male announcer: More than 100 of America's biggest bosses...
- I just hope I can keep up with the guys.
announcer: Have gone undercover
in their own companies.
- That wasn't as easy as it looks.
- Here we go! - Lift me up!
- I'm about to just flip out here.
- I would almost swear you look like somebody else.
- Right here, right now,
we're gonna shut the restaurant down.
announcer: More than $20 million
have been awarded to employees.
- I'll write up a check for $250,000.
- Oh, my God.
announcer: And millions of lives...
- I'm gonna pay off the mortgage.
announcer: Changed forever.
- For real? - This is real.
The greatest reward is to see people live their dream.
- That's a life changer.
[dramatic music]
announcer: This season...
- Oh, that's pretty cold.
announcer: The most incredible...
- We just got an emergency response.
- Let's rumble!
[employees cheering and pounding]
announcer: Surprising... - [gasps]
- Oh, my God.
- I'm Drew Brees. - My God.
announcer: And challenging journeys...
- [screams] announcer: So far.
- Report of a building on fire.
- Blech. - Uh-uh, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no.
- Coming up!
- Let's talk about getting you out of this system.
♪
announcer: Tonight...
- I've loved Dippin' Dots, like, all my life.
- After saving iconic ice-cream brand Dippin' Dots
from the brink of bankruptcy,
the boss is infiltrating his workforce --
- This is Brad. He's going to be new to the team.
- Hey, guys. - To find out
if his expanding empire has the manpower to cope.
- Several hundred thousands of dollars in ice cream.
- Going down the drain. - Yep.
- When the big boss of Dippin' Dots go undercover--
- So Brad, I'm going to step in and remove you.
Just have to try and go a little faster.
- Go a little faster. - Will he be cool
with what he finds out?
- There's fog everywhere.
I can barely see one to two feet in front of me.
- Do you ever get any complaints on pricing?
- Yeah. - How much is it?
- $5.25 - Y'all are expensive here.
- Will it be too much to take?
- What are the wages like here?
- For me, it was pretty poor.
- And will his eagle-eyed staff
see through his disguise?
- How do I look? - Um--
- Well, his face looks just like the CEO of our company.
- All this next on "Undercover Boss."
[upbeat music]
♪
- My name is Scott Fischer, and I'm the CEO
of Dippin' Dots.
I live a lot in this jet. I travel a lot.
In my job on this plane is a pretty far throw
from being on the front line of production.
I love having Dippin' Dots on my business card.
I feel that being the CEO of Dippin' Dots
makes kids around the world love me.
[laughter]
♪
announcer: Headquartered in Paducah, Kentucky,
Dippin' Dots is a well-loved American brand
that sells cryogenically frozen beads of ice cream
in amusement parks, malls and supermarkets,
and they scoop a whopping 146 billion dots every year.
- Thirty years ago, Dippin' Dots changed the way
the world thinks of ice cream.
It's a story that I love.
The founder, Curt Jones,
he was a phenomenal microbiologist.
He created this project in his garage,
and overnight, it just snowballed.
When I was a kid,
I always remember wanting to buy Dippin' Dots,
and my mom would never let me 'cause they're too expensive,
but it was always a treat.
I was born in Ft. Worth and was adopted
when I was just a couple days old.
They were my adoptive parents, they were great people.
I was a lucky kid.
I think I fell in love with business
going to work with my dad on Saturdays with my briefcase
that was filled up with nothing.
Those are my first memories of truly
having a love and desire for business.
♪
I joined my father into real estate,
where we made millions of dollars.
I started to develop a real passion for business--
chasing deals.
That adrenaline was something
that just really turned me on to business, and in 2011,
I saw an opportunity too good to miss.
announcer: The household name of Dippin' Dots
had hit rock bottom.
The company was $12 million in debt
and had filed for bankruptcy.
- I decided to take over Dippin' Dots,
but I didn't realize just how big of a turnaround
this was going to be.
It was a stressful process.
It was like drinking water from a fire hose.
I had to find a way to get into profit quickly,
and I did that my increasing the volume of production
while keeping the existing staffing members.
All the employees stayed with the company.
There was so much loyalty,
and that allowed the company to grow.
Dippin' Dots has been a success story.
The company went from being $12 million in debt
to having retail sales of $300 million a year,
and now we're in all 50 states.
But we didn't stop there.
Dippin' Dots are now available across most of the globe.
I succeeded in turning the company's fortunes around,
but it came at a cost.
A year ago, I was pushing so hard
for the growth of Dippin' Dots,
I was giving up sleep just to be on the move
because the adrenaline of the deal
was always a drug to me,
and I'd also fuel that by drinking.
I just came back from three weeks on the road,
and I remember being extremely exhausted, fatigued,
and had two glasses of wine.
Driving home, I fell asleep at the wheel.
