Sat Jun 02, 2018 12:04 pm
Hi Haolegirl, welcome to the forums! If you don’t already know, this forum is owned by Hawaiian Snow Nevada so as open as we are towards other vendors, we are still a bit biased towards ourselves.
You are hitting on a sensitive topic that is quite open for debate and has been debated before on this forum. However, we encourage that! We don’t claim to be the best nor are we the best.
That being said, we are quite familiar and friendly with most of the vendors you listed. You see, shave ice isn’t a big industry and there are quite a few vendors offering similar products. However, most of the vendors you listed has been in the business for well over 20 years and know their stuff. Even though our site is around 10 years old, we have been in the industry ourselves for over 30. Regardless of who you choose, I would stick to vendors with a “proven” history of industry experience. Don’t go cheap on your products since pricing isn’t everything. You are giving this to your customers to eat, if you give them something that you won’t want yourself, you probably are not going to survive long in the business.
1800 has been around awhile and they are mainly focused on east coast shops. I heard some good reviews about them but not familiar with their management. They do have a kick ass site with a lot of information.
ShaveIceSupplies- Well, that is us. We have 1000 plus legitimate customer reviews on our products and many other great reviews about us on the forum. We are one of the first e commerce shave ice supply sites (hence the name). I can’t say we have the best prices, but we can assure you we have full confidence and knowledge in what we sell. No gimmicks, up selling, or false promises. We are a local Hawaiian company, we got a code to stand by since Hawaii is the shave ice capital of the world.
Southern Sno and Sno Wiz are your top choices for sno ball style/southern style shaved ice. Southern Snow also carries some of our machines. Great people there and also some of the most budget friendly pricing you can get on flavoring. They also make their own sno ball machines which has been around for decades.
Hypothermias – Been around for awhile as well, moved from east coast to Arizona. They build trailers which I heard are quite good. If you are in Arizona, they may be your top choice.
Real Hawaiian Ice- The owner did shave ice for many decades and we have history together. They are one of the biggest Hatsuyuki distributors and a top supplier in Southern California. We trade business ideas quite often.
Snowie- Makes their own machines, been around really long. Can’t go wrong with people who develop their own machines, trailers, equipment, and other stuff. Quite innovative if you ask me!
Icy Skyy- I am not familiar with this company, I’m guessing they are new to the trade. From what I heard from our industry peers, they are new and trying to break into the market hence the low pricing , sales, etc. They were also poaching customers from other vendors which is a big no-no in our industry. Their website seems new as well judging by the picture quality and their about us page doesn’t contain much information on the business. Perhaps someone else can input this one. There was a topic about them a few month back which our admin locked, judge for yourself.
There are also other vendors out there, but these are just based on my personal experience with the ones you listed. Like I said, I know most of these vendors and we each have our own piece of the pie and specialty. Just be weary of shops that make quick bucks without backing up with proper servicing and experience. That in my opinion just ruins the shave ice/shaved ice/ sno cone/ sno ball/ industry.
