Ted Drewes is a St. Louis summer essential. But this year, the iconic frozen custard place is down one location. The location on Grand, which is usually open just during the summer, hasn't opened at all this year yet.
Ted Drewes owner Travis Dylan said they, like many other businesses are dealing with staffing shortages. They usually are able to draw from their pool of former workers.
"We wait for our college kids that we have hired while they were in high school to come back, and we will have an additional ten or 12 or 15 employees that we can open that store," Dylan said. "And that's been going on since the 70s."
But now, they don't have that group of high schoolers to come work for them, since they were closed in 2020 due to COVID. And in 2021, the location was only open for five weeks.
Dylan said he's not exactly sure where college kids are going to work instead.
"Well, there's a lot of theories, and I ask myself that question as well. But maybe some of that is the college students are able to get a job almost anywhere now," he said. "And also, in my own mind think that internships have been so available, and they're even paying more, a lot of internships used to be unpaid. So that has changed."
Dylan added that he doesn't see a light at the end of the tunnel this year, but hopes things will be better in 2023.
"I'm going to be opening my Grand Boulevard location, at least if I don't get it open these next few weeks, I'm going to definitely get it open next year. That's my goal," he said. "I'm just not able to spread my employee base thin enough to have two locations operating at the same time."
Normally, between the two locations there are around 85 workers. Right now, he's around 70.
Despite the hardships, Ted Drewes keeps slinging their beloved frozen custard that's been around since the 30s.
"We've been open for about 93 years. The Chippewa location was built in 1941, and the Grand Boulevard location was built in 1931," Dylan said. "We've been around for a long time. And I guess if you're around that long, eventually people will find out that we might be pretty good."