Ice cream lovers are usually heartbroken whenever their favorite frozen treat shop permanently closes.
Over the last year, consumers have seen their favorite retail stores, restaurants, and even craft beer pubs shut their doors forever, disappointing fans of these establishments.
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Proprietors of these businesses have stated a variety of reasons for closing down, including rising costs of labor and products driven by inflation or, more recently, tariffs; high lease payments; increased costs of debt from higher interest rates; and changing attitudes toward shopping by consumers.
Related: Iconic ice cream, fast-food chain closing dozens of locations
In some cases, business owners in extreme distress have filed for bankruptcy to reorganize and restructure debt to continue operating.
In other cases, businesses will conduct out-of-court restructurings to straighten out their financial situation, which could include cutting costs, layoffs, debt refinancing, renegotiating leases, and closing brick-and-mortar locations.
Some reasons for closing down business locations, however, have nothing to do with economic issues.
Dairy Queen franchises shut down
In the first half of 2025, a franchisee of a popular ice cream fast-food chain, Dairy Queen, shut down about 30 locations in Texas over a dispute with the parent company, TheStreet’s Daniel Kline reported.
Parent company American Dairy Queen pulled the franchises from franchisee Project Lonestar after it failed to remodel its locations. That meant that those locations could not order supplies and would have to shut down.
“These closures are related to closures last month by the same franchise owner,” a Dairy Queen spokesperson said of the closings. “The closures are an isolated event, and we refrain from publicly sharing contract terms.”
The dispute prevented Lonestar from selling its franchise locations, which forced it to close the Dairy Queens that it operated.
In some cases, a business might have to vacate its premises for serious building repairs that cannot be avoided.
Sprinkles was forced to close its ice cream shop on May 26.
Image source: Debat/Getty Images
Sprinkles closes iconic ice cream shop
Iconic Palm Beach, Fla., ice cream shop Sprinkles is closing its doors on Memorial Day after 40 years of operation, as a planned extended closure of the shop’s building for repairs has forced the owners to shut down the location, the Palm Beach Daily News reported.
Related: Bankrupt retail chain closing hundreds of store locations
Sprinkles, which first opened for business at 279 Royal Poinciana Way in Palm Beach in 1985, will close on May 26, as the building it occupies will be vacated for a minimum of six months for structural repairs, the ice cream shop’s owner Anson Ainsworth told WPBF-25 News.
More closings:
Popular retail chain to close unprofitable store locationsBankrupt retail chain unloads store leases, key assetPopular discount retailer files bankruptcy, closes all stores
The ice cream shop owner said he and his wife, co-owner Cortney Berry, hope to open a new pop-up location in Palm Beach while the original shop’s building is being renovated. The owners did not indicate whether they planned to return to the original location after repairs are made.
Sprinkles’ original owners, Therese Williams and her daughter, Taylor Morgan, opened the business in 1985, and the ice cream shop has since had several ownership changes over its 40 years of existence, Palm Beach Daily News reported.
The shop has even served at least one global celebrity over the years, as pop superstar Michael Jackson stopped in for ice cream back in 2003.
Sprinkles is a classic ice cream parlor, serving several flavors of ice cream, sorbet, and sherbet, as well as sundaes, milkshakes, and smoothies.
Related: Popular grocery store chain closes all locations, no bankruptcy