[tires screeching] [crashing]
It was a miracle that I was still alive,
and that was pretty life changing for me.
♪
- My accident definitely did wake up.
It just helped remind me of the value of life,
of the need to be present
and not to allow myself to go onto autopilot.
I want to go undercover because I plan to continue
to grow the company around the world.
It's important for me that the employees are ready
for that growth and prepared for it.
Oh, whoa. Look at this. Oh. I feel like a different person.
Howdy, I'm Brad. Hey, I'm Brad. Nice to meet you.
Hey, babe, am I your Brad Pitt, or am I Brad the welder?
- Oh, my gosh! [laughs]
- So not Brad Pitt.
- That is just wild. - Mm-hmm.
- I'm just shocked. - Do you think people
will recognize me outside of my accent?
- Yeah, you're going to have to disguise that.
- Disguise the accent?
- But you look like a totally different person.
- While undercover, I'll be assuming the identity
of Brad, an unemployed welder.
My employees will be tricked into believing
they are taking part in a documentary
about second careers.
♪
- Good luck, dear. - Bye.
- Bye. Love you.
♪
- Today, we're in Paducah, Kentucky,
home of Dippin' Dots.
I'm looking forward to going undercover
on the production line.
The production line is where all the magic happens.
It's almost like a Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory.
I am working with Amber, an operator in the factory,
who is responsible for making all varieties of Dippin' Dots.
Production is going through a lot of changes.
This summer was the busiest summer
in the history of Dippin' Dots.
That put a lot of pressure on production.
I'm looking forward and getting in there,
seeing where the stress points are,
what's working and what's not.
- Hi. - Hi.
- Are you Brad? - I'm Brad.
- I'm Amber. Nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you.
- Are you ready for the day? - I am.
- Okay. Go and get changed, and I'll wait for you right here.
- Sounds good. - Okay.
- I'm going undercover
at the headquarters of my company.
My face is all over these walls.
I have a big fear and concern
that someone is going to recognize me,
so I'm hoping this beard and hairnet will make me
even less recognizable.
How do I look? - You look great.
All right. - Good deal.
- We'll head into production. - Great. I'll follow you.
- Okay. All right.
♪
- It's really smoky here.
Is it always this smoky? - Yeah, it is.
The smoke is from the liquid nitrogen.
It's so cold.
The fog in here, sometimes it gets so bad that you can't see,
and we have to clear out.
If we have to shut down, it makes it for a longer day.
- There's fog everywhere.
I could barely see one to two feet in front of me.
In an environment with heavy machinery,
this is really dangerous.
- All right. So we're going to go this way.
Over here are the silos. It's where we keep the mix.
This is vanilla.
This is strawberry. It smells good.
- It does.
- And I'm not sure if you can see real well.
Yeah, you see how it's coming out in dot form?
- Like little-bitty raindrops. - Yep.
This thing is filled with liquid nitrogen.
- I smell chocolate. - From there, it's coming
through here down there,
and they're bagging, filling and boxing.
♪
All right. So be careful because it's really slippery.
- That is pretty slippery. - Yeah, trips and falls
is the number one safety hazard around here,
so you just have to kind of watch where you're going.
- I noticed when I was walking around here,
the ground is very slippery, even in rubber boots,
and there's also a lot of fog.
I hadn't realized just how bad it was down here.
There's a lot of running back and forth.
- There is. It's a very-- you have to be very fast,
very fast and efficient.
♪
And then we'll put this up here.
- Amber seems like a firecracker.
She knows where stuff goes. She knows how to do things.
She keeps things operating around here.
What's the company morale like? Are people happy?
- It's very stressful at times.
- What are some of the stressful parts?
- When things aren't running, everybody gets stressed,
or when we're short-staffed.
- Why do you think you're short-staffed?
- There's not enough company employees.
- Which probably increases the stress.
- It does. It definitely increases a lot of the stress.
- Employees are gonna get burned out
if they're stressed too much.
We gotta have the type of culture and the type
of corporate infrastructure that's sustainable.
- So over here is where were bag
the production-bulk ice cream. - Okay.
- All right. So what you're gonna do,
take your finger like that. - Uh-huh.
- Come up around here. So you just keep bagging.
♪
Ice cream is coming in here,
and it's filling this thing up. Once it gets too high--
- Right. - It starts smoking up here.
That means it's full, and if you don't bag it,
it'll freeze up up there, and then the whole CP
has to be washed and clean because it's freezed up.
All right.
Now you just want to get a firm grip on the bag.
You gotta go underneath of it.
There you go.
You gotta start going faster.
Brad needs to step it up a little bit.
Slow motion, definitely not a good thing.
This is filling up. You have to keep it going.
See how it started smoking? Keep going.
You're starting to smoke, though.
You might want to go a little faster.
- Filling up the bag was difficult work.
It was very cold, and you started getting
a burning feeling in your hands,
and your shoulders start to burn too.
