Polar Cave Ice Cream Parlour located in Mashpee, Massachusetts opened it's doors for the season this past weekend just in time for Mother's Day. No sooner after they opened their doors, they closed them again to the public due to the poor treatment and harassment their staff received from patrons. A 17 year old girl who worked at the ice cream parlour, was verbally mistreated in such a harsh way that not only did she quit at the end of her shift, the owner, Mark Lawrence decided to close his shop to the public until further notice. The patrons of the ice cream shop were not happy about the extra time it took to get the orders out due to the safety guidelines the shop was trying to follow here amid the Coronavirus pandemic and thus took it out on the employees. Lawrence said this to Boston 25 about his employee quitting over getting disrespected by the patrons: “One of my best workers quit yesterday at the end of her shift, she stuck it through her shift. But the words she was called and the language, you wouldn’t even say in a men’s locker room. And to say it to a 17-year-old kid, they should be ashamed of themselves.”
These are the initial messages from owner Mark Lawrence about closing down his shop until further notice:
As part of the way the ice cream shop had to open under certain guidelines, it required patrons to order ice cream an hour in advance. Polar Cave Ice Cream Parlour even posted this new guideline/warning online to give patrons a heads up but patrons still showed up in droves and got surly with the young workers when they were not able to deliver their ice cream in the usual fashion they are used to.
Lawrence had this to say about the experience when he was talking to Boston 25: “All of the sudden word spread like wildfire and nobody listened to what we told them how the protocol we had set up. People have forgotten how to treat other human beings in the six or seven weeks that they’ve been confined to their homes. They have no clue how to respect other human beings.”
Additionally, after his employee quit, the 17 year old girl who was verbally harassed, owner Mark Lawrence set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for this girl's college fund. The young worker was working at Polar Cave Ice Cream Parlour for the last 3 years as a way for her to save money to attend college this coming Fall. So far the GoFundMe page has raised a little over $8K out of the goal of $10k. This is the link to the GoFundMe Page:
Fortunately, since the initial disappointing and frustrating opening, the Mashpee ice cream shop has received a lot of positive support and business. Follow Polar Cave Ice Cream Parlour on Facebook for more updates regarding ordering their ice cream in the future amid this Coronavirus pandemic.
-Producer Lightning