An "Out of Order" sign looks like it may be the gravestone atop the Thrifty ice cream case at the Canyon Crest Rite Aid. There are plenty of questions to ask about the brand's future as parent company Rite Aid navigates Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, with the fate of the iconic Thrifty ice cream brand hanging in the balance.
For generations of Riverside residents, those cylindrical scoops meant more than just dessert. They meant rewards for good report cards, cooling off after Little League games, trips with Grandma, and first dates nervously navigating towers of mint chocolate chip threatening to topple.
Thrifty wasn't just ice cream—it was the punctuation mark on childhood memories. That metallic scrape of the scoop, the way they'd stack three impossibly high—you can't get that from a grocery store freezer.
The Canyon Crest location was among the last holdouts in a region that once boasted dozens of Thrifty counters. There are plenty of places to get scoops of ice cream, even Handel’s just feet away from the Rite Aid door. But Thrifty ice cream holds a special kind of nostalgia that can only be earned with repetition. The newcomers can only now remind us of Thrifty.
While the brand will likely survive the bankruptcy and be sold off to continue in packaged form, the ritual is already gone. You can Instacart Thrifty ice cream now—even have the signature cylindrical scoop delivered to your door. But it's not the same as having that precariously perched stack of ice cream presented like a gift across the counter.
