Donald and Susan Sutherland opened the first Cold Stone Creamery in Tempe, Arizona in 1988. Today, Cold Stone has over 1300 stores in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Guam and Japan. Cold Stone Creamery applies the principles of activity-based costing to develop the cost structure for all its products. Activity-based costing, or ABC, considers costs directly associated with the production of a product. The size of the product, the variety of ingredients and the time associated with product preparation are all activity-based and are reflected in the price paid at the cash register as well as the individual store's and the company's profit.