♪
- All right, though, Brad, I'm gonna step in and remove you
'cause you're smoking, so next time,
we're going to have to try and go a little faster.
- Go a little faster. When I was on the bulk line,
I could feel people starting to look at me.
I started getting kind of nervous
that they're going to find me out.
♪
- I think his facial hair is fake.
- Amber kept looking over at me.
I kept feeling my beard, make sure it was still on.
- His face in general looks just like the CEO
of our company,
except the CEO doesn't have long hair and a beard.
So I got a question to ask you, actually.
♪
I think you look awfully familiar,
so I'm just wondering if you're Scott Fischer.
♪
- When I was on the bulk line,
I could feel people starting to look at me.
I started getting kinda nervous
that they're going to find me out.
♪
- His face in general looks
just like the CEO of our company.
I think you look awfully familiar,
so I'm just wondering if you're Scott Fischer.
- I am Scott Fischer. - I knew that. Definitely.
- Do you care if we break off and I get your perspective
on a few things around the company?
- Oh, yeah. Definitely.
We can go to the break room if you like.
- Great. I'll follow you. - Okay. Sounds good.
♪
- Amber, it's nice to formally meet you,
this time as Scott. - It's nice to meet you, too,
definitely. - I'd love to get
your thoughts, and I want you to feel able
to talk to me about anything.
Let's talk about safety.
- It gets very wet in there all the time.
Well, you've seen over there. If you take one step,
you're slipping and sliding everywhere.
Our boots, they're not slip-resistant.
- Right, and then the fog, too. - It's like that every day
and sometimes even worse. You can't even see.
- So accidents are pretty common.
- Yes. I mean,
there's maybe five to ten every day.
- Five to ten slip incidents a day is a lot.
They say you don't know what the other person goes through
until you walk in their shoes.
I walked in their shoes, and it was not comfortable.
- As things have been getting busier,
have you been seeing any type of impacts in morale,
and do you see employees starting to get stressed?
- I do, yeah. It's just long hours.
I'm coming in at 4 a.m.
and not getting home until 6:30.
- Oh, wow. So you're doing a 14-hour day, pretty much.
- Yeah, pretty much, and if things aren't
running right, everybody gets stressed,
and with being so shorthanded lately,
that makes it even worse.
- Today I learned some of my employees are stressed.
We've been taking on a lot of business,
and we've been growing.
This is something that needs
to be focused on and we need to look at.
I really enjoyed my time with you today.
- Thank you. I was glad to finally meet you.
- Glad to formally meet you. - Oh, you too.
- Now you can give me a hug.
I'm hoping Amber can keep my identity secret.
♪
Today I'm working with Brandon,
a warehouse operator at our distribution center
also in Paducah,
who has been with us for over five years.
♪
The warehouse crew is in charge of packing,
wrapping and shipping.
They do thousands to thousands of Dippin' Dots every day.
With the quick growth of the company,
I want to find out if the warehousing team
is under the same pressure as production.
Hey, man. I'm Brad. - How you doing, bud? Brandon.
- Nice to meet you, Brandon. - Welcome to Dippin' Dots.
Put you work with me today. - Sounds good.
- I'll show you how to do everything,
and I'll give you a tour. - Good deal.
- Let you see what we do. - Appreciate it.
- I'm going to grab us a tote of ice,
and I'll show you how we ice these boxes down.
We just always do them five in a row.
It just makes them a little easier.
- You got it. Those blocks of ice were super cold.
I could feel it start to burn through my gloves.
Those blocks were really heavy,
and that was some hard work.
What are your working hours here, man?
- Normal hours are 7:00 to 3:30.
This time of year, we may come in at 5:00
and work this 6:00, 6:30.
- So what are the wages like here?
- For me, it was pretty poor.
For almost five years, never had a raise.
They give you your evaluation at the end of the year,
and, hey, if you're evaluation is great,
well, that's some more money you'll get.
It don't work like that.
- So they have an evaluation process in place,
it just says--it's not really doing the job?
- No. - So the system is
just not working right. - It doesn't.
- I was really surprised about the pay evaluation.
It's a new system that we just implemented last year,
but apparently it's not being used right,
so to hear that from an employee
that's working so hard, it hurts me.
It disappoints me, and that's one thing I did not like.
- There's that one.
♪
Beyond that door right there is a freezer.
It's about the same size as this warehouse.
It stays around negative 45-- - Oh, wow.
- To negative 51. - Pretty cold.
- I don't know anybody that likes that cold.
♪
- Whoa, that's pretty cold. It is chilly.
Is this the coldest you've ever been in?
- It's definitely the coldest I've ever been.
I have a lot of respect for those guys
who work in the freezer. It was cold.
I felt my nose hairs starting to freeze.
I felt this fake beard around my face start to freeze.
