Later this spring, a Menchie’s self-serve frozen yogurt will open in the new building on Fisher Road across from South. Niko Ahee, the store’s owner, said that the opening is anticipated to be late March or early April.

Ahee said that design-wise, the store is almost finished. The last part of preparation is hiring and training employees according to Menchie’s corporate standards. Once the store is finished, there will be a grand opening event.

“Either (an) early Saturday in April or the last Saturday of March, we’re actually going to put up a tent out in the parking lot and have a face painter, a balloon artist, some different stuff, giveaways, give away free yogurt for a couple of hours,” Ahee said.

Menchie’s is the country’s largest self-serve ice cream chain; this location will be the newest of 540 around the nation.

“I’m really excited, because who doesn’t want ice cream across from your school?” Lenise Freeman ’19 said.

Ahee said that at any given time, Menchie’s will have 10 individual flavors. Every week or so, one flavor will be replaced with a different flavor, and they’ll be on a rotation, so that customers have the option of 20 to 30 different flavors every month, with a featured flavor for every month.

“There is a different variety of stuff that we’ll do,” Ahee said. “Then we usually do a featured flavor every month or two, like we’ve done it with real cookies. I think that comes up in June — they will do two flavors just the cookie and just the cream. And then you swirl them together to make the Oreo cookie, just kind of fun stuff like that.”

The yogurt will cost 53 cents per ounce, which Ahee said is a competitive price for the area.

“I think that’s a pretty fair price,” Kristina Rogers ’19 said. “I’m pretty sure that’s cheaper than TCBY and it’s closer, so I would do that before driving all the way to the village.”

Combined with the Subway opening in the same building this week, Ahee anticipates that business will be good. Michigan is a great market, especially in the frozen dessert category.

Rogers said that having the location across from South will help Menchie’s because it’s a unique business, and provides a product that none of the other Fisher Road shops can offer.

“They’re going to do really well with their business because it’s ice cream, and a lot of kids are going to want to go get some ice cream and walk home with it after school,” Freeman said.