GOT THREE WHEELS AND AN ICE CREAM CONE. Vandjel Kapbardhi will sell
icy treats via trike this summer.

Remember the days when the ice cream truck drove through town, loudly blaring a children’s song while all the kids chased after it?

Minus the music, a local student plans to put a new twist on a very old concept.

Instead of a truck, Vangjel Kapbardhi will be riding a tricycle through areas of Eau Claire and Altoona and handing out frozen sweet treats from a cart attached to the front of it.

“Ice cream is a nice little gesture for the community too. Who doesn’t get excited when they see the ice cream man come around?” – Vangjel Kapbardhi on his three-wheeled ice cream business

“Who doesn’t love the ice cream guy?” Kapbardhi joked.

For Kapbardhi, this entrepreneurial business is nothing new. He currently sells Turn Up T-shirts, which feature a turnip on them, as well as e-hookah pens, which he buys through a manufacturer in China and sells online.

Working for someone else is not something he was interested in, which is why he decided to start a business like this on his own.

“I would rather work for myself and make my own money, whether I make less or more,” he said. “I just feel good when I do something for myself and it’s my own acheivements.”

In his senior year of high school, he and a friend worked with the DECA organization to sell ice cream similar to what he plans to do in the summer.

After talking with his professor, who encouraged him to give it a go, Kapbardhi, now a freshman at Chippewa Valley Technical College, started planning for the ice cream tricycle in the winter of 2013-14. Last winter, he bought the tricycle and made plans to start selling this summer. 

In addition to the satisfaction of working for himself, he said he thinks the community will enjoy it.

“Ice cream is a nice little gesture for the community too,” he said. “Who doesn’t get excited when they see the ice cream man come around?”

He hopes to start his routes in the beginning of June, and he will also be stationed at the VFW on Starr Avenue four to fivetimes a week for their volleyball games.

Kapbardhi and his tricycle will be at various festivals throughout the summer including Rock Fest and Country Jam as well as other local events.

Right now, he is planning on selling mostly pre-packaged items, although when stationed at the VFW and festivals he hopes to have around three different flavors of scoops of ice cream. Prices will likely to be from $1- $2.

The ice cream tricycle can be found on Facebook by searching “Treats,” which has information about the routes he will ride this summer.