- This freezer just builds up. - Builds up.
- This stuff that's on the wall
shouldn't even be here on the wall.
- Really? - It should be in a rack,
but we don't have nowhere else to put them.
Other than this, you usually can't even see the wall,
it's so packed.
- So productions is almost outgrowing --
- Production has by far outgrown--
- Capacity. - The freezer.
♪
- Our production is going so fast,
we're running out of capacity to store it,
and that's something we need to fix.
♪
- The red rack we cannot sell.
Something in the product wasn't right.
- Oh, yeah. - So they have to red-wrap it,
then we just have to throw it away.
- Is there a lot of waste? - Yeah, there's a lot of waste.
This whole rack here on your left
and then this whole rack here on your right
is all red wrap,
several hundred thousands of dollars in ice cream
that's just sitting there waiting to be threw away.
- Right, going down the drain. - Yep.
- I was pretty shocked. When I walked in there
and saw all that red wrapped around that product,
the first thing that came to my mind was waste.
Those are issues that need to be fixed
because right now we're losing money.
- What do you think we head out of here
and get some hot coffee? - Sounds good.
♪
It seems like this company
is very kind of spread out, different
departments and stuff. - Yeah.
- What are your thoughts on management?
- I would say the way-upper management part of it is--
- Yeah. - They don't really know
what all goes on here. - Kind of from the ground up.
- Right, the wasted money and stuff,
I don't think your bigger management sees it.
- The waste. What's your next step?
What's the next chapter for you?
- I'd like to stay here whether or not I get
to move up somewhere,
even into a lead-man position or--
it definitely won't be a management position
'cause, you know, I mean, the guys that are here
are pretty much here for a while.
If I can find somewhere better
that'll move me up quicker over time, I'll go.
- I got the feeling that Brandon felt
like he wasn't appreciated.
He works hard.
He's loyal to the brand. He's been here five years.
For him to have the perspective that there's not room for him
to move up gives me concern. All right, man. I appreciate
you showing me around, teaching me Dippin' Dots.
- Yeah, appreciate you coming, man.
Come back and see me. - Hope to.
I didn't really know what to expect
walking in this morning,
but I learn a lot more today
than I thought I was going to learn.
My concerns are making sure
that there's communication between the departments,
that there's less waste and that we focus
on the employees to make sure they know their value.
[upbeat music]
♪
- Today, I'm here at Kentucky Kingdom
in Louisville, Kentucky, to work with Bailey.
Bailey is a supervisor
over food and beverage for Dippin' Dots,
The parks are our mother ship for cash flow,
so I'm here to see how that business works,
what doesn't work and what our market's like.
Hi, Bailey. I'm Brad. - Are you Brad?
Hi. Nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you.
- You'll be working with me today.
- Awesome. - Before you get started,
I wanted to give you your uniform.
There's a bathroom over here if you want to put it on.
- Okay. - And just make sure
your shirt is tucked in. - Okay.
- When Brad walked in today,
I don't know what I was expecting.
I was just expecting a kid, I guess,
'cause that's normally the people that I train.
- How do I look? - You look great.
Just can you move your badge to that side so you can see
Kentucky Kingdom? - You bet.
- And when you come back tomorrow,
can you just try to take the beard in tighter?
- I can do it a little tighter. - Yeah.
- It took me a year to grow this beard
as soon as I became unemployed. - Oh, I'm sorry.
- It's okay. All right. - Straighten up a little bit.
Yeah. You're good. Okay.
We have a morning meeting to kind of tell everybody
where they're gonna be for the day,
what they're gonna be doing,
how the weather's gonna be-- stuff like that, so if you
wanna come with me-- - Rock and roll.
- We'll go to the morning meeting.
- Sounds good. - Yeah.
- I'll follow you. - All righty.
♪
[people screaming]
- I love it here, really. - What do you love about it?
- We're all super close.
We're together five, six, seven days a week.
Good morning, you all.
- Good morning. - Morning.
- This is Brad. He's gonna be new to the team.
- Hey, guys. - This is his first day.
He'll just be kind of shadowing me for the day.
He won't be on a cart by himself yet.
You all already know where you're gonna
be placed for the day? Yeah. - Yeah.
- Well, you all have a good day.
If you need anything, just let me know, okay?
- Thank you. - All right.
- Bailey is very impressive for 19.
She's energetic. She's bubbly,
a people person and knows what needs to be done.
♪
Today I'm helping keep all the stands stocked
and managed across this huge 63-acre site.
- This is like a really fast-paced job.
We're constantly going. I'm always getting radio calls.
Yesterday, I worked 14 hours,
was on my feet the whole time, didn't sit down.
- Oh, wow. - Yeah.
- That's a pretty full day. - Yeah.
♪
- Ten-four, I'll be on my way with that.
That call I just got-- - Uh-huh.
- They need some stuff from the warehouse.
