{"id":403308,"date":"2026-07-18T08:06:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T08:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/403308\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T08:06:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T08:06:27","slug":"san-marcos-shop-planning-24-hour-scoopathon-for-national-ice-cream-day-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/403308\/","title":{"rendered":"San Marcos shop planning 24-hour scoopathon for National Ice Cream Day \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Jeff and Sarah Wynn unlock the doors to their Wynston\u2019s Ice Cream Co. <\/a>shop in San Marcos just after midnight on Sunday morning, they expect a long line of customers to be queued up.<\/p>\n

Sunday is National Ice Cream Day, and this year marks the third time the Wynns have hosted a 24-hour celebration<\/a> on July 19 at their shop on North City Drive near Cal State San Marcos. Jeff Wynn said business doubles on that day each year, and with all the promotions he and his wife have planned this weekend, they\u2019re expecting customers at all hours of the day and night.<\/p>\n

\"ChrisChris Wynn, co-owner of Wynston\u2019s Ice Cream Co., adds ingredients for ice cream on Thursday, July 16, 2026 in San Marcos. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

\u201cNational Ice Cream Day is our biggest day of the year, and closing for any part of it felt like leaving the party early. If you have ever wanted a scoop at 3 a.m., this is the day,\u201d said Wynn, who plans to be at the San Marcos shop with his wife for the whole event, minus a 3-hour nap in the pre-dawn hours.<\/p>\n

The first 25 people in line Sunday morning will get a free scoop. From 1 to 2 a.m., the shop will be selling sundaes with doughnuts from Peterson\u2019s Donut Corner in Escondido. There will be BOGO and 50%-off deals in the wee hours of the morning. And then at 8 a.m. there will be waffle ice cream sandwiches for sale.<\/p>\n

There will also be several promotions with French pastry chef Christophe Rull, whose patisserie is around the corner, a fundraiser for Disabled American Veterans, and San Marcos Mayor Rebecca Jones will be a \u201cguest scooper\u201d Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n

The 24-hour promotion is one of many ways the Wynns work to make Wynston\u2019s unique in a premium ice cream market that Wynn said has \u201cexploded\u201d in recent years, with multiple chains like Jeni\u2019s, McConnell\u2019s, Salt & Straw and Handel\u2019s opening shops across the county.<\/p>\n

Another way Wynston\u2019s distinguishes itself is the shop\u2019s ice cream, which Wynn creates himself.<\/p>\n

Since the San Elijo Hills couple opened their first shop in 2020, he has developed more than 250 flavors. About 185 are in regular rotation at Wynston\u2019s, which also has a smaller, 1-year-old scoop shop in Carmel Valley.<\/p>\n

In 2021, his For the Wynn Chocolate, better known as FTW Chocolate, won first place in the North American Ice Cream Association\u2019s annual ice cream clinic. Since then, Wynston\u2019s has racked up 16 more national and regional medals, including prizes for its Old Reliable vanilla, strawberry, Pickle Whiskey Sour and Parmesan & Apricot, the last of which won Flavor of the Year at the Ice Cream Association\u2019s 2023 West Region championship.<\/p>\n

\"SarahSarah Wynn, co-owner of Wynston\u2019s Ice Cream Co., scoops ice cream for a customer on Thursday, July 16, 2026 in San Marcos. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

Wynn works full time in the video game industry, but the Michigan native has had a lifelong passion for ice cream and had always dreamed of owning his own scoop shop.<\/p>\n

For many years, he and Sarah moved around the U.S. and abroad for his work. But when their children, Ella and Max, entered their teens several years ago, they decided to settle for good in North County. Today, Ella is studying to be a surgeon at a university in Colorado, and their son, Max, is working full time at Wynston\u2019s with the goal of taking over the business when his parents retire.<\/p>\n

Sarah Wynn is the public side of the business. She enjoys meeting people and getting ideas for how they can improve their customer service. \u201cI love seeing our customers\u2019 faces when they taste the ice cream. It\u2019s so fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple\u2019s focus this year has been on expanding their wholesale division, which represents just 3% of their business now. They supply all the ice cream for the milkshakes at Crack Shack restaurants and they are selling Wynston\u2019s by the pint at The Butchery market in Del Mar. Wynn said they\u2019re also considering opening another retail location in 2027.<\/p>\n

Business has been growing steadily, with 1,200 gallons of ice cream sold in June, which is almost twice the monthly sales in 2023. The company now has 43 employees.<\/p>\n

The shops carry eight \u201calways\u201d flavors, including its top-selling chocolate-covered strawberry, cookie dough and cookies \u2018n\u2019 cream; a rotating selection of eight \u201csometimes\u201d flavors; and two \u201chold the cow\u201d non-dairy flavors, like this week\u2019s Chamoy e Peach sorbet. Wynn said he\u2019s been experimenting lately on some future flavors that may incorporate corn, miso and yuzu.<\/p>\n

Wynn built a website that allows customers to pre-order pints for pickup and vote for the flavors they miss the most. The ones with the most votes each month join the \u201csometimes\u201d list the following month. The site also lets customers know when the shops are down to their last containers of popular flavors.<\/p>\n

Sarah Wynn said Wynston\u2019s caters to a customer base of students, families and local residents, who tend to be very loyal. As a result, she and her husband listen closely to their suggestions.<\/p>\n

When a customer complained about there not being a page on the website for gluten-free offerings, Chris built one within two hours. When customers complained about the auto-tipping screens on the shop\u2019s point-of-sale devices, the Wynns eliminated tipping altogether and instead pay their employees an automatic 20% on each sale. They also cut prices on their most-expensive menu items and changed the cardboard bowls the ice cream is served in at customer request.<\/p>\n

Wynn said his next goal will be to build a mobile phone app, where loyal customers can join a rewards program.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re always pivoting to what the customers want,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The schedule of activities Wynston\u2019s is hosting in San Marcos for National Ice Cream Day can be found here: wynstons.com\/blogs\/news\/national-ice-cream-day-july-2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Jeff and Sarah Wynn unlock the doors to their Wynston\u2019s Ice Cream Co. shop in San Marcos…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[387,7,421,181,3054,412,1969,74,84,76,75,85,420,1696],"class_list":["post-403308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-business","tag-california","tag-food-and-drink","tag-latest-headlines","tag-north-county","tag-restaurants","tag-retail","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-county","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-san-marcos","tag-things-to-do","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}