Summer’s ICEE Guide: Corner Store

Corner Store is a convenience store chain found in the mid-western areas of the US, particularly Texas which I believe is where it started.  We have four Corner Store locations in Bryan-College Station, with three offering up ICEEs.  Different stores also offer various fresh food, as well as the stuff you usually expect to find at such a store, and they all have attached gas stations (Valero brand).

This is probably the best probably replacement for Rattlers for BCS ICEE fans, especially the newest store!

BTW, their site is great because their store locator actually has filters for things like has ICEE and you can easily see which of their stores have them and which don’t.  Alas, doesn’t list flavors, but that’s a good start.

Locations

#1906, 2160 Rock Prairie Rd, College Station (map) – my favorite!

#540, 901 N Earl Rudder Fwy, Bryan (map)

#560, 4609 E 29th St, Bryan (map)

Sizes & Costs

Corner Store offers three sizes of ICEE, and they are same sizes as their fountain drinks meaning be ready to get happy because holy crap can you get a huge ICEE for cheap!!!

I think you can also get an ICEE in their X cup (which is 60 ozs) for $1.69, since they use the same cups and prices for drinks and ICEEs.

Corner store also allows refills, so bring back your cup and you can refill for a discount based on the size.  Generally it saves about 30 cents or so, except on the small where a refill is the same price as new.  Also check the Corner Store promotion page to see  what kind of specials they have.  They often run some in the summer, including some refill specials and temporary price drops.

Flavors

Each Corner Store has its own machine configuration and flavor set.  My personal favorite is the one on Rock Prairie, which is a huge store.  As such, it has TWO four flavor machines, giving you EIGHT flavors to choose from!!!  I seriously squee’d when I saw it 🙂  When I went, the flavors available were: Coke, Cherry Limeade, Pina Colada, Blue Raspberry, Big Red, Lite Mango, Strawberry Lemonade, and Dr. Pepper.

560, the store on 29th, has a three flavor machine, loaded with Coke, Big Red, and Pina Colada, and Lite Mango.  I presume 540 has the same type machine based on its size and location.  I’ll update this listing when I can get over there to check it out.

I’m still trying to work out if they change out flavors regularly.  The one on 29th used to, but I think that was actually a different ownership of the store.  Both stores I visited had some seasonal flavors though, so I’m guessing they do change at least those.

Quality

The Corner Store machines seem to be decently tuned and I believe the one at store 560 was replaced relatively recently (I’ve been there several times over the year and they had changed things up last time I went, and the machine looked newer).

They do tend to pour a bit fast and are a little more liquid than I prefer, but they freeze up decently and taste good.

None of the Corner Stores use the traditional ICEE cups, as you might expect from their sizes.  Instead, its their regular branded fountain drink cups with ICEE-type lids and the traditional ICEE red straws.  The cups they use are very nice styrofoam cups that keep the ICEE from melting as fast, which is nice (much like Sam’s).  I’ve had mine last 3-4 hours, in Texas, with relatively low meltage.

Pics