I can show you where that is.
Gerald, can I just have four sleeves?
- She's kind of a mover and shaker, isn't she?
- She does a good job of it.
- She's pretty good at juggling?
- Brad can carry them.
- No worries. I got it. Hey, I lost a finger.
- Yeah. - [laughs]
- This is your favorite place, isn't it?
She doesn't like to go many other places.
I brought you some more banana split and some cups.
Hey, did you need cups?
- Yeah. - Okay.
You're gonna get hot and sweaty,
just letting you know. - Okay. Good deal.
- Especially with all that hair.
- All the hair. - Yeah.
- It sure is hot here. - Yeah.
So how many Dippin' Dots stands are in the park?
- I'm in charge of 14 carts.
- 14 locations, that probably would be hard to do.
- Yeah.
- Does the heat ever get to you?
- Yeah, my first year, I passed out.
- Wow.
- I don't know if Dippin' Dots is for Brad.
I think he belongs in an office somewhere
or maybe management. [laughs]
Do you want to try to--
- I do. - Scoop some.
- I do. - Okay.
- How much is it? - $5.25
- Y'all are expensive here. - We are.
- Oh!
- Trying to break my bank. - Yeah, yeah.
- A little pricey.
announcer: Coming up... Scott faces up
to customer criticism--
- You ever get any complaints on pricing?
- Yeah, that's probably the biggest complaint that we get.
announcer: And later, he's threatened with closure.
- This cannot be happening.
Just not a good setup.
♪
- How much is it? - $5.25
- Y'all are expensive here.
- Spending the day at Kentucky Kingdom
has really opened my eyes
to what people think about Dippin' Dots.
- Trying to break my bank. - Yeah, yeah.
- A little pricey.
- Working in the park today was the first time
I came face-to-face with a customer
disappointed in the pricing.
You ever get any complaints on pricing?
- Yeah, that's probably the biggest complaint that we get
is that they're overpriced.
People will say, "I'm not paying 6.50 for Dippin' Dots."
My idea, if anyone ever asked me a penny for my thought--
- Right. - It would a medium cup,
I don't know, maybe like seven ounces,
instead of five, nine, do five, seven, and nine.
- Five, seven, nine. - Something like that. Yeah.
- Okay. The parks set their own prices,
but it's definitely something that I wanna
take a hard look at to make sure
that we're not pricing ourselves out of the market.
♪
- So you grew up around this area?
- Mm-hmm. - Nice.
- Yep. - Any brothers or sisters?
- Yep. Two of my siblings work here.
One of my brothers passed away.
- I'm sorry. - He had heart failure.
- Sorry.
- When Kentucky Kingdom is closed,
I work as a waitress while I go to nursing school.
- What made you want to go to nursing school?
- At first, I wanted to be a dentist.
I then changed my mind when my brother passed away.
We were in the hospital for three days.
- Uh-huh. - And I kinda talked
with the nurses there. - With a lot of the nurses?
So you wanna be in there where you can really help--
- Yeah, exactly. - People in need.
- Just fast-paced, constantly going.
- Kind of like this. - Yeah.
- Bailey is an extremely amazing person.
For her to go through that and to stay so positive in life,
she an inspiration to me.
What's your brother's name? - His name was Devin.
- Devin, that's a cool name. - Yeah.
- Was it just all of a sudden, just out of the blue?
- He went and watched the Super Bowl with my cousin.
He was fine there, and then when he came home,
he went to bed, and he wouldn't wake up.
- Oh, no. - Um--
- He died twice in the ambulance.
They revived him, and then he was on life support
for three days, two 1/2 days.
It was enough, so--
The most important thing to my mom are us children,
and just losing one kind of just kicked her off her feet.
It really hurt her.
- Well, she's lucky to have you.
- Yeah, that's what she says all the time.
- By her side. That's awesome.
- That makes me wanna push even harder.
- Oh, that's a sweet story about inspiration
to be pushing harder.
Do you have any pictures? - Yeah.
- This is a picture from my sister's graduation.
You can-- - Oh, nice.
- Yeah.
- So that's your younger brother?
- Yep, and then my older brother,
the one that passed away.
- Your older brother that passed away.
And that's you. - Yeah, at 12.
- Around 12 years old? - Yeah.
- That's great. That's really special.
- Yeah.
- Bailey has faced a lot of challenges in her life,
but she stepped up to the plate,
took care of her brother and sisters,
became that rock for her family,
and she's also managing and overseeing
60 people here at the park.
That type of drive and determination
and being 19 years old is amazing.
I find it inspirational.
- I wish you good luck in the future.
- I really enjoyed learning from you.
You're an awesome person.
- Yeah, thank you. - Give me--
- Thank you. - You bet.
- You have a great day. - Thanks for teaching me.
- Bye. - It's been a great day
working here at Kentucky Kingdom.
