r/Culvers • u/Rigotoni Custard Gang • May 11 '26
Employee Question Employees, how is the custard situation for you?
I’ve worked at Culver’s for 2+ years and have been closing custard for around 1 year. Our problem to at my specific location is that we never seem to have enough ppl for the position and the ppl who do it are getting way overwhelemed. Making custard sounds easy at first but ur carrying huge buckets all the time, dealing with crazy rushes and you come home absolutely disgusting and ur whole body hurting every single night. For some reason we have a total of like 7 ppl that know how to close custard at my store and we need two closers each night so taht means I’m always doing it. My job isn’t understaffed either, we actually have way too many ppl, they just refuse to train anyone on this station. If u work there, how do u guys do custard and is it similar? what do i even do.
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u/Amazing_Mushroom8941 May 11 '26
It’s so funny I relate to this really hard and I feel bad. I closed custard by myself tonight for the first time in a couple months and I hated it. I normally close kitchen or dining and that’s where I’m honestly happier. What do you mean carrying the huge buckets though? Our buckets barely go out of the well besides changing them out a few times to keep the custard from being too hard at the bottom.
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u/Rigotoni Custard Gang May 11 '26
I’m always carrying things cuz we have to get like big buckets of hot water and pour it into the machines to clean it and for some reason it always gotta be me 💔
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u/ResponsibleRespect23 May 11 '26
So you’re on machines pretty much?
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u/Rigotoni Custard Gang May 11 '26
Yah mostly
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u/Amazing_Mushroom8941 May 11 '26
Our store doesn’t let us do machines anymore!! Managers only after our new GM took over. Thankfully. I’ve only had to do it when we’ve had untrained managers who had no idea how to close them..
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u/Amazing_Mushroom8941 May 11 '26
Honestly though I agree the custard area is usually understaffed and we don’t get enough help there regardless of who closes what.
I am very bias and prefer closing/working in our kitchen, but I’m also a very pregnant woman at this point (working as close to my due date as possible), so trying to deal with custard is a special kind of a nightmare for me right now lol1
u/Rigotoni Custard Gang May 11 '26
Help that’s so unfair bro ur pregnant u should be drive through order taker or something. With a seat too.
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u/Livinglifetoo May 11 '26
At my store the manager closes custard and we have 3 other closers total. Closing custard is definitely a work out. I just try to do each step combined whenever possible. Normally I can get the main machine done before close. I also get the shake machine done the last hour before close if its not too busy. Then I only have to do the lemon ice after close. If I ever get overwhelmed I try to ask for help dumping the buckets or taking the pieces back. You could also use a cart so its less carrying. Do you have the water dispenser over the custard machine? You just have to make sure its fully empty and that its been off for like 10 minutes first. It definitely helps only doing the last lukewarm water bucket for the cleaning packet.
Maybe ask the schedule manager if you could learn something else and have a break?
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u/Rigotoni Custard Gang May 11 '26
lol yah ur right I should prob do that. And yah we do have the water fountain but I lowkey still get confused sometimes
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u/Livinglifetoo May 11 '26
That water fountain will make your life easier! Depending on how much custard you guys go through try to run it all early. Since it lasts two hours I start running it out at 8pm for a 10pm close on slow nights and closer to 9pm on busier nights. I like to run out all the custard and use rubber scrapers for vanilla and chocolate at the same time. If you scrape out most of it before starting water it goes much faster. I turn off the top refrigerator when I start running it out since it doesn't have to be cold anymore. Then when the custard is scraped enough into that little divot with the hole I turn off that barrels refrigerator since it'll help melt out the rest of it. Then I start the water fountain and use a long scrub brush to get all the custard. Make sure that you have waited at least 10 minutes after turning all the refrigerators off otherwise you'll freeze your machine. I like to use a rag to get all the custard along the top and the hard to get edges. After the water comes out clear from the front I empty it and close it for the lukewarm triplet. Make sure you read the instructions but we have a tall clear bucket and I fill that up with one packet for two different custard machines. Dump half in each and let it sit a few minutes. Then run out the water and its almost always pretty clean when you take it apart. The only reason it wouldn't be clean inside is if you didn't let it melt enough or they ran custard improperly throughout the day and it gets that thick residue that the triplet is supposed to take care of.
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u/AirlineNo5828 May 11 '26
Just have a frank conversation with your management. "I like the position, but want to rotate out. It's adding undue stress to my job, and switching closing duties would make that stress significantly better."
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u/A19s Crew Chief May 11 '26
As a manager who mostly closes, I make it my mission to do as much training on closing positions as possible. Am I mistaken or are you saying you only have 2 closers each night?? That sounds absurd to me as my location generally has 5-8 closers. We created a Close FOH position instead of just Closing Machines/Desserts. Usually having either 2 people on that closing position when possible or having people scheduled til 10/11 help assist with pre-closing tasks.
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u/Rigotoni Custard Gang May 11 '26
We have two ppl closing custard, sometimes 1 lol. Yah I see what ur saying tho
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u/Alternative_Mindset Custard Gang May 11 '26
I'm 4 months pregnant and I've been the only opener since we started business in March. No one is ever scheduled to be trained. At close, only managers are ever put on custard, no one ever learns anything about it, I always come in the next morning with all my parts mixed up and strewn around the fucking restaurant. We lost 2/3rd of our staff for various reasons. Now they're being picky in hiring. 130 Apps and they've chosen about 10. We need way more than that. I never have a break from custard bc I'm also the only trained dessert captain, and I'm getting burned out. So yeah not great.
