Chilly Delight frozen yogurt shop in Potsdam going out of business

Sep. 5—POTSDAM — After nine years operating in downtown Potsdam, Yum Yum's Chilly Delight, 12 Main St., will close in October.

"Getting yogurt products at a competitive price is just too difficult," Duane M. Pelkey said in a prepared statement. He co-owns the business with his wife, Laurean B. Pelkey. "The majority of our customers will only go so far on a price point."

The business opened in 2013 under owners Timothy A. and Lori K. Dillon. They sold the business to the Pelkeys, who took over in 2017.

Mr. Pelkey said local vendors stopped delivering frozen yogurt for the most part a few years ago. They've been driving to Syracuse to get frozen yogurt product to keep their prices down. He says with an increase in product prices, plus the increased cost of fuel, expenses have become too high to remain open.

"With our final product pick up we feel we have product to take us into October holding our prices," Mr. Pelkey said. "Going forward we'll focus our attention on Scoops which is seasonal and afford us semi-retirement."

The Pelkeys also own Scoops ice cream stand at 22 Main St., just yards away from Chilly Delight. They say that will remain open seasonally "since vendors still readily supply the products needed to operate that business," Mr. Pelkey said.

"We want to thank all of our customers for their support these past years," he said.

In February, Mr. Pelkey said he had to decline $118,000 in funding Scoops had received as part of Potsdam's $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative award.

He said the COVID-19 pandemic caused the project at his ice cream stand to go over its initial estimate from 2019 and called the scrapped project "a casualty of the pandemic."

"It was shovel-ready at the time. I was all set to go. I was ready to rock and roll, and the pandemic interrupted everything," Mr. Pelkey said at the time. "I would have had to come up with a lot more money. It's a matching grant."

"It was a very, very tough decision," he added. "I'm very sorry I couldn't go through with the large project. The original ice cream shop has been there for 50 or 60 years. That's not going anywhere."

Also in February, Mr. Pelkey said they are looking at doing some improvements on a smaller scale.