Having concessions in amusement parks
is a great revenue stream for us,
but we need to make sure that all of our staff
are as good as Bailey, and we have to have a look
at our pricing to keep up our success.
♪
Today I've come the whole way to Richmond, California,
just outside of San Francisco
to go undercover with my events team.
Since coming out of the bankruptcy and taking over,
one of my strategies has been trying to look
at all the opportunities for revenue growth
that we can find, and I think the events side
is another revenue stream that we can grow.
But I wanna know if there are any problems
that are coming from serving our dots
outside of our stores,
and today I'm going to be working with Anita
from our events team.
♪
Hey, I'm Brad.
- Nice to meet you. My name is Anita.
So I have this for you to wear today.
That's our visor.
- Okay. - It's supposed to keep from
the hair going into the ice cream.
- Hair, okay. - And then you also have
your own personal shirt.
- Oh, thank you. I appreciate that.
- I'm going to be completely honest.
I thought he looked like Jesus. [laughs]
I was like, "Oh, my God.
Jesus is coming to work at Dippin' Dots." [laughs]
- This is pretty different from the boardroom.
I got a beard. I got blue jeans.
I'm out in a park, and I'm serving Dippin' Dots.
- Yeah, just go ahead and set 'em on top,
and then if you have to,
you can just move some of the dry ice to the side.
- There was a lot to slog around,
and there was a lot to pull up and put together,
but I could tell that she's done it before,
so she knew how to organize everything
and how to coordinate everything.
[dramatic music]
♪
- This cannot be happening. - Sure.
- An environmental health officer
wasn't happy with our setup.
- We need a tarp on the ground
if you're doing it on grass or dirt.
We cannot just be setting up in this
when you have open food.
Secondly, we gotta have means of hand washing,
so we got to have warm water, soap and paper towels
so we can wash our hands as they get dirty.
- I thought, "This is really bad.
We are gonna get shut down."
- This cannot be happening. - Sure. Sure.
The environmental health guy came over
and was threatening to shut us down,
but Anita went straight in there
and handled the situation perfectly.
- We do need someone in front
'cause he's concerned about people sneezing on top of them.
- Okay. - So do you wanna do the cash
or do you wanna scoop?
- I'll scoop. - You wanna scoop. Okay.
- So we're splitting the task? - Yes.
- All right. Cool.
- We were lucky with this situation.
If this health inspector would've shut us down,
it would've blown everything.
We would've done through all this process for nothing,
had to turn around and go home, when really he just needed
to hear that Anita knew what she was doing
that one of us would serve
and one of us would take money,
so there would be no cross contamination.
- Next time around, we definitely
gotta do a better job. - Yes, sir. Appreciate it.
- This is just not a good setup.
- Okay. Thank you, sir.
- Thank you. - All right.
- But what I though was impressive
was how well Anita adapted, but this was an issue,
and this is something we gotta do better.
♪
- Right now, we have the rainbow,
the cookies and cream and the banana split.
- Banana split. Thank you.
- You bet. Thank you. - Okay.
- I've loved Dippin' Dots, like, all my life.
- Have you ever tried Dippin' Dots before?
- I have before, but it's only
ever at amusement parks, so it's hard to--
It's always so rare that I get it.
- Are Dippin' Dots popular? What do you hear at events?
- Well, when I've gone to the catering events, they're like,
"Oh, my God. Dippin' Dots!" 'Cause they're like,
"We don't know when we're going to see this again,
so we need to buy it now."
- They think it's a novelty-type of item.
- They're like, "We drove two hours
just to come here because they don't have this where we are."
- Because a special experience.
- Yeah. I feel like that if they put them in more malls,
it'd really help expand our business.
- Yeah. - Working behind the stand
and seeing the families come up there
and seeing the kids come up there
and seeing their eyes get real big with Dippin' Dots
you know, it really gave me a feeling
of how much people love the brand.
What I saw here today is this is our market.
We should be doing a lot more of this.
♪
- I do do this full-time.
I do Monday through Friday Dippin' Dots, 9 to 5,
and then I also sell telephones as well.
- What makes you need two jobs?
- I wanna pay for, like, my school tuition.
- Right. What are you going to school for?
- I want to be a cosmetologist.
- Oh, really? - Yeah.
I want to look into-- you know, like, the survivors,
like, they have things wrong or burns or something.
- Uh-huh. - I want to be able to, like,
transform their face for them.
- Oh, really? - Yeah.
I liked school, but then I kind of dropped out for two years
because my brother, he went away for some time,
and he had three kids.
- Oh, no. - So I had to drop out
to take care of them
or they were going to into foster care.
- Take care of your brother's kids?
- Yeah, because I didn't want them
to get separated in foster care.
- Yeah. For her to take care of her brother's kids
and have to drop out of school just shows her care
for others over herself,
and she's just a very special girl.
