In the spur of the moment, three ambitious high school journalism students commenced polling for the ultimate contest of cold dessert history. After polling a representative sample of 172 students and teachers, we had all the evidence we needed, with a p-value less than .01, qualifying at the .05 alpha level. Let the games begin.
In the categorical data distribution (pie chart), one can clearly see that Rita’s is the victor. This however is only surface deep. Out of the 172 votes cast in a thrilling “raise your hand” fashion ninety of them went to Rita’s. Dairy Queen secured a strong eighty-two votes but it was not enough to pull through. This put Rita’s ahead by five percent of the votes, giving them the bigger piece of the pie.
Both stores have high quality custard but they do indeed differ. Dairy Queen’s signature is the blizzard (ice cream mixed with a wide array of toppings and dessert sauces to form something that you could probably make at home if you had your own soft serve). Rita’s offers their water-ice. If you made a slushie and froze it, you’d have something pretty similar.
The bar graph shown exemplifies the concrete results we’ve gathered. On the left half you can see the results before the poll and then the sudden spike on the right after we finished polling. This doesn’t affect anything, but who doesn’t like graphs?
Many factors need to be considered when thinking about which is better. Dairy Queen has Blizzards, and Rita’s has matched them with the Blendini. They both have shakes, and Rita’s had the water ice so we’re left to beg the question what helps keep Dairy Queen so close in numbers?
After taste testing the only clear fact was that Rita’s better texture but Dairy Queen has the better taste. And taste wins almost all the time. Still, Rita’s has a counter for just about every popular Dairy Queen product. The difference is their water ice. Dairy Queen has no response to the product. This is why Rita’s wins, even if by such a small margin.
As all three of us are Dairy Queen employees we have come to naturally hate the place, but we still love the ice cream. Dairy Queen has been around longer and it’s the deep rooted nostalgia of the franchise that keeps customers old and new coming back. Rita’s new and creative approach to frozen dessert is what keeps them popular. Old versus new, then versus now, both are overpriced