Building a Better Ice Cream Freezer and Clothespins- Georgetown Sales

“Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.” Ralph Waldo Emerson said those words in the 19^th century, and today it’s still true that designing a better product will bring customers to your business.

Georgetown Sales, located in Christiana, PA, isn’t building mousetraps, but they do make Immergood Ice Cream Freezers and PolyGrip clothespins, which are both improved twists on the classic products.

“The parts are made in fabrication shops,” explains David Beiler, one of the partners who owns Georgetown Sales as he shows how the ice cream freezers are made. “The tubs are molded locally. They’re rotomolded by a company that does rotational molding. It’s our mold and they mold the tubs for us. Same with the other parts— we own all the dies, we did the designing, they just produce the parts for us. They’re not all made in Lancaster, but they are all made in the US. Then we assemble and package them here.”

Ten people work at Georgetown Sales, which has been in business since 2008. 

The manufacturer and wholesaler is surrounded by farmland, and the Beiler family lives in a house next door. Large windows brighten the workshop, which is clean and tidy. “I usually tell my new hires we don’t have many regulations, but being clean is a must.”

Immergood Ice Cream freezers come with a large ice cream logo, baked in the side of the green tub. The name comes from the German word “Immer” which means “always”. (To pronounce the anglicized version of the name, say “Immer” to rhyme with “simmer”.)

Georgetown Sales began producing their own ice cream freezers in 2013, when they began to notice that wooden ice cream freezers would dry out and start to leak soon after purchase.

The insulated tubs have several benefits: “The tub doesn’t sweat. It takes less ice and salt." And hand-cranking ice cream doesn’t take as long with an Immergood. “With the insulated tub, if you do your salt and ice right, you can have ice cream in ten minutes or less.”

“The big advantage for the Plain people that don’t have freezers is that they can keep the ice cream in there for a couple of days. Or you can do it for a picnic. You can make ice cream one day, throw a cover over it, and you can keep ice cream for at least a day in the summertime or a couple of days in the wintertime.”

Every new ice cream freezer comes with an instruction book that includes recipes and helpful tips. David recommends adding a cup of cold water to help the salt penetrate the ice.

Good’s Store also sells PolyGrip clothespins.

“The plastic pieces are molded locally in Gap. They just mold the plastic. Then we get the springs made in Illinois.

“We sub them out for assembly. Elderly people and special needs workshops are doing all the assembly. There's a great need for things elderly people can do at home. We have a long waiting list.”

“We do the final packaging here. We put the stickers on and package them in these boxes,” says David.

“It has been a rewarding project, with so many people involved.”

View the PolyGrip Clothespins here and the Immergood Ice Cream Freezers here.

Photos taken by Dorcas Lichtenberger.