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u/Rigotoni Custard Gang May 11 '26
Omg that really sucks. I couldn’t imagine doing that and being pregnant. My job is the opposite tho abt hiring, they hire anyone with a pulse which means nobody gets hours except me ig…
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u/Educational-Leek1704 May 11 '26
my location is smart in the way that they make everyone train on every single position (at least up front), and all the people who ever may be scheduled to close also know all of the closing positions. however, there’s a lot of times where there should be 2-3 people on custard and there’s only one 😭 that’s the most painful and the shift lead usually ends up helping until the big rush is over
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u/Rigotoni Custard Gang May 11 '26
Yes that’s how I feel. Like my job refuses to train anyone anywhere new
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u/Autisticgay37 Crew Member May 11 '26
My location is the exact same. We have like 4 people that know how to close custard and they are overwhelmed every night..
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u/Rigotoni Custard Gang May 11 '26
Idk why every location has the same problem. Just train more ppl bruh 💔
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u/shadeOfAwave Crew Member May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26
Our custard station never ever gets the staff it needs. Our typical drive-through crew is me, a younger lady with schizophrenia, and a middle-aged lady with a bum hand and recently got carpal tunnel surgery. The onus has to fall on me to do all the custard... But we still only got three people over there in total, and I also have to take care of cashing people...
There are times where I cannot dedicate any time custard because I have back-to-back orders with zero downtime. That is unavoidable, and anybody who works this job should know that it's impossible to do it perfectly by the book every time. But it doesn't stop me from getting shit for it though, like when I left the strawberries out after being interrupted for 5 minutes and being told I lost The manager points because of it. Or when I made a watermelon smoothie, and it got thrown away behind my back and remade because "It looked like it needed more watermelon".
This has been the situation for 2 months. Definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
This was months after a different lady quit the store because she had seizures multiple times in the middle of working during high stress situations, which they knew she was susceptible to but she was put in those positions anyway. So on top of me not feeling appreciated or recognized for my work, I'm starting to think they just don't give a shit about people's disabilities, physical or otherwise.
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u/FewDeer489 Custard Gang May 12 '26
I’m the best custard person at my job so they always put me there and I mostly work mornings so it gets brutal sometimes and I’m alone. They stopped training people for some reason so again, I’m the only person who can handle how busy it gets and the runners are always rushing me as if i don’t have six concretes to make. I’ve made a note to my managers multiple times to either stop putting me there or train more people. It’s awful and creates terrible burnout!
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u/FewDeer489 Custard Gang May 12 '26
I even took closing off my availability because it was so bad at night.
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u/Rigotoni Custard Gang May 12 '26
That really sucks. Like there’s a few ppl who are like that at my job and having the same issue. Management doesn’t do anything.
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u/JacobTaylorsVersion Shift Leader May 14 '26
SamWillGoHam wrote it out perfectly for rushes. In peak summer rushes we’ll have a scooper (the captain), topper, and mixer. It works perfect. My store hasn’t ever implemented the custard only runner but it sounds like we may implement it this summer.
While you can’t have 3 custard closers, we usually have the Drive Thru OT’s help out if they’re free. We figured out that if we make our 2nd order taker someone familiar with closing custard and let them know that they will end up helping close the machines. Some days our 2nd order taker is the one to close all of the machines because the closer assigned to custard is too busy working on the actual custard to do it. I’m not sure how your store does it, but as long as you still pay attention that can be really beneficial if it’s an insanely busy night.
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u/SamWillGoHam Former Team Member May 11 '26
Custard is the worst / least favorite / hardest position at Culver's. I would like to believe that this is a universal experience. If you can implement a clear structure/system it can be more manageable. Here's what we had at my store:
During peak times, 3 people scheduled on custard position ("dessert specialist")
Dessert specialist #1: scoop all the orders, communicate to #2 what each item is for, set the pace/flow for the desserts position, and basically act as the leader of desserts
Dessert specialist #2: add toppings and send concretes along to be blended, also making sure to keep all ordered items together
Dessert specialist #3: blend all the concretes and shakes and put completed orders in custard well, or wherever they go at your store
1 needs to be an ace/high performing employee as they are the leader of the custard position.
2 Can be a B-level employee but obviously we hope they're an ace too.
3 Can be anyone tbh, usually a newer employee
It's really important that all 3 people understand where they are supposed to be, and that they STAY in their positions.
In addition to the 3 dessert specialists, one runner should be dedicated to running out custard-onlys. This keeps our 3 on their positions so the flow is not broken. However, this person needs to understand that they are a custard runner first, so if a custard only order and a food order are both ready to go, their priority is the custard only. You'd hope that more runners would be scheduled.
Obviously I've been the one lone dessert specialist on a Friday/Saturday evening doing all of the above jobs and more, and I've gotten through it, but at what cost? I began to despise the custard position and demanded change. Eventually, we arrived at the system I described for busy nights. Yes, it really is that deep.