Do you have a big family?
- No. I had only a brother and me.
I was adopted.
- Oh, I was adopted too. - Yeah?
- Uh-huh. - Did you, like,
know all your life, or-- - I knew all my life,
but I just met my biological mother when I was 25.
She came and found me.
- She found you? - Yeah, it felt pretty surreal.
What about you? - I never met my real parents.
I didn't know I was adopted until I was 18.
- Still close to your mom?
- Well, it took me a while to find my way back
to her because-- - Who you are--
- You feel like you don't know who you are anymore.
- Who you are, right.
When she talked about the adoption,
it really hit me.
You know, I could tell that it was a moment
that had a really big impact on her life,
and I could relate with my adoption,
so it almost felt like
a really strong emotional connection to me.
- You just put your hand underneath there.
Yeah.
- How did I do?
- You did perfect. - Really?
- You got great potential. - I appreciate that.
- I'll give a good reference. - Okay. I appreciate that.
This was everything Dippin' Dots is about.
Events could be a big part in Dippin' Dots' future.
But this part of the operation needs to be better organized.
♪
Spending a week undercover, there's a lot I need to do.
What shocked me the most was learning about our safety
and about the stress our employees are going through.
We got to do something about it.
Meeting my employees undercover has changed my life,
and I'm hoping that I can change theirs.
♪
I'm so excited to finally see all my employees today
and tell them who I really am.
They think that they are traveling
to our headquarters in Paducah
to discuss how I performed during my time with them.
- What are you guys doing here? - I don't know.
I'm kind of as confused as you. - I'm about to break cover
and tell my employees that I'm not Brad.
I'm Scott Fischer, CEO of Dippin' Dots,
and they're on "Undercover Boss."
♪
Hey, man. - What's going on, bud?
- Do you recognize me? - No! [laughs]
- You do look familiar.
- Brad? - Yeah.
- Oh, my God! - Yes.
My real name is Scott Fischer.
- Okay. - You're not Brad?
- I'm not Brad. I'm the CEO of Dippin' Dots.
Yeah, all 50 states and 14 countries,
and you're on "Undercover Boss."
- You look so different. - Oh, my gosh.
announcer: Coming up... - I'm really gonna cry.
announcer: The employees' lives are changed forever.
- That's awesome. - I'm trying
to keep it together, I'm sorry.
- Amber, I guess the cat's out of the bag with us.
- I guess so.
- Working with you was a very special experience for me.
You brought up a lot of good points,
like, safety was a big one. - Yeah.
- 'Cause it was slippery in there.
- Mm-hmm. - I'ma to make sure
that everyone on the production line
has better boots.
- That's good. That's good. They'll like that.
- We're also dealing with visibility, right, the fog?
- Yes. - So over the next two years,
I'm going to spend a quarter of a million dollars
to improve our ventilation systems to reduce the fog.
- Well, that's really nice.
I think that will help out tremendously.
- Well, it seems like you have a lot of drive
and loyalty to the company.
- I do. I do anything I can to help the company out,
plus you get all the Dippin' Dots you could eat.
- Eat for free. - Yeah.
- I was extremely impressed working with you that day.
- Well, thank you. I appreciate that.
I don't think anybody has ever said that to me.
- I'm just thankful for your dedication to the company
and your loyalty to the company.
One thing I noticed was you're a really hard worker,
so I want to offer you a promotion
find out production utility operator.
- That's a lot. - That is a lot.
It'll be increased responsibility,
but also an increased annual salary.
- Oh, wow. - Yeah.
How does that make you feel?
- That makes me feel a little bit better.
- Yeah, I can tell.
You're always focusing on work.
- I am. - You have a lot of drive
but probably not too much time to take off.
- No. - I'm also giving you
an all-expense-paid vacation
to a five-star resort on the Texas-Mexico border
valued around 10,000, and I have a chartered plane--
- Shut up. - That's going to fly you
and three others out there.
- That's awesome. - Yeah.
- I'm gonna cry. - And that way you can
just get out there.
- Don't make me cry. I'm not going to cry.
- You can cry. - I'll ruin my makeup.
- It's okay. - I'm really going cry.
♪
[sighs] It means a lot, 'cause I do work my butt off.
It's nice to actually have somebody appreciate
the hard work that we do.
It really is.
A promotion, more money, better life, a vacation?
It's awesome. I never expected this at all.
- Anita, it was so great to work with you that day.
I loved being around your spirit
and your bubbly personality.
Even when the health inspector came over,
I thought he was going to shut us down for a little while,
but you handled it very well.
- Thank you. - You were calm,
and you were collected, and you know what needed to be fixed.
- Are you still adopted though? - I am adopted.
- Okay. That's why I got close to you.
- That was one time I actually broke character
because I felt that strong connection.
- Oh, my God. It's just overwhelming.
