ARLINGTON, Texas—In a bright yellow building on Little Road, snow cones are a year-round treat.

Shaun and Anna Mallory have made snow cones and popsicles for Arlington residents at Daesy’s Tropical Sno with their six children for the past eight years.

A job for their kids

The parents started the business as a way to give their teenage children a good first job. With a large family, they had plenty of workers lined up.

“It seemed like the simplest thing we could do was snow cones,” Shaun Mallory, owner of Daesy’s Tropical Sno, said. “That way there’s not any fire, and we didn’t have to worry about them cooking and burning anything down. We threw the idea around for a little bit, and then we decided to do it.”

They went with the name Daesy’s as a play on their oldest daughter’s middle name, Dae.

“It was funny, when we first opened up, a lot of people came in here, and they’re like, ‘you know that’s misspelled, don’t you’,” Shaun Mallory said. “I was like, well, I named it after my daughter.”

The Mallory children help out at the shop with everything from inventory to making snow cones for the customers.

On-the-job life lessons

“Pretty much anything to do with [the shop], I got it,” Taylor Mallory said. “I learned a lot about inventory, keeping track of things. I’ve learned a lot of how to deal with people, talking wise like how to hold a basic conversation, how to make conversations go, how to get people to come out of their shell, like really shy kids. You get to learn life skills. You get to hear a lot of people’s stories, so you get to learn a lot about people. I’ve learned things on the daily with [my] parents.”

Owning a business that sells what many people consider a seasonal food can come with its challenges. The Mallory family has learned how to adjust to the varying changes in sales throughout the year.

“June, July and August, I sell roughly about 500 snow cones a day, every single day for three months,” Shaun Mallory said. “Then it comes to the wintertime, and I may sell some days just 25 snow cones in one day. It’s a huge difference. You really got to learn to budget. We need all this money we’re making this summer. We got to start putting a little bit of it to be used in the wintertime.”

Despite the budgeting trials, owning their own business has brought joy to the family.

‘Every day…I’m smiling’

“There’s a lot of positives and a lot of negatives, but definitely way more positives,” Shaun Mallory said. “The most important thing that I can tell you is if you find something you love, you never work a day in your life. I mean, every day when I’m coming into work, I’m smiling. I’m in a good mood.”

An added perk to owning a snow cone shop is how closely they get to work with children.

“The majority of the people that come in here are just kids,” Shaun Mallory said. “Kids are so happy to get a snow cone, they’re jumping and screaming. I wish as adults we kept that same enthusiasm. The world makes us a little ugly, you know what I mean?”

Beyond just selling snow cones, the shop now sells its own popsicles and plans to have popsicle busses, like the snow cone van it takes to parties.

Since opening the shop, the family has gotten to connect more with the Arlington community.

‘It’s snow cone man’

“There’s almost like a celebrity aspect of it,” Shaun Mallory said. “It’s like everywhere I go in town, it doesn’t matter if it’s a grocery store or a restaurant, I walk in there, and at least one person in there, usually the kids, is like, ‘It’s snow cone man.’ It’s funny to be in the grocery store, and you’d be walking and a little will come running up to you and grab your leg.”

The family has been able to see their customers grow as they’ve run their business the past eight years.

“The people we’ve seen since the beginning now come in and are having kids, or if they were kids, they’re like grown now where they can hold a conversation,” Taylor Mallory said. “We get to watch people grow, and we also get to watch people experience our type of snow cones for the first time, and it’s a whole attitude change. We always get to see happy people, and that keeps us happy.”