However, the community in Richmond has been serving up scoops of support to help a local ice cream shop stay afloat.
Back in March, business owner Kari Young wrote a post in the Katy/Fort Bend Foodies Facebook group, reading, in part, “As a new business owner I am terrified. We haven’t really seen a busy season as of yet. We are clearly going into uncharted waters here.”
In November 2019, Young and her family opened Over the Top Waffle Shoppe in Richmond. It’s located on Harlem Road just off 99.
“We are kind of sandwiched in between a lot of great communities here,” Young said.
Between the busy location and Texas’ hot summers, she figured her unique ice cream shop would be a success.
“As soon as spring break hits things are going to heat up around here and we are going to be slammed!” she told her employees.
But then COVID-19 hit, the schools closed, and her business stopped cold.
“After spring break, it was basically a ghost town here. That was probably the scariest," Young said.
It was a Monday when she made that Facebook post, “just in sheer panic of not knowing what to do.”
Young admits although she didn’t expect much, she was blown away.
“The following day we were so slammed. We had a line around both buildings. They would get up to the window and tell us that they waited an hour, sometimes an hour and a half!” she said.
A community dripping with support from people like John Wisbrock and his three young kids.
“We didn’t mind waiting about 20 minutes,” Wisbrock said. “We want local businesses to succeed, especially ones that we want to frequent, and I have a few people who like ice cream around me!”
Hundreds of others posted on Facebook, sharing pictures of the Young’s delicious looking creations. The support hasn’t stopped since.
“I don’t think the excitement, the gratitude, kicked in until we left that night, and I got in the truck and I realized, ‘Oh, my goodness...these people showed up for us,'" Young said.
For more information about Over the Top Waffle Shoppe, click here.