- One of the things that you mentioned
was your love for makeup
and how you wanted to provide makeup for women with scars,
so I want to personally pay for your school
for $10,000...
to go to makeup school
- No, you don't have to do that.
- Yes, I know. I want to pay for your school.
- Oh, my God.
- Once you finish school,
you are gonna have your own business with makeup,
it's going to take start-up capital,
so I also want to start a fund
and provide you $25,000 to start your business.
♪
- Why? - Because you're a good person.
You have compassion. You have a bubbly spirit.
It's a blessing for me to have the opportunity
to do something nice for you.
- Can I give you a hug? - Yes, absolutely.
- I never had anything done for me like this.
I feel shaky 'cause I don't think thank you--
thank you covers it.
- Brandon, I tell you,
I don't think I could work in that cold every day.
- It's brutal in there sometimes.
- I appreciate all the perspectives and feedback
you provided to me.
I wanted to make sure that your voice is heard
and the voices are heard of all your team members around you.
- I think every worker wants to feel appreciated
for what they do.
We want a system that promotes hard work.
- And that's what I want.
We're going to provide training for managers
so they know how to properly evaluate bonuses.
We're going to allocate $300,000,
and we're going to provide bonuses
to all of our 220 employees here--
- That's awesome. - Which for some
will go up to $8,000,
and that's coming from your feedback.
- That's awesome. - So you'll be the popular guy
in the locker room.
- Yeah. That's awesome. Man, thanks.
- And in addition to that, my annual bonus,
around $15,000, I'm going to give that to you, man.
- Seriously? - I am.
- That's great. - To show my appreciation.
- That's awesome, man. - I appreciate your work.
- I appreciate it, man, seriously. Appreciate it.
- For everybody to get a bonus out of it is great.
We are appreciated here. They do care.
It wasn't just about me. It was about them too.
- Bailey, I was so impressed
with how you managed all those 14 stands.
- That's so nice. Thank you.
- You and I heard a lot of complaints
from customers on pricing,
and we would like you to do with that
is to come with us to the CEO of Kentucky Kingdom,
talk him about it and present it to him,
that way the ideas that you had can be used to help the brand.
- I'd love to do that.
- So your brother is the inspiration.
- Yeah, he is. He always will be.
- So after that painful and tragic part
of your life and your family's life,
you still managed 60 employees, 14 locations,
work three jobs while going to school and doing clinicals.
- Yeah. - All while you're 19.
- I've always had a work ethic,
and that's something he always prided me on.
I have text messages still from him
that I read from time to time.
- Yeah. - He's like,
"I don't know how you do it, sis."
That's what he would always say to me.
- And you're also going to school, right?
- Yeah, I wanna be a nurse.
- All that's probably a financial burden too,
so over the next 2 years,
I want to cover $20,000 of your living expenses
as you continue in nursing school.
- Are you serious? Thank you so much.
Can I give you a hug? - Yes. Of course you can.
- Thank you so much.
I don't know. I don't really have any words
for you right now.
I'm just speechless,
and I'm shaking really bad.
- I know how important family is to you
and how big of a piece it is to your life.
- Yeah, we were definitely always there for each other.
- So I also wanted to provide you
with a luxury vacation on my private jet
to Universal Hollywood for you and your whole family.
- [exhales]
Thank you so much.
No one's ever given me really anything, you know,
other than just a birthday present or something like that.
I'm trying to keep it together. I'm sorry.
My mom, she's been through a lot.
She's going to really appreciate it, for sure.
- So I wanted to do some for your brother
in the memory of his name,
so I created the Devin Webb Foundation.
- [gasps]
♪
I'm shaking so bad.
♪
- And I'm going to pledge $20,000 to it,
and we're gonna be fundraising and campaigning
over the next year in his name,
and we want you to be the face of the foundation...
to fight against heart disease in the name of your brother.
- My mom is gonna freak out.
Oh, my goodness. Thank you so much.
I don't know what to say. This is a lot.
- Nothing. The same way your brother
was an inspiration to me, you're an inspiration to me.
- I just hope I can talk to you again one day and say,
"Hey, I'm a nurse." And I just hope that you see
that I really will be all these things that I want to be.
- I know you will. - Thank you.
- And I know you'll call. - I wish my brother here.
He would just be jumping up and down.
He would just tell me how much it was my hard work
and stuff that got me to where I am today.
- Hello? - Hey, Mom, they are going
to start a foundation in Devin's name.
- [crying] His life is gonna be carried on.
- And he donated $20,000 to that.
- I mean, being his mother, it is so wonderful.
His memory is gonna be forever,
and that's just so special. Thank you.
- I'm shaking really bad now. - I'm shaking really bad, too.
- Going undercover, I saw and heard things
that were tough to hear.
To me, that knowledge and wisdom is invaluable,
and having that information, gives me what I need
to drive the company